#24805
Users complain that there is too much information in help. We will explore ways to move beyond help and provide users with the types of support they really need: re-using information on commercial information services such as CompuServe or America Online, on the Internet, and on dial-up phone and fax services. Making application interfaces self-documenting. Providing information in overlaid notes, cue cards, and wizards.
Hyman, Francine N. and Jonathan R. Price. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help
#23739
Moving from Paper to Electronic Documentation: Tips for a Successful Project 
With new tools and technologies available, more companies are choosing to move from paper-based documentation to electronic documentation. Being a pioneer is an exciting – and daunting – experience. In moving from paper-based to electronic documentation, you may be treading on a path never before explored for your product or your company. There are many decisions to make and many plans to develop, abandon, and develop again. Special attention is required in the areas of project management, writing and illustration, documentation design, and configuration management. A team that has experienced a paper-to-electronic documentation project can offer valuable advice if you are facing a groundbreaking project.
Finan, Jill Sutton, Joanna Natoli, Heather Healy and Mike Kocik. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help
#24658
Next Generation Microsoft Online Help
Just as clothing styles change, and fall's fashion is different from summer's, so Microsoft presents it's new fall's fashion of online help to a fashion-consious entourage of software companies always eager to follow Microsoft's lead.
Albing, Bill. KeyContent.org (2004). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help
#29867
Non-Fatal Errors: Creating Usable, Effective Error Messages
'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.
Wilska, Emily. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Documentation>Help>Online
#24729
In the eras of Windows 3.x and earlier versions of Windows 95, the only help system people worked with or even knew about was WinHelp. Problems started with the transition to Windows 95, when developers and users alike had to learn to deal with WinHelp 4.0's separate dialog with the Contents, Index, and Find tabs.
Liske, David E. MVPs.org (2003). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help
#20748
Online Help: You Think It's Documentation but Your Company Thinks It's Software
As help systems become more complex, integrating text with multimedia, scripting languages, search engines, etc., the line between documentation development and software development blurs. Some companies, especially those that have to adhere to federal or ISO-regulated procedures, are starting to look at online help as a product with its own development needs. This shift is changing the online help from documentation into software, subjecting it to the same controls and processes. This paper looks at how one company is handling this transition.
Rupel, Roberta A. and Peggy Schillinger. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help
#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
#14548
A “Real World” Look at Windows Help Authoring Tools
Aha, you say, you’ve finally gotten permission to go online. And your boss has even allocated enough precious-budget dollars to buy the right hardware and software to do the job. How hard can if be to find a good authoring tool, you think. And then you start to receive the product literature from n developers of Windows help authoring tools . . .
Zubak, Cheryl Lockett. STC Proceedings (1995). Presentations>Documentation>Help>Online
#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
#25846
Classic information for Windows Help authors.
Carroll, John M. PC Users Group (1995). Resources>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
#14811
Strategies for Producing Browser-Based Technical Documentation
This Technical Note attempts to provide a few good strategies for resolving some of the issues around producing and viewing Web-based technical documentation. The Note may be useful for engineers, technical writers and content producers who must wrestle with issues of producing documents such as ReadMe files, Release Notes, technical articles, and other forms of technical communication that land on the Web.
Apple Inc. (1996). Design>Documentation>Help>Online
#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
