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Tips on Online Help. Tharun Unni. About this Presentation. Access Points in Online Help Life Cycle Choosing a Delivery Format Authoring Tool Authoring Process Intergrating with the Software Platform-Specific Issues. Access Points in Online Help. Task-Oriented Topics - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Tips on Online Help
Tharun Unni
About this Presentation
• Access Points in Online Help
• Life Cycle
• Choosing a Delivery Format
• Authoring Tool
• Authoring Process
• Intergrating with the Software
• Platform-Specific Issues
Access Points in Online Help
• Task-Oriented Topics– Table of Contents (TOC)– Topics
• Context-Sensitive Help:– Dialog Level– Field Level (What’s This Help)
• Other Modes of Access – Index – Search– Favorites
Life Cycle
• Decide the Delivery Format• Choose an Authoring Tool
– Use a Help Authoring Tool– Use a Publishing Tool and convert the source
using the Help Authoring Tool
• Follow the Documentation Life Cycle• Integration and Delivery• Platform-Specific Issues
Choosing a Delivery Format
• Platform-Dependent (compiled)– CHM – HLP files
• Platform-Independent – HTML/XML files – Applets – Images
Choose an Authoring Tool
• HTML + Notepad + Compiler• Authoring tool
– RoboHelp: • Author in RoboHelp• Convert from other sources such as Word or
FrameMaker
– Webworks Publisher• Convert from other sources such as Word or
FrameMaker
Authoring Process
• Typical documentation development life cycle• Building Blocks
– HTML, XML, or RTF
– Images
– Project Files• Build or Project File (HPJ or HHP)
• Table of Contents (CNT)
• Index (IDX)
Integrating with Software
• Compiled– Decide who will assign the help topic IDs– Include MAP files in the Project File
• #define topic_name NUM
• Authoring tool may have an automatically generate MAP File option.
• If you cannot disable this, take a backup copy of your map file.
Platform-Specific Issues
• On Unix and Linux:– filenames are case-sensitive– filename should not contain blank spaces– path is indicated by “/” and not “\”– directory access privileges should be
configured– use relative path for images and URLs– Netscape is a popular browser