Adapting Traditional Editing Practices for Online Documentation  

Technical editors are possibly best known for their abilities to transform information with format, content, grammatical, and mechanical problems into coherent, concise, understandable, and usable documents. Editors must not only provide such services for the information authors, but they must also understand and support users' needs and expectations. This presentation gives editors an approach to editing online documentation that is rooted in traditional editing practices.

Fink, Bonnie L., Carol Gasser, Jennifer Giordano and Beth A. Williams. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Editing>Documentation>Online

Adobe Acrobat: Publishing Online Documentation  

Documentation departments are often faced with the challenge of quickly distributing high-quality versions of printed documentation via the company Intranet, the World Wide Web, or CD-ROM. Adobe Acrobat is a simple, cost-effective way to publish documentation for a variety of media and requires little time or technical expertise to produce professional-looking results. Technical writers and web developers can easily use Adobe Acrobat to create portable document format (PDF) files from printed documentation. They can then add links and bookmarks, create an index, produce simple interactive forms, and add multimedia components to their documents.

Ogata, Kerry L. and Thomas A. Witherspoon. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Online>Adobe Acrobat

Applying Expectancy-Violations Theory to Online Documentation  

A person usually expects another person to behave according to accepted norms, but how does a person respond to a message that violates his/her expectations? One theory dealing with violations of expectations is Burgeon and Hale's (1) nonverbal expectancy-violations theory. This theory posits that, under certain circumstances, violations of social norms and expectations may be an effective strategy for communicators to achieve the intended communication purpose. Although the expectancy-violations theory focuses on expectations for nonverbal behavior, such as gaze and conversational distance (2), I believe that this theory can also apply to expectations for humancomputer interaction.

Chiu, Yu-Kwong. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>Rhetoric>Online

Authoring for Electronic Delivery  

Caterpillar is dramatically changing the way technical, product support information is authored. Book paradigms have been replaced by the more granular Information Element (IE) approach. The new integrated environment utilizes Unix based, TCP/IP connected, ECALS compliant tools on multi-tasking author workstations. Research data, in-process work approved IE's and relational indices are distributed to work group servers. Application software tools include a graphics editor and an interactive, context sensitive, SGML text editor. The environment is managed by a robust file management system that provides file tracking, revision control, workflow sensitive tool launching, burden planning and management reporting capabilities.

Hudson, Dave. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

Basic WinHelp for Beginners  

The first time you create a Windows Help file can be very confusing. This paper should help reduce confusion by explaining the basic WinHelp concepts and components, and then walking you through the procedure.

Van Sant, Carol J. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

Beyond Help: Making Help a Core Component of a Performance Support System  

With the advent of HTML Help and the ability to embed Help directly inside an application, there's been an increased interest in creating Help systems that are seamlessly integrated with their host applications. By blurring the line between the application and the Help that supports it, and by developing Help that automatically responds to user actions, application developers and Help authors now have the ability to develop true electronic performance support systems.

Wexler, Steven S. ComponentOne (1998). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

Browse Sequence in Online Help  

A browse sequence enables users to navigate through a series of help topics in the sequence established by the help author. Although often omitted from help systems, the browse sequence is useful and will become essential as print documentation diminishes. Effective design options for a browse sequence include multiple segments, rings, branching, and the use of a browse button to take the user to the first topic in the current segment of the browse sequence.

Farkas, David K. and Bruce R. Gibbs. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

Building the Treasure House: Creating Knowledge Bases on the World-Wide Web  

Web knowledge bases offer an excellent platform for delivering technical documentation and customer support information. They also represent an area of great opportunity for technical communicators to expand their skills, satisfy their customers, and create value for their employers or clients. This session explores the components of a web knowledge base and the tasks involved in planning and building one.

Massa, Jack A. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Online>Web Design

"By the Way, We Also Want Online Help"  

This presentation describes a strategy to meet a last-minute enterprise demand for online help for a software application program. We established design standards for writing online help, developed a process for gaining consensus from the project team on the content of the online help, and wrote the online help. We accomplished this in less than four months-a task that originally seemed impossible.

Davis, Herbert S. and Meryl Natchez. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

CD-ROM: From Print to Prototype  

A panel of industry experts provides an overview of the CD-ROM publishing process--and its business issues--for technical communicators who are responsible for John Gale implementing CD-ROM publishing in their organizations. The panelists will discuss how to gain the benefits of reduced manufacturing warehousing and distribution costs, without degrading documentation quality.

Rosenbaum, Stephanie L., John Gale and Pamela Sansbury. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>CD ROM>Online

CD-ROM: From Print to Prototype  

There are many significant benefits to releasing documentation on CD ROM rather than on hardcopy including cost savings, storage capacity, and the ability to implement search and retrieval functionality. To determine whether or not you should go to CD ROM, it is advisable to survey your users and to get approval from the folks in "corporate." Once you decide to pursue CD ROM, you need to determine the platform requirements and feature set of the search and retrieval software. You will then be able to choose from a variety of products, and ask the selected vendor to produce a prototype for you.

Florsheim, Stewart J. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>CD ROM>Online

Cherryleaf Survey: Uptake of New Help Trends

During March and April 2003, Cherryleaf carried out an online survey into the current trends in technical communication. One of the questions we asked was: Do the online user assistance documents produced by your organization contain the following advanced capabilities?

Cherryleaf (2003). Articles>Documentation>Help>Online

Choices, Challenges, and Constraints: Documentation and Newsletters Over the World Wide Web  

Providing timely information to diverse users on different platforms can challenge any document delivery system; however, the World Wide Web provides an effective solution for some applications. While the Web presents some extra problems and challenges that other media do not, the results justify the resources required. This paper describes and evaluates an implementation of Computing and Information Services documentation on the World Wide Web.

Ray, Eric J. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>Online

Choosing and Using Help Topics

This paper describes some common types of help topic and when to use each. Different applications require different mixes of help topics. Choose the topic types that are appropriate for the application you are documenting.

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

Compaq QuickFind: The Editorial Process from Print to CD-ROM  

COMPAQ QuickFind is a CD-ROM database of COMPAQ product information. Available by subscription, QuickFind offers full-text search-and-retrieval functions and full-color graphics in a 350-megabyte database. QuickFind incorporates hard-copy information into an electronic format. The QuickFind editorial process (converting hard- copy information to searchable files) is the key to creating a valuable, centralized support tool for COMPAQ dealers, customers, and internal personnel.

Tacker, Susan and Susan L. Maloney. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>CD ROM>Online

Comparison of HTML Produced by Several Help Authoring Tools (HATs)

Recently, there was a lively discussion on the Help Authoring Tools and Techniques (HATT) mailing list about the relative compactness and efficiency of the HTML code produced by various Help authoring tools. As a result of these discussions, several industry consultants decided to collaborate on a project to compare the HTML, CSS, and CHM files produced by a variety of Help authoring tools.

Knopf Online. Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

Constructing a One-Stop "Answer Station" for Software Users  

The web allows us to easily provide updated documentation to our users, but why stop there? There is more to making users successful quickly than just providing documentation. By creating a complete "Answer Station" that is accessible from the application or product, we can not only direct users to that updated documentation, but we can also provide information about technical support, consulting, training, sales, etc. This paper discusses writing a proposal for an Answer Station, determining content, working with other departments to gather information, designing the site, making that design work with an existing corporate website, dealing with tool issues, and finally, going live.

Bleiel, Nicoletta A. and Beth A. Williams. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Documentation>Help>Online

Converting Paper Mountains to Data Highlands

Big producers of equipment and systems of all branches often have piled up enormous volumes of product documentation in various formats on different media over long periods. How does one deal with that in the Internet age? How will brochure-like product catalogs be converted to type-specific clickable web pages, and printed price lists to present-day worldwide retrievable tables? Experiences with a large converting project show the process to achieve such document management.

Pichler, Wolfram. TC-FORUM (2000). Articles>Documentation>Online

Creating a Hypertext Help System for a GUI-Based Client/Server Application  

We are currently in the second phase of development of a large Windows online help system. This paper reviews the major decisions we had to make during the first phase of the project, and lists some project evaluation results that have helped us plan for subsequent phases.

Asher, Betsy, David E. Lasecke and John Wenstrom. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

Creating and Using Online Documentation  

This workshop provides hands-on experience in preparing and using online documentation as well as setting up and maintaining an online library.

Jedlicka, Linda Barnes, Margaret Eissler Jones and Herbert E. Vogt. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Documentation>Online

Creating Dual-Mode Context-Sensitive Help

Want to provide your users with state-of-the art HTML Help but don't want to force them to install Internet Explorer (which is required to run compiled HTML Help files)? In this article we show you how to create context-sensitive Help that displays a topic from a .CHM file if IE is installed on the user's system, and displays the equivalent topic from a .HLP file if IE isn't installed.

ComponentOne (1999). Articles>Documentation>Online>HTML

Creating Modular HTML Help Systems  

It is possible to create good, efficient, easy-to-maintain HTML Help systems - and it really isn't that difficult. The bad news is that if you're not sure exactly what settings need to be made, you will find creating modular HTML Help systems very frustrating. Read this article and avoid being frustrated.

ComponentOne (1999). Articles>Documentation>Online>HTML

Creating Multiplatform Information Sets  

The proliferation of open systems and software that runs on multiple platforms is a challenge to those of us who are responsible for documenting these systems. This paper attempts to address the issues that arise when trying to create multiplatform information sets. Writing multiplatform documentation is a challenge not only for those responsible for documentation, but for those responsible for creating the software. You are starting with many pieces of a puzzle that you need to sort through and put together to create a usable information set.

Flanagan, Ruth-Ellen. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Documentation>Online

Creating Online Help from FrameMaker Files Using WebWorks Publisher  

WebWorks Publisher from Quadralay lets you develop online help from FrameMaker files without dealing with the inefficiencies associated with help authoring tools (HATs). No longer do you have to convert the FrameMaker files to RTF for use in a HAT—and consequently lose all the formatting, which you must rebuild. You also do not have to maintain two sets of files.

O'Keefe, Sarah S. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Documentation>Online>Adobe FrameMaker

Creating Online Tutorials and Demos  

An online tutorial or demo is a powerful way to pique interest and get users started on a new software program. Join a workshop that covers the how-to’s of creating your first project. (1) Make a plan. (2) Analyze audience needs and technical issues. (3) Form a team. (4) Write the script. (5) Design the interface. (6) Build it. (7) Test it.

Beren, Wendy G. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Multimedia>Documentation>Online