http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Help A listing of the most recently indexed works about Help in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Help http://tc.eserver.org/35839.html http://tc.eserver.org/35839.html Using any of the standard authoring tools — Flare, RoboHelp, Author-It, Doc-to-Help — leaves you with the ridiculous model of a single author working from a single vantage point from a single organization trying to pull together an ocean of information. Because that model is untenable and unscalable, HATs will fade in favor of collaborative web-based authoring technologies. http://tc.eserver.org/35830.html http://tc.eserver.org/35830.html In this video, Ryan Linton, a Senior Program Manager on the Library Experience Team, describes the new Help system in Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2. http://tc.eserver.org/35635.html http://tc.eserver.org/35635.html Integrating user assistance into the software interface is one of the best ways to increase the usability of your software application and thus make your customers more satisfied and successful. However, embedded help has the reputation of being difficult to develop and execute. Let’s take a look at a solution that makes it possible to quickly include an embedded, dynamic help pane in a software interface. http://tc.eserver.org/35642.html http://tc.eserver.org/35642.html If you've installed older software in Windows 7, you might notice that .hlp-formatted Help files aren't recognized or supported. Microsoft offers a free download to read and manage those WinHelp files. http://tc.eserver.org/35571.html http://tc.eserver.org/35571.html Here are a few tips for adding screenshots to your help topics. http://tc.eserver.org/35588.html http://tc.eserver.org/35588.html With in excess of ten years front line authoring experience and many more producing training documentation, I have a passion for language, its use and its odities. I was an Account Manager for a computer bureau providing a service to the advertising industry prior to taking the plunge into technical authoring. A large part of this was the production of technical training material for the ad-hoc customer training and classroom led courses held in the company’s training suite. http://tc.eserver.org/35520.html http://tc.eserver.org/35520.html Mohr details a method by which you can single-source content from an online help system to produce a manual for the same software application. http://tc.eserver.org/35495.html http://tc.eserver.org/35495.html As I've continued to teach my online RoboHelp class to students who attend from all over the world, one recurring issue has been confusion over the following three RoboHelp features: the start page, the project title and the default topic. The three files/names are totally different, having nothing to do with each other, but are commonly confused. By the time you are finished reading this text, I'm hoping that the confusion is a thing of the past. http://tc.eserver.org/35417.html http://tc.eserver.org/35417.html I believe that phone conversations for customer support have been studied quite a bit -- looking for phrases that sound like triggers for anger, avoiding long pauses, and when one party overtakes a phone conversation, it's relatively easy to detect when that's happening. But with Twitter, you could have long pauses intentionally as asynchronous, IM-like conversations happen when someone gets up from their desk and returns after a business meeting, for example. Neither party is angry about that long pause, it's just an understood agreement in the Twitter medium that you may or may not be immediately responsive. How does that time factor change the 'agreement' for a support exchange? http://tc.eserver.org/35356.html http://tc.eserver.org/35356.html Provides a historic overview of research on printed software tutorials. Describes developments in design approaches, refinements in design, and user experience. http://tc.eserver.org/35339.html http://tc.eserver.org/35339.html Help authoring tools (HATs) are specialized editors and converters to create online technical documentation. Today, many help authoring tools also provide features for single source publishing, which means that you can generate several output formats and versions from one shared text source. While most tools manage to produce different online formats like browser-based help and compiled help very well, only few tools can also produce printed user manuals (or PDF) of professional quality. Big differences also exist between the tools when it comes to translating your projects into foreign languages. http://tc.eserver.org/35342.html http://tc.eserver.org/35342.html Market overview of recommendable tools for creating screen captures (screenshots, screen dumps). Screen captures are required within all forms of software documentation, such as user manuals, online help files, interactive demos and tutorials, but also for web sites and brochures. http://tc.eserver.org/35343.html http://tc.eserver.org/35343.html Market overview of recommendable tools for creating software demos (so-called screencasts). Software demos are not only used for marketing purposes on web sites, but also as standalone tutorials or embedded within online help files and other sorts of software documentation. http://tc.eserver.org/35344.html http://tc.eserver.org/35344.html Checkliste der wichtigsten Kriterien für die Auswahl eines Tools zum Erstellen von Software-Dokumentation (Handbücher, Online-Hilfen) - sog. Help Authoring Tools, kurz HAT. Viele Help Authoring Tools können Benutzerhandbücher und Online-Hilfen aus einer gemeinsamen Textquelle heraus generieren (sog. Single Source Publishing). http://tc.eserver.org/35345.html http://tc.eserver.org/35345.html Screenshots oder Screencaptures). Benötigt werden Screenshots in allen Formen von Software-Dokumentation, z.B. für Handbücher, Online-Hilfen, interaktive Demos und Tutorials, aber auch für Webseiten oder Broschüren. http://tc.eserver.org/35347.html http://tc.eserver.org/35347.html Überblick über empfehlenswerte Tools zum Erstellen von Bildschirmfotos (engl. Screen Captures, Screenshots oder Screen Dumps). Screenshots werden in allen Formen von Software-Dokumentation benötigt, z.B. für Handbücher, Online-Hilfen, interaktive Demos und Tutorials, sowie auf Webseiten und in Broschüren. http://tc.eserver.org/35322.html http://tc.eserver.org/35322.html What Are These Tools? Screen recorders that let you: record a series of screens as frames in a movie – like chaining together screen shots; annotate the frames with text captions, high-lights, and other effects for enhanced learning and explanation; add testing – informally through “dead-end” quizzes or formally using eLearning; publish the result. http://tc.eserver.org/35338.html http://tc.eserver.org/35338.html Web 2.0 includes: wikis, podcasts, blogs, widgets/gadgets, social networks … and combinations of all the above. Not everyone contributes equally – Creators (18%), Critics (25%), Spectators (48%). But all are important. http://tc.eserver.org/35210.html http://tc.eserver.org/35210.html As help systems continue to evolve, whatever name they are called, we will increasingly have to face responsibility for their content, and bring their expertise to what we write. The new systems provide us with all the required tools that tell us the problems with their content. It is up to us to leverage that information to provide better content, and act as ambassadors for products that we write. If writers can go a step ahead, and use their help information to sell products, and reduce the burden on customer support, we would have truly arrived. http://tc.eserver.org/35188.html http://tc.eserver.org/35188.html This Fast Track tutorial demonstrates and employs web standards and accessibility methods for tabular data table creation. It is presented free of charge to the community as a help authoring, technical writing and web design guide. http://tc.eserver.org/35189.html http://tc.eserver.org/35189.html This Fast Track tutorial demonstrates how to create automatic line numbering in a code block. http://tc.eserver.org/35190.html http://tc.eserver.org/35190.html This Fast Track tutorial demonstrates two methods to call Context-Sensitive Help in a Web Form. We'll discover how Unobtrusive DOM/JavaScript achieves the desired result in calling Context-Sensitive help, and demonstrate how to keep the Structure, Presentation, and Behavior layers of a web page completely separate from one another ensuring good practice with current web standards and accessibility rules. http://tc.eserver.org/35191.html http://tc.eserver.org/35191.html There are times when we need to build a navigation tree stucture to accomodate a small document collection. There is no need to have this nav list expand or contract, so employing a Behavior layer (unobtrusive DOM/JavaScript) is not appropriate. http://tc.eserver.org/35203.html http://tc.eserver.org/35203.html One of the tips for creating a help project is to keeps things simple. This applies as much to the content as it does to the manner in which it is produced. The tool used to produce it has a big bearing on how simple the documentation process is of course but sometimes you just have to bend the rules. http://tc.eserver.org/34889.html http://tc.eserver.org/34889.html Lately I’ve been creating context-sensitive help for an online application. As part of my strategy, I’ve been trying to follow Theresa Putkey’s advice in “Usability in Context-Sensitive Help.” In her article, Theresa recommends providing more than just the steps for a specific task in the context-sensitive help window. Instead, she says to show more contextual links, including answers to why, when, and who questions, because too frequently the user who searches for help may have needs outside the specific task you describe. http://tc.eserver.org/34809.html http://tc.eserver.org/34809.html If you're moving to Flare from another help authoring tool, you'll find that Flare's stylesheet editor is very powerful but different than other stylesheet editors that you may have used. And if Flare is your first help authoring tool, you may find the stylesheet editor overpowering at first. To help you get over that initial hump, Hyper/Word Services offers a stylesheet for Flare that will help you learn to use the stylesheet editor, and that may apply to actual projects. http://tc.eserver.org/34714.html http://tc.eserver.org/34714.html Embedded user assistance is only part of a complete documentation plan. It does not replace the need for other types of content. For example, embedded user assistance is not a good delivery mechanism for comprehensive concepts and detailed discussions of a topic with strategy and best practice guidelines. However, with a strong design, embedded user assistance can support the immediate needs of the user and provide a valuable, contextual link that steers the user into the other parts of the documentation as needed. http://tc.eserver.org/34577.html http://tc.eserver.org/34577.html Although simplicity is a noble ideal, and something like “simplify complexity” could be the mission statement of any technical writer, simplicity is in fact a complex undertaking. The interplay between simplicity and complexity is what technical writing is all about. http://tc.eserver.org/34545.html http://tc.eserver.org/34545.html Do we need to have an external help system? Why not embed help right into the application? Why not take this a step or two further? Instead of having a separate help system, integrate more useful, more robust, and context-sensitive help into the user interface. http://tc.eserver.org/34506.html http://tc.eserver.org/34506.html Context-sensitive help is a practical way to cut down on customer support expenses and add more value to documentation. By providing more complex, context-sensitive help, the usability of the help increases while call center phone calls decrease. http://tc.eserver.org/34507.html http://tc.eserver.org/34507.html Makes the case for embedded help as one of the most effective ways to integrate help within an interface. Although it can be difficult, Bleiel illustrates a way to “elegantly implement and map embedded help.” http://tc.eserver.org/34513.html http://tc.eserver.org/34513.html You can definitely apply some of the concepts of microblogging to crafting error messages. Like a good tweet or a http://www.identi.ca or a jaiku, a good error message must: be concise; contain useful information, for both the person reading it and technical support; and be easy to read and understand. http://tc.eserver.org/34420.html http://tc.eserver.org/34420.html Online formats can be confusing—consider "WebHelp" vs. "Web Help." This session describes XML, XHTML, HTML Help, WebHelp, DotNet Help, AIR, and others—and how to select the appropriate one. http://tc.eserver.org/34371.html http://tc.eserver.org/34371.html The mindset in which most technical communicators write help is sometimes fundamentally flawed. Consider the following two stories and the different approaches and mindsets each writer takes toward the project. http://tc.eserver.org/34235.html http://tc.eserver.org/34235.html Web site user assistance that consistently exceeds customer’s expectations can catapult your company to legendary status and create brand equity you can measure in billions of dollars. However, making Help a strategic asset for your company is an arduous task. To shed light on this important topic, I have teamed up with Tricia Clement, a renowned cognitive psychologist and Web site user assistance expert. In this month’s Search Matters column, we’ll deliver actionable insights about Web site user assistance. http://tc.eserver.org/34093.html http://tc.eserver.org/34093.html User assistance can add value to a product or Web service’s business model by influencing how deeply users adopt new features or services. As more products employ pay-as-you-go models like that of SaaS (Software as a Service), the contribution user assistance makes becomes increasingly more important. http://tc.eserver.org/34097.html http://tc.eserver.org/34097.html Motivation is an important factor in any kind of online interaction or transaction. People need a little encouragement when they’re not really convinced they should take any action or are uncertain about what action to take next. As users perform tasks online, they need to understand what’s happening and expect you to help them move forward. This article discusses the responsibility of a user interface to provide recommendations along a user’s path of interaction. http://tc.eserver.org/34063.html http://tc.eserver.org/34063.html Online help. User assistance. That thing that pops up when you press F1. No matter what you call it, user assistance is an important element in the experience of a user. It can mean the difference between a frustrated user and a productive one. But is today's user assistance all it can be? Are we giving users purposeful information at the right time, in the most effective format, and ultimately in the way that they need it? Unfortunately, no. http://tc.eserver.org/34064.html http://tc.eserver.org/34064.html A short blog post that discusses why users are more interested in learning how to, and not what is. http://tc.eserver.org/33679.html http://tc.eserver.org/33679.html Every help authoring tool seems to have a different approach to presenting search results. Offerings range from ranked results to alphabetical lists, with additional features thrown in such as the inclusion of chunks of topic text with highlighted search keywords. Each method of presenting search results offers different benefits to users. Since help tools offer mixed approaches, I feel perfectly comfortable throwing my own opinions into the mix. http://tc.eserver.org/33634.html http://tc.eserver.org/33634.html As broadband Internet access becomes increasingly available, software providers are minimizing the local installation of help topics and instead moving some or all help to Web servers. While this approach may alienate users who have no Internet connection or lack broadband access, there are many advantages. Web servers offer features and options that aren't available with locally installed help. http://tc.eserver.org/33636.html http://tc.eserver.org/33636.html Software products have found ways to share content and reuse content to deliver more value with limited resources. For example, fantasy football web sites share player news, injury reports, and game statistics. Security products often reuse security announcements and warnings from trusted sources, and present them as rebranded content. We are also seeing software vendors using Twitter and RSS feeds to distribute information and announcements. The next step is when these information feeds are integrated into the product user interface itself, making it the one stop resource for all the information needs of its users. No more need to use google when your product itself delivers the answers to all your questions from the sources you trust. http://tc.eserver.org/33600.html http://tc.eserver.org/33600.html Last month, Forrester Research released results from a survey on how much consumers trust different sources for information. They didn't include online Help or knowledge bases in the survey, so we don't know how well or badly they would have come out in the survey. http://tc.eserver.org/33523.html http://tc.eserver.org/33523.html Knowing HTML alone is not enough to create HTML Help. What deliverables does the client need? CHMs (HTML Help)? Web-based Help (HTML files + other things that create the Toc, Index, Search tabs etc.)? Java Help? Oracle Help? Be aware of the limitations of some formats. http://tc.eserver.org/33464.html http://tc.eserver.org/33464.html Established wisdom holds that good error messages are polite, precise, and constructive. The Web brings a few new guidelines: Make error messages clearly visible, reduce the work required to fix the problem, and educate users along the way. http://tc.eserver.org/33466.html http://tc.eserver.org/33466.html Every site should handle the page not found error gracefully. Two quite similar articles have the following tips: do not redirect people to the home page; let the visitor know that something unexpected is going on at first glance. http://tc.eserver.org/33468.html http://tc.eserver.org/33468.html Frequently, error messages are totally uninformative -- or, worse, just plain wrong. Here, we look at how meaningful error messages can make it easier for users to correct problems without having to rely on technical support, and how poorly chosen messages can turn users into ex-users. http://tc.eserver.org/33357.html http://tc.eserver.org/33357.html There are countless usability blogs, message boards and listservers. But to my knowledge, no one has attempted to integrate all this information into a single, collaborative knowledge space. I believe that creating such a knowledge space would be of immense benefit to the usability profession and would be a wonderful platform on which to refine our understanding of social computing and knowledge management. http://tc.eserver.org/33335.html http://tc.eserver.org/33335.html Software documentation such as Help systems and user guides may be the best method of helping your customers to use your software effectively. However, one or more of these alternatives may be a better solution. http://tc.eserver.org/33159.html http://tc.eserver.org/33159.html Overview topics play an important role in creating a positive user assistance experience. Unlike procedures, which deliver critical information on how to solve a problem quickly, overview topics fill in the conceptual details and background "story." Here are some tips for writing thorough and informative overviews. http://tc.eserver.org/32975.html http://tc.eserver.org/32975.html A collection of screen captures from online documentation, to permit technical writers and documentation designers to review a variety of visual styles. http://tc.eserver.org/32979.html http://tc.eserver.org/32979.html Whilst applications are becoming more complex, many people believe that online user assistance hasn't changed much since WinHelp was introduced with Windows 3. This is a misconception. There have been many developments in this field aimed at increasing end-user productivity and satisfaction. http://tc.eserver.org/32980.html http://tc.eserver.org/32980.html Just as a romantic poet might choose to pen an ode to a single rose as opposed to the entire garden, perhaps we should look to the simplest elements of usability for inspiration. Perhaps it’s time to recognize the contribution of a single humble helper. Yes, it’s time for an ode to Balloon Help. You may smile, but it can be argued that Balloon Help is not only one of the most ubiquitous implementations of modern technological performance support but it is also one of the most underappreciated. http://tc.eserver.org/32928.html http://tc.eserver.org/32928.html His own vendor conspiracy theories aside, Lou Rosenfeld knows of three main reason why technical "support" is often not support at all. http://tc.eserver.org/32932.html http://tc.eserver.org/32932.html A collection of humourous error messages and dialogue boxes that you can add to by making your own. http://tc.eserver.org/32776.html http://tc.eserver.org/32776.html User assistance writers are often the Rodney Dangerfields of the UX world, bemoaning the fact that we don’t get any respect. I think the real problem is that user assistance folks are not particularly good at communicating the ways in which we add value to an enterprise. This column explores two models that show how user assistance adds value and how we can communicate that value to those who pay our salaries—something I would like to encourage other user assistance writers to do. http://tc.eserver.org/32517.html http://tc.eserver.org/32517.html This article demonstrates two methods of calling context-sensitive help in a web form: the Field Help Method and Form Help Method, in which unobtrusive DOM/JavaScript is employed to achieve the desired result. It also serves to illustrate the separation of the Structure and Behavior layers of a web page. Graceful degradation is employed to make sure that the help information is accessible if JavaScript is disabled or not available in a user agent. http://tc.eserver.org/32376.html http://tc.eserver.org/32376.html Designing online Help for PDAs is a marked shift from designing for personal computers because the reduced memory capacity and display-unit size (a VGA screen of 300x240 pixels) of PDAs mandate Help formats optimized in ways not necessary with larger machines. Current Help files on PDAs are simple HTML files, but this format might prove inadequate for the complex Help files needed for more elaborate software applications. Thus it is necessary to explore strategies for online Help that work within the limitations of small-screen devices. http://tc.eserver.org/32349.html http://tc.eserver.org/32349.html Users turn to help to look for a specific question, just as someone consults an encyclopedia for a specific question. No one reads the entire encyclopedia/manual, nor is anyone expected to. Well-written encyclopedias allow users to find information through indexes, tables of contents, alphabetical organization, and search fields. http://tc.eserver.org/32353.html http://tc.eserver.org/32353.html Flossmanuals.net is a new wiki help authoring/publishing tool hybrid that, as far as I know, is completely unique. The site is more than a wiki. It allows groups of authors to create specific chapters independently. You can then remix the chapters into any arrangement and selection you want through a drag-and-drop interface. http://tc.eserver.org/31992.html http://tc.eserver.org/31992.html So, you've got in trouble. Some or even all of your CHM files seem to have gotten corrupted. They show a "The page cannot be displayed" error in the left-hand pane of the CHM viewer. There are several possible reasons why your CHM e-books and documentation files are unreadable. http://tc.eserver.org/31990.html http://tc.eserver.org/31990.html Are you still wondering which help file format to use for your Windows software? The selection depends on your software and on the information that is in your help files. Each help file format has its own unique features that may be useful in certain situations. http://tc.eserver.org/31988.html http://tc.eserver.org/31988.html There are several main reasons why putting your software manual on-line is necessary. It makes your web-site attractive for search engine crawlers and therefore brings you targeted traffic from Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and other search engines. A good online manual presents your product as serious and credible. Moreover, if a user faces difficulty using your software and asks for technical support, you may easily resolve the issue by referring that user to a certain page of your online help. Simply give the page's URL. With just one click the user will see screenshots and explanations which will help them to resolve the issue. http://tc.eserver.org/31973.html http://tc.eserver.org/31973.html Discusses in detail why you might want to consider a specific tool for help authoring. http://tc.eserver.org/31833.html http://tc.eserver.org/31833.html Online help excels in providing quick access to concise information - but only when the users choose to access it. Delivering high-quality online help that satisfies all users is a hard task. Several good help authoring tools make help generation and maintenance easier, but to create good content that is highly effective is still a huge challenge. Experience shows that even after following quality guidelines or best practices, the final output may still not be good enough to satisfy the needs of your users. Heuristic evaluation of an online help system provides an initial assessment of both quality and usability. This article presents a summary of key points for evaluating online help, though you will likely want to expand the heuristics with company or product-centric metrics suitable to your application. http://tc.eserver.org/31597.html http://tc.eserver.org/31597.html What we consider to be good technical writing often reflects an American cultural perspective. One facet of this cultural orientation is that technical writing tends to use a low-context style. Most notably, we tend to write user assistance as if users have never seen the user interface we are explaining. Secondly, we tend to write user assistance as if users have never even used software before. But users rarely go to Help before they have tried to accomplish a task on their own first, and most users today have extensive experience using software and are familiar with the standard ways of interacting with user interfaces. So a user interface is a high-context artifact—one a user has already seen before reading our documentation and that uses rules and conventions the user already knows. http://tc.eserver.org/31144.html http://tc.eserver.org/31144.html I would argue that 'Presentation Zen' contains ideas that are also relevant to technical communication. http://tc.eserver.org/31112.html http://tc.eserver.org/31112.html There's a lot of great free and Open Source (FOSS) software out there. But one area in which it's lacking is professional-level help authoring tools. In 2005, Linux.com published an article titled "FOSS help authoring tools falter". And not much seems to have changed in the intervening years. http://tc.eserver.org/31099.html http://tc.eserver.org/31099.html The following includes the instructions for creating a model of a small help project and how to name and send it to your instructor. http://tc.eserver.org/30826.html http://tc.eserver.org/30826.html 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? http://tc.eserver.org/30812.html http://tc.eserver.org/30812.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/30777.html http://tc.eserver.org/30777.html Today, Help authors take HTML for granted. But XML is starting to displace HTML, bringing with it new technologies like DITA and Web 2.0, as well as the potential for disruption. Perlin examines how to prepare for the change through adhering to standards. http://tc.eserver.org/30637.html http://tc.eserver.org/30637.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/30616.html http://tc.eserver.org/30616.html Controversies characterize the study of artificial intelligence and expert systems. The varying opinions range from differences in defining these terms to arguments about their actual effectiveness when applied to practical problems. Technical communicators need to understand the different views on artificial intelligence, the types of expert systems currently available, and what the future impact of expert systems will be on technical communication in general, As a type of artificial intelligence, expert computer systems provide a technological solution to the problem of communicating specialized information and knowledge within business, technological, and scientific organizations. The computer can not only be a place to store large bodies of information, but it can also be programmed to interact with users as they attempt to apply this stored knowledge to specific problem-solving situations. http://tc.eserver.org/30573.html http://tc.eserver.org/30573.html The design team for a major new product approached our publications group about ideas on developing an online manual and/or online help. Together, we developed a task-oriented, easy-to-use online help system, and continue to work together to evaluate it. Where do we best put the buttons that access the help for various subsystems? http://tc.eserver.org/30499.html http://tc.eserver.org/30499.html In the PC products market, customers insist on excellent support at rock-bottom prices. The traditional model of customer support, having a phone technician answer customer questions, is becoming too expensive. http://tc.eserver.org/30422.html http://tc.eserver.org/30422.html The demand for help and hypertext systems has created a problem for many documentation departments, particularly those in smaller companies and inexperienced in creating these forms of online documentation. The scarcity of existing literature compounds this problem. This document provides writers in small companies with limited resources some suggestions to facilitate hypertext project management, planning, design, editing, and usability testing. Also discussed is how to select a hypertext package. http://tc.eserver.org/30430.html http://tc.eserver.org/30430.html One of the biggest problems facing Help developers is that of providing users with adequate methods of navigation through what can be huge amounts of information. After more than a two or three jumps, users can find themselves in topics that might be useful, but with no clear indication of how they got there or how to return to where they started. OS/2 gives the Help developer extraordinarily flexible tools for creating online documentation that can prevent this situation and provide users with a clearer path through online information than many other platforms can provide. However, this enhanced usability is not without its cost. http://tc.eserver.org/30388.html http://tc.eserver.org/30388.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/30247.html http://tc.eserver.org/30247.html Information Presentation Facility (IPF) is the tagging language you use to tag, compile, and debug online information in an OS/2 environment. This workshop This part of the workshop looks at using error log files to examines how to use IPF, provides code samples, and points participants to reference material. http://tc.eserver.org/30208.html http://tc.eserver.org/30208.html Sometimes, when a customer looks for contact information for Customer Support, it is hidden from view or buried beneath layers of menus. Some companies even deliberately hide their contact information, because they simply don't want customers to contact them. So, what factors should you consider if your goal is providing more optimal customer support on the Web? http://tc.eserver.org/30135.html http://tc.eserver.org/30135.html This paper presents three methods of user assistance: role models (simple demonstrations), guides (structured walk-throughs), and coaches (active assistants). After a brief introduction, potential uses, available development tools, and additional information sources are discussed for each method. http://tc.eserver.org/30136.html http://tc.eserver.org/30136.html If you are a technical writer or manage technical writers and have been asked to document Lotus Notes applications, this workshop will give you a jump start. You can use the features available in Notes to create an effective help system as a Notes database. This help database can either be a view in an existing Notes application or a stand-alone database linked to the application. In this workshop, you will learn the basics of creating help systems in Lotus Notes. http://tc.eserver.org/30083.html http://tc.eserver.org/30083.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/29987.html http://tc.eserver.org/29987.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/29990.html http://tc.eserver.org/29990.html The Help platform for Microsoft Windows is changing once again. Since 1995, Microsoft HTML Help has been the standard for Help systems for Windows applications, but the release of the next generation Windows operating system in 2005 will see a brand new XML-based Help platform. It is currently known as Help.Longhorn, or "Longhorn" Help, or sometimes as Help3 or TrésHelp. http://tc.eserver.org/29988.html http://tc.eserver.org/29988.html There are still many circumstances when drawing a user's attention to changed text is important. How do we do that with Help systems? By borrowing techniques from paper manuals, we don't have to reinvent the wheel. So here's a good approach that will work for Microsoft Word-based HATs. http://tc.eserver.org/29992.html http://tc.eserver.org/29992.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/29970.html http://tc.eserver.org/29970.html This is a very simple example of integrating a J2SE application with the Apple Help Viewer application. This sample code has been updated to include a project that produces a universal binary. No code changes were required for it to run correctly on Intel-based Macintosh computers. http://tc.eserver.org/29926.html http://tc.eserver.org/29926.html Two questions any writer must deal with are: 'What do I write about?' and 'How much do I say about it?' Essentially, these questions deal with the scope and the depth of a document. Technical communicators have a tendency to want to document a topic as completely as possible, and we carry this instinct with us when we architect and write Help files. In this column, I challenge that prevalent instinct and offer an alternative way of thinking about the scope and depth requirements of Help systems. The benefits of this approach are, I hope, better Help for users and, for our clients and employers, a more efficient use of technical communicators' time. First, I'll discuss three principles that underpin my perspective, then I'll give some practical advice about writing Help that people will actually use. http://tc.eserver.org/29918.html http://tc.eserver.org/29918.html A weblog for writers of documentation and users of Help Authoring Systems. http://tc.eserver.org/29903.html http://tc.eserver.org/29903.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/29760.html http://tc.eserver.org/29760.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/29867.html http://tc.eserver.org/29867.html '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. http://tc.eserver.org/29670.html http://tc.eserver.org/29670.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/29446.html http://tc.eserver.org/29446.html The next time you complain about the usability of your computer, think of this: despite patently suboptimal design, Windows computers are really no more difficult to use than your washroom, and the washrooms have been around for an awful lot longer. The bottom line--you should pardon my choice of words--is that despite manifest flaws in both technologies, each lets you accomplish surprising quantities of work. And technical writers take heed: this appalling gap in end-user documentation could just be the next million-selling 'for Dummies' book. http://tc.eserver.org/29432.html http://tc.eserver.org/29432.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/29367.html http://tc.eserver.org/29367.html Technical support relies heavily on users' abilities to perform tasks, and we're all more than familiar with the difficulty involved with assisting inexperienced computer users. Most widespread worms and viruses take hold and spread due to poorly maintained systems, commonly home systems found on broadband networks. http://tc.eserver.org/29362.html http://tc.eserver.org/29362.html One sure-fire way to improve help desk morale and raise awareness of your technical support team is to write a help desk mission statement. Get some tips on what to include and find some samples of other mission statements. http://tc.eserver.org/28961.html http://tc.eserver.org/28961.html Some might not think that converting FrameMaker content into online help and user documentation would involve taking risks. In this article, we tell our story of what risks were involved with one of my recent projects, how we overcame them, and what benefits we reaped by using state-of-the-art technology. http://tc.eserver.org/28905.html http://tc.eserver.org/28905.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/28904.html http://tc.eserver.org/28904.html Many Web application designers strive to reduce the amount of instructional text that appears in the user interfaces they create. A likely part of their motivation is the perception that, if explaining how to use something requires too much instruction, it probably isn't that easy to use and, therefore, has room for improvement in its design. Another motivating factor might be the tendency for people not to read any on-screen instructions, just like they tend not to read product manuals. This type of thinking also applies to Web forms. When possible, designers strive to utilize a minimal amount of text to explain how users should fill in the different input fields in a form. http://tc.eserver.org/28764.html http://tc.eserver.org/28764.html Discusses a number of trends in the technical writing world, particularly the need to make help more human by adopting conversational tones and addressing the angry/frantic state of the user. http://tc.eserver.org/28749.html http://tc.eserver.org/28749.html This is a presentation titled 'Creating Help in the Web 2.0 Age' that Neil Perlin gave to the Suncoast Chapter in Tampa, Florida in February 2007. Neil talks about what Web 2.0 is, and how help can be delivered on the fly according to specific user requests. http://tc.eserver.org/28661.html http://tc.eserver.org/28661.html In a utopian world, a product would be so perfect it would not need any user assistance at all. But in reality, products aren't perfect, and users need assistance through different stages of their use. User assistance (UA)--in the form of manuals or online Help--guides users in their tasks, suggests better ways of getting their work done, and provides directions for troubleshooting their problems. http://tc.eserver.org/28658.html http://tc.eserver.org/28658.html User assistance occurs within an action context--the user doing something with an application--and should appear in close proximity to the focus of that action--that is, the application it supports. The optimal placement of user assistance, space permitting, is in the user interface itself. We typically call that kind of user assistance instructional text. But when placing user assistance within an application as instructional text, we must modify conventional principles of good information design to accommodate certain forces within an interactive user interface. This column, User Assistance, talks about how the rules for effective instruction change when creating instructional text for display within the context of a user interface. http://tc.eserver.org/28665.html http://tc.eserver.org/28665.html This article explores the role of user assistance in providing domain-centric online Help--rather than Help that simply explains obvious user interactions with well-designed user interfaces--and provides a pattern for and examples of expert guidance. http://tc.eserver.org/28540.html http://tc.eserver.org/28540.html HAT-Matrix.com is a new representation of an old standard--the Help Authoring Tool (HAT) Comparison Matrix that was available from helpstuff.com for five years (2001-2006). But instead of a static list, this site uses a searchable database. And instead of someone choosing the tools that are included, vendors choose whether to include their tools. http://tc.eserver.org/28284.html http://tc.eserver.org/28284.html 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). http://tc.eserver.org/28283.html http://tc.eserver.org/28283.html Market overview of recommendable tools for creating software documentation, especially for the creation of user manuals and online help files. Many of these help authoring tools can generate printable user manuals (PDF) and onlne help files from the same text base (single source publishing principle). http://tc.eserver.org/28028.html http://tc.eserver.org/28028.html MAML is part of a new approach to help in Windows Vista. This approach is both more integrated with the software and more focused on user tasks. MAML provides a structre in which you can write user assistance information, which can then be presented to the user in a variety of locations. http://tc.eserver.org/27797.html http://tc.eserver.org/27797.html For a long time we've been told that XML Help is the future. So is it? In this article, David Rose examines the current state of the online help development industry and the direction it is heading. http://tc.eserver.org/27658.html http://tc.eserver.org/27658.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/27649.html http://tc.eserver.org/27649.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/27651.html http://tc.eserver.org/27651.html Online help systems have evolved over the past 20 years to meet the needs of our users. Designers must consider the content, format, presentation, navigation, and access methods of online help systems. A series of design checklists based on the past 20 years of research are presented in this paper, which summarizes a journal article currently being considered for publication. The latest trend in online help system design is embedded user assistance, which includes integrating information into the interface and including an embedded help pane within that interface to display a context-sensitive online help system. http://tc.eserver.org/27657.html http://tc.eserver.org/27657.html Online communities have become a very valuable source of assistance for answering questions unique to our industry. This article provides an introduction to online communities and describes how to access a few of the most useful sites. http://tc.eserver.org/27642.html http://tc.eserver.org/27642.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/27650.html http://tc.eserver.org/27650.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/27647.html http://tc.eserver.org/27647.html To create a specific deliverable, you collect all of the relevant topics and wrap information around them. A printed book, for instance, contains topics grouped into chapters along with front and back matter. http://tc.eserver.org/27418.html http://tc.eserver.org/27418.html Two relatively common usability problems with web forms are textareas that are too small, and dropdown lists being clumsy to use for some people. This Greasemonkey user script automatically assigns links above each textarea so that it can be resized, and automatically expands dropdown lists. The script is easily configurable, so you can choose not to expand dropdown lists, or determine the maximum number of items you want displayed in a dropdown list, or have graphic or text links for resizing textarea form controls. http://tc.eserver.org/27084.html http://tc.eserver.org/27084.html This article looks at a methodology for developing a software user assistance (UA) system in a structured manner. The software UA system could have both paper-based user manuals and online help systems. http://tc.eserver.org/27030.html http://tc.eserver.org/27030.html Customers avoid web-based customer support if information is not relevant, out of date or hard to find. Without a business commitment to addressing these issues, customers will continue to prefer contacting a service representative by phone. http://tc.eserver.org/26860.html http://tc.eserver.org/26860.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/26818.html http://tc.eserver.org/26818.html Wenn Sie diesen Absatz lesen, sind Sie bereits mittendrin: im "Information Layering". Ihr Informationsbedarf: herauszufinden, ob sich die Lektüre dieses Artikels lohnt. Dazu gibt der erste, layouttechnisch hervorgehobene Absatz einen kurzen Eindruck vom Inhalt. Das erspart es Ihnen den kompletten Artikel zu überfliegen. Die Information "um was geht es?" steht vom Rest losgelöst auf einer eigenen Ebene – englisch: "layer". Während dieses einfache Beispiel seit Jahrzehnten in jeder Zeitung funktioniert, bieten moderne Online-Medien noch viel mehr Möglichkeiten Relevantes von Irrelevantem zu trennen. http://tc.eserver.org/26819.html http://tc.eserver.org/26819.html Auf die Frage, wie Hyperlinks technisch in HTML zu formulieren sind, listet Google weit über 15 Millionen Treffer. Auf die Frage hingegen, wie die Linktexte gestaltet sein sollen, damit sie der Leser gut versteht, lassen sich brauchbare Empfehlungen an einer Hand abzählen. Auch die meisten Styleguides und Redaktionsleitfäden halten sich bei dieser Frage bedeckt. Im folgenden Beitrag finden Sie Tipps zu diesem wenig behandelten, aus Sicht der Technischen Dokumentation aber wichtigen Thema. http://tc.eserver.org/26720.html http://tc.eserver.org/26720.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/26309.html http://tc.eserver.org/26309.html A brief tutorial on creating cross-platform WebHelp (similar to that produced by RoboHelp) using DocBook. http://tc.eserver.org/26311.html http://tc.eserver.org/26311.html An introduction to using Sun's JavaHelp system for creating online Help.