Automating Development Tasks for a Large-Scale Help System

Although tools like eHelp's® RoboHELP® Classic can speed up and streamline the process of creating help topics, there are still many repetitive tasks needed to build a WinHelp system that supports a large, integrated application. This article summarizes one of the techniques that Fredrickson Communications used to automate the process of developing online help topics. Once the underlying structure and macros were in place, we were able to generate hundreds of help topics at the rate 15-20 per minute.

Lindsay, Bill. Frederickson Communications (2002). Design>Documentation>Single Sourcing

Developing a Single-Sourced Online Help System    

The definition of single sourcing continues to broaden in scope since its first mention in The Society of Technical Communication’s 46th Annual Conference publication. As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult for technical communicators to understand what single source means and, more importantly, choose a definition of single sourcing that correlates with their specific task. One “type” of single sourcing involves reusing information for multiple products. Several developers at IBM have produced a single-source online help system. Unlike other single-sourcing methods that require a significant investment and a high degree of technical experience, these methods are inexpensive and require a moderate, yet creative, technical aptitude.

Vicek, Keith, Phil Menzies and Andre Evans. STC Proceedings (2002). Design>Documentation>Single Sourcing>Online

Single Source Documentation for Today

What happens when the software firm you work for decides it will not deliver large printed manuals any more? Then the request comes to put everything online. Six months later, user profiles shift to the World Wide Web and you're asked to deliver HTML. In the future, a database of SGML information chunks may let us deliver anything, any which way.

Stieren, Carl. Simware (1997). Design>Documentation>Single Sourcing>Online