RoboHelp is a Help authoring tool (HAT) created by the eHelp Corporation and now owned by Adobe Systems. The software is used by technical writers to create computer help files (documentation) in various formats.
#26860
Review: AcosHelp: Context Sensitive Online Help with PDF Files 
PRC AcosHelp is the World's first 'single source' Windows online help system that allows you to use Adobe Acrobat PDF files for context sensitive online help. AcosHelp is very useful for Document Management systems, where the documents are stored as PDF-files.
Kudesia, Saurabh. International Journal for Technical Communication (2006). Articles>Reviews>Software>Help
#28905
The Anatomy of a Help File: An Iterative Approach
This article presents an approach to Help file design that focuses on creating a task-centered user experience and accommodates an iterative development strategy. This methodology allows the introduction of user assistance into early test phases--not only getting earlier validation for its accuracy, but also supporting quality assurance testing by serving as the test scripts for interactions with the user interface. This approach can also be a self-contained strategy--that is, one that allows an iterative approach to user assistance development even if the rest of product development operates on a waterfall model.
Hughes, Michael A. UXmatters (2007). Articles>Documentation>Methods>Help
#10701
Apple Guide Complete: Designing and Developing Onscreen Assistance
If you've been waiting to give your users more than just onscreen reference information, now you can with Apple Guide, Apple Computer's innovative help delivery system. With Apple Guide, you can produce guide files that actually lead users, step by step, through complex tasks and concepts. If you want to provide task-oriented, context-specific instructions, Apple Guide gives you the ease and flexibility to do so. You'll learn about the complete cycle of designing, scripting, and coding guide files in the four parts of this book.
Apple Inc. (1996). Design>Documentation>Help
#20391
Apple Help and John Carroll's Minimalism 
This report gives a brief overview of minimalism, a description of an Apple Computer documentation project, and a summary of my findings. It also provides some of my and my Apple colleagues' recommendations to improve both the user's experience and that of the instructional designers working to write Apple Help content. Through the course of this report, I will provide support for my hypotheses that (1) the current Apple Help model is not a minimalist help system, but that (2) users of most Apple software would not be well served by such a system anyway.
Tevenan, Matthew P. University of Washington-Seattle (2002). Books>Documentation>Help>Minimalism
#14344
Applying Research to Practice: Helping Users Find What They Need 
Have you wondered why some documents succeed when others don’t? Have you been curious about the research behind the guidelines that you use? Are you ready for some new challenges and new ways of thinking about organizing documents for your audiences? Come participate in this demonstration/workshop on applying research to practice. We’ll concentrate on issues about how to help users find what they need in documents, interfaces, and just in time training materials.
Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. STC Proceedings (1997). Presentations>Usability>Help
#30388
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
#14837
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>Adobe RoboHelp
#28284
Marktüberblick Autorenwerkzeuge für Online-Hilfen
Marktüberblick über empfehlenswerte Tools zum Erstellen von Software-Dokumentation (Handbücher, Online-Hilfen). Viele dieser Help Authoring Tools unterstützen das Generieren druckbarer Handbücher (PDF) und Online-Hilfen aus einer gemeinsamen Text-Quelle (Prinzip des Single Source Publishing).
Achtelig, Marc. indoition engineering. (German) Resources>Software>Help>Help
#20122
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
#21479
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
#30083
Beyond Help: Making Help a Core Component of an Electronic 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 (EPSS). With this new ability will come a paradigm shift in the ways applications are developed and documented.
Wexler, Steven S. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Document Design>Help>EPSS
#29987
Beyond Software Manuals and On-line Help: Interactive Help
Software user guides have traditionally provided assistance when the user requested help. Context-sensitivity enabled help systems to predict the most appropriate topic to present. For Windows applications, the move from Microsoft WinHelp to the new Microsoft HTML Help format allows user instructions to be presented in the same window as the application. This offers technical authors some extraordinary opportunities to provide intelligent, predictive, interactive help without the user having to request it. In this paper, we will explore one of the first such interactive help systems (for the Archivist e-mail archiving software), and see where the technology is moving.
Self, Tony. HyperWrite (2003). Articles>Documentation>Interaction Design>Help
#21505
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
#20285
Building Documentation into the Interface
As documentation is more and more built directly into the interface, and as technical communicators move into interface design and usability, it is important to have a theoretical framework within which to make decisions about what kind of information will be conveyed at any moment. We can build on basic principles of cognitive psychology to help us make these decisions. We start from a question: Why should users be aware of the difference between interface and documentation when all they want is to get something done?
Quesenbery, Whitney. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>User Interface>Help
#24972
"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
#19761
A Case Study of Context-Sensitive Web Application Help Using the WebHelp API
Discussion of the particular case of an interactive web design to create online user assistance for three distinct audiences: creative artists; Homebuilder sales staff; individual homeowners.
Daigle, John. HyperTexas (2003). Design>Web Design>Help
#19059
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
#31973
Choosing a Help Authoring Tool
Discusses in detail why you might want to consider a specific tool for help authoring.
James-Tanny, Char. Helpstuff (2004). Presentations>Documentation>Software>Help
#22119
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
#18794
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.
#21385
Comparison of Online Help Formats
This article lists the basic differences between WinHelp version 4, Microsoft compiled HTML help, WebHelp and pure HTML help. Samples are available.
Unwalla, Mike. TechScribe (2003). Articles>Documentation>Standards>Help
#29760
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
#27658
Constructing a One-Stop "Answer Station" Website 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 article 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. WritersUA (2004). Articles>Documentation>Web Design>Help
#19504
Context-Sensitive Help: What Programmers and Technical Authors Need to Know
Context-sensitive Help is assistance that is appropriate to where the user is in the software application, and what they are trying to do. Carol Johnston's article describes what programmers and technical authors need to know about Context-sensitive Help.
Johnston, Carol. Cherryleaf (2003). Articles>User Interface>Help>Documentation
#27649
Creating "Smart Help" with Conditional Content
Discusses several methods for making Web-based Help systems 'smart,' by using conditional content to customize the appearance and behavior of your pages to the users' needs.
Gash, Dave. WritersUA (2005). Articles>Documentation>Help>Personalization
