Non-Fatal Errors: Creating Usable, Effective Error Messages  

'Memory requests for some applications may be denied.' 'Error 404: File not found.' 'Invalid entry. Check your info and resubmit.' 'Fatal error. Procedure aborted.' It's often easy to identify what kinds of error messages don't help users, but it can be tricky to avoid them, and even more of a challenge to create the opposite: error messages that give users a clear indication of the problem, offer information to help them fix it, and provide tips on how to avoid the same situation in the future. This paper details the steps involved in creating understandable, helpful error messages, and suggests ways of communicating the value of good error messages to managers and executives.

Wilska, Emily. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Documentation>Help>Online

On Help Systems In General  

In the eras of Windows 3.x and earlier versions of Windows 95, the only help system people worked with or even knew about was WinHelp. Problems started with the transition to Windows 95, when developers and users alike had to learn to deal with WinHelp 4.0's separate dialog with the Contents, Index, and Find tabs.

Liske, David E. MVPs.org (2003). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

Online Help - Too Much of a Good Thing?

Online help was originally thought of as an independent support system. It allows the user to access information easily and immediately, whenever it is needed. As such, it was thought to be the most often used support system on a user’s computer. However, from a number of sources, we have learned that online help is used less frequently than we originally thought. Usability tests, especially on web applications, often show that users do not use the online help; or if they do, they do not find the required information. Field engineers and customer support representatives often report that they need to explain information that is documented in the help because users do not use it. To provide more effective assistance, we must answer the question: 'Why is online help not used?'

Parush, Avi and Debi Kaporovsky Parush. Usability Interface (2001). Articles>Documentation>Help

Online Help: You Think It's Documentation but Your Company Thinks It's Software  

As help systems become more complex, integrating text with multimedia, scripting languages, search engines, etc., the line between documentation development and software development blurs. Some companies, especially those that have to adhere to federal or ISO-regulated procedures, are starting to look at online help as a product with its own development needs. This shift is changing the online help from documentation into software, subjecting it to the same controls and processes. This paper looks at how one company is handling this transition.

Rupel, Roberta A. and Peggy Schillinger. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

Online Help? Or Not!  

Calls on technical communicators to suggest a new term for modular documentation accessible via a tri-pane interface.

Carmel, Patricia A. Intercom (2005). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

Online-Dokumentation aus Anwendersicht  

Benutzerinstruktion muß sein. In Form von Online-Documentation ist sie unmittelbarer Teil des Programms.

von Obert, Alexander. Techwriter.de (1998). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Help

Our .CHM Files Don't Work Anymore. Why?

If you are delivering your help from a network location and you notice that .CHM files don't work anymore, don't be surprised. Recent Microsoft updates include tighter security for .CHM files. After installing the updates you can no longer run .CHM files from a network location. However, you can still run a .CHM file on your local machine.

HelpScribe (2008). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

An Overview of JavaHelp 1.0 and Doc-To-Help 2000  

JavaHelp is a new online Help platform created by Sun. Sun released JavaHelp 1.0 in April, but it's been publicly available through several beta releases for a while. (The just-released Doc-To-Help 2000 supports this new version of JavaHelp.)

Bannister, Bob. ComponentOne (1999). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

Planning an Online Help Project

This paper outlines some general principles you need to consider when planning an online help project and creating WinHelp files.

Hollis Weber, Jean. Technical Editors Eyrie (1999). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

Planning and Creating a Windows Online Help System  

The basic requirements for creating accurate and useful technical documentation are good writing skills, an understanding of the audience, knowledge of the tools used for producing documentation, ability to use the product, and ability to successfully interview subject matter experts. While the same skills are essential for creating an online help system, writers also need to understand how help projects are set up, how to modify their writing to produce modular help topics, how to test the program-to-help links between the product and the help topics, and how to align help file development with engineering build dates. In addition, writers expand their hypertext awareness to include new terms such us jumps and pop-ups.

Mandavilli, Lavanya K. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

Problems in Navigating Online Help: Clues from User Search Patterns  

We examined qualitative data from participants' comments about difficulties they encountered in using the help systems in three versions of a popular programming language. Users' main problems were not knowing which help systems were available or being unfamiliar with them, determining when and how to use the help system, framing the search question, applying the initial search target to the help hierarchy, moving laterally to another topic, and switching between declarative and procedural topics. The lessons learned from these responses should assist help system designers and authors in supporting users' search patterns. In this paper, we will examine qualitative data from users' comments. The lessons learned from these responses should assist help system designers and authors in supporting users' search patterns.

Krull, Robert and Angela Eaton. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Documentation>Help>Search

Problems in Navigating Online Help: Clues from User Search Patterns

The largest problem our participants had in using the help system wasn't in processing the procedural information in the help, but rather finding the correct help topic, a topic generally unaddressed in the literature on how to write a help system. Specifically, participants had difficulty in searching for topics because their terminology differed from the terminology used by the help system, and they became lost in the unclear structure of the system.

Krull, Robert and Angela Eaton. WritersUA (2005). Articles>Documentation>Help>Online

Providing On-line Documentation to the Non-Networked Enterprise  

We have all heard the terms, ‘telecommuting,’ ‘groupware,’ and intra- or internet at one time or another. However, the best designed information retrieval system is useless if you cannot get on-line to use it. Most companies are taking advantage of technology, and publishing their policies and procedures on their own intranet or Local Area Network. Unfortunately, some organizations with field offices, off-site agents or consultants, even executives on travel are not always ‘plugged-in’ to this information. There is a way to make dynamic information available to enterprises without internet accessibility or LAN/WAN connections. What follows is one solution to the quest for getting ‘plugged in’ and taking advantage of dynamic data exchange.

Anderson, Michelle E. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

Quality Online Help Development  

Basic steps to developing successful online help include content planning based on available resources and user needs, use of a style guide, effective design and access, prototype development, usability studies, and being open to changes. Defining “quality” as “customer satisfaction” we can place the online help development process into the context of a continuous quality process model that focuses on meeting customer needs. This quality process includes identifying output, identifying customer and customer requirements, converting requirements into processes, measuring the output, and evaluating results.

Evans, Jeanette P. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

A Real-Time Online Documentation Delivery and Feedback System for a World Wide Audience – Via the Net  

This paper describes an online documentation delivery and feedback solution developed to meet the needs of a fast-paced project in which designers, developers, marketing specialists, technical writers, and beta-test customer sites were located all over the world. During the development of the IBM Health Data Network, we needed a way to provide drafts of the product documentation to all of the developers, reviewers, and users on a real-time basis. We also needed a way to get input and updates from the developers, and feedback from the people in the field who were working with beta versions of the new system. This paper describes how we set up a Web-based solution to meet these needs.

Vogt, Herbert E. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

Reconstructing the Dialogs: Effective Methods for Structuring a Context-Sensitive Help System  

When assigned to create a context-sensitive hypertext Help system, writers and editors often find themselves asking, 'Where do I start? What is context-sensitivity and how in-depth should it be? How do I organize Help topics for the interface?' We will demonstrate how to structure a Help system based on context-sensitivity, the interface, and useful access tools. We will show how WordPerfect Domestic Documentation Services uses interface information to create a topics database and a corresponding text file.

Calhoun, Deirdre and Wendy Fritzke. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

The Right Help in the Right Place  

Originally submitted to Builder.com, this article is an overview of how to add effective help to Web-based applications. It was written for developers and others who are not technical communication professionals. Builder.com changed direction and decided not to publish the piece.

Deaton, Mary M. Builder.com (2003). Articles>Documentation>Help>Online

RTFM Part II, Looking Beyond the Printed Page

Last month I went through some fairly atrocious documentation. The letters I received from frustrated geeks really drove home the point that bad docs can make what should be a simple, routine, and--dare I say--fun experience, dreadful.

Krasne, Alexandra. PC World (2004). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

Secondary Windows in Online Help - What Do Users Really Make of Them?

Digitext, a UK-based consultancy specializing in online information, has recently conducted two different usability tests, each of which sheds new light on the way in which people respond to secondary windows in online Help. The overall conclusions from the two tests were: there is little reason to assign specific types of topic to different secondary windows; it can be helpful to use a secondary window for a link to a sub-procedure or layer of additional detail, as long as the current window remains visible on screen when the new window appears. This article explains how the tests led to these findings.

Ellison, Matthew. Usability Interface (2001). Articles>Documentation>Help

Seven Steps to Successful Online Help  

How do you create an effective online help system and efficiently manage the project? This paper will cover some basics of practical online help design and project management. The presentation includes examples from a project we worked on.

Evans, Jeanette P. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

Simple Ways to Improve the Usability of Help

According to Jacob Nielsen's How Users Read on the Web, usability of web content can be improved drastically by making content more scannable. Many of his ideas would apply equally well to online help. So, how can technical writers leverage this information to make the help for their product more usable?

Helpscribe (2008). Articles>Documentation>Usability>Help

Social or Philosophical Issues Related to the Design and Delivery of User Assistance

User assistance is defined as a form of assistance that is provided to users of products to help them use the products more easily and efficiently. In the Information Technology industry, a product is a software product/application that users use to perform specific business functions. Users of these products/applications use them differently, based on their social and philosophical environment, their cultural context, their learnability and a number of other factors. While the same user assistance must necessarily be designed and delivered to the users of a product, because all users use a particular product/application to perform similar tasks, user assistance can be designed and delivered differently to users, based on their social and philosophical environment. This could enable users from diverse social and philosophical backgrounds use the same products/applications more effectively.

Das, Pradipto. Usability Interface (2007). Articles>Documentation>Usability>Help

Software User Assistance Project Management

This article takes a look at a methodology for developing and managing a Software User Assistance (UA) System, a way of doing things in a structured manner. It provides a complete walkthrough for managers responsible for designing, developing, and managing a software product’s user assistance system. The software’s UA system could comprise of both paper-based user manuals and online help systems.

Ferris, Tamara. Klariti. Articles>Documentation>Usability>Help

Sometimes You Really Can be Too Helpful

It's important to establish and maintain relationships with your audience: it gives you a handle on their changing needs so you can continue to meet those needs.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (2000). Articles>Documentation>Audience Analysis>Help

Standards for Visuals for Online Help: Selected Examples  

The panelists provide examples of standards for visuals that reduce text and increase access in online Help. They briefly cover how these visuals solve problems for both customers and Help designers, and they discuss standards for two of the visuals selected for the session. Audience ranking determines the order of the remaining visuals. In covering the visuals, the panelists use examples from Help for highly sophisticated engineering, applications whose users have varying levels of experience and comfort with computer software. The panelists also provide checklists for developing standards, including standards for how information should look and, more importantly, work.

Bibus, Connie M. 'C.J.' and Kristy J. Dale. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help