Re: Pray for me

["Joy S. Kocar" <jsk -at- isolns -dot- com>]

Hi Kat,

I can sympathize and you have my prayers.

I don't think you want context sensitive help. My understanding is that once
you add context sensitivity to a medical device, you make your documentation
part of the software and therefore it must pass all the rigorous testing and
verification that the software does. You certainly don't have time for that!
The FDA wants to know that when an operator clicks for help, the right topic
will pop up and not the topic for the opposite function.

If on the other hand, you simply have the electronic version of your manual
online, and clicking on the Help button pulls up the full documentation,
then I think all you have to do is test for that.

I'm not sure what the FDA rules are regarding changes to the help system
because it might be a good idea to create a WinHelp system if you need to
use RoboHelp. I have found the WinHelp module to work very well, but the
HTML Help module is not nearly as easy to work with. Then in the future if
you need a compiled HTML Help, you can convert. This is assuming of course
that your software runs on Windows 95/98/NT.

If you are supporting other platforms (Mac, Unix), then you will need to
create HTML-based help right from the beginning using RoboHELP WebHelp
capability. You may be aware that WebHelp creates non-compiled Help so
instead of getting a single .chm file, you get an .html file for each topic.
Your help system can be viewed with Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator
4.0 or above. WebHelp uses frames to simulate the MS HTML Help tripane look.
RoboHelp also lets you convert WinHelp to HTML Help.

I'd be happy to discuss RoboHelp particulars off the list.

Good luck!

Joy Kocar
Integral Solutions
jsk -at- isolns -dot- com
http://www.isolns.com