#24925
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
#30812
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
#21472
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
#22118
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
#24430
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
#27642
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
#24326
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
#24074
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
#24320
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
#21574
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
#15065
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
#22262
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
#24801
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
#22918
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
#24307
How do customers expect to access online Help? Once in the Help system, how do they expect to navigate toward the information they need? In the absence of detailed research that tells us what customers know about getting and using online Help, we can look for clues in the marketplace. A survey of the Help systems in more than sixty Windows 95 applications (including those in the major suites from Corel, Lotus, and Microsoft) shows some clear trends. These trends can help us understand what customers are coming to expect from online Help based on their experience with other Windows 95 applications.
Elley, Frank. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help
#12969
Shovelware is becoming the norm in computer software documentation. Many companies no longer furnish printed books with their products, and it’s usually impossible to produce (from the on-line help files) a reasonable facsimile of a coherently organized, double-sided, printed book with page numbers, running headers and footers, table of contents, glossary, and multilevel subject index. The current sad state of affairs is epitomized by the FrameMaker user manual and on-line help. In the last release (V5.1) of FrameMaker+SGML for which Frame Technology was responsible, the printed user’s manual was quite comprehensive at 900+ pages, and the on-line help was extensive, well-designed, and effective. But the Adobe-produced V5.5 user’s manual (including the separate “Getting Started” manual for FM+SGML) has 300 fewer pages, even though many new fea-tures (e.g., HTML and XML export) in V5.5 had to be covered in addition to all those features common to both releases. Not only that, but the effectiveness of the on-li
Emory, Dan. TECHWR-L (1999). Articles>Documentation>Help>Online
#21707
An overview of documentation development for online help.
Unni, Tharun Kumar. STC India (2003). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help
#29992
Microsoft HTML Help is actually a suite of technologies. CHM is one part; the HH viewer (a cut-down Internet Explorer with CHM processing abilities) is another. To provide a Table of Contents (TOC) and index for Web-based Help (over HTTP), to support Web applications for example, there are two other Microsoft HTML Help components. One is an ActiveX TOC control, and the other is a Java TOC applet. While these components provide Web-based Help with a TOC, they do not allow context-sensitivity AND a TOC at the same time, because the TOC displays in a frameset.
HyperWrite (2004). Articles>Documentation>Help>Online
#20007
Toil and Trouble: HTML Help and NetHelp
Toil and trouble. That’s what this year’s online help crystal ball predicts. It shows two flavors of HTML-based help and to make matters worse, their names are confusing: HTML help (which is not the same as HTML-based help) and NetHelp. Oh, me nerves. Well, let’s try to calm ourselves and explore these new concepts.
Grissino, Ann-Marie. Carolina Communique (1997). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help
#24290
Top Ten Blunders in Online Documents and Help Facilities
As a consultant I get called in after the wreck to figure out what went wrong. Across a wide range of industries and products, the same problems recur again and again. In this presentation, I’ll show you what these common problems are and simple ways to avoid them.
Horton, William K. III. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help
#29903
Transitioning Print-Based Training into WBT Delivery: Lessons Learned
This panel discussion will explore a specific project conducted by the Mercer Engineering Research Center (MERC) in which existing MERC-designed United States Air Force print-based training was rapidly converted to web-based training. Specific issues discussed are differences in design strategies for print and web instruction, development and authoring approaches, rapid prototyping, usability testing, project management concerns, and lessons learned.
Codone, Susan K. and Lance Stuckey. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help
#27650
Trends and Opportunities in Software User Assistance: Part 1
This article provides an overview of the latest trends in software user assistance based on surveys, interviews, and observations by the author and other experienced user assistance professionals. The article defines the key terminology, highlights the most important issues and elements, and offers both short and long-term predictions for the field. The article will appear in four installments. The next installment will be in February.
Welinske, Joe. WritersUA (2005). Articles>Documentation>Help>Online
#23727
User Guides and Online Help Systems
Resources relating to user guides and online help systems.
Technical Communicators Resource Site. Articles>Documentation>Online>Help
#24274
Using Hardcopy Documentation in the Transition to Online Documentation
In the transition to online documentation, one of the communicator’s most effective tools can be a hardcopy document. Providing your users with a printed manual that introduces them to your product and your online documentation might be just the thing they need to get started using both. To create an effective hardcopy document, you must begin by gathering feedback, analyzing your audience, and setting your goals. You can then use that information to determine what to include, what to exclude, and what to call your hardcopy document.
Collier, Karen E. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help
#20729
Using HTML to Deliver Context-Sensitive Online Help
Computerized Medical Systems needed to develop content-sensitive online help for a UNIX-based application. We found that this could be done using standard HTML, with each help topic in its own file and displayed in a web browser. With careful planning, we were able to create a map of the applications coded pages to our help files, giving us context sensitivity. We were able to add both keyword and full-text search capabilities. Site management is done using a source control system and a set of link check and HTML validators.
Rupel, Roberta A. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help
