TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:User Asistance/Help for a web site: brief summary From:"Chuck Martin" <twriter -at- sonic -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 28 May 2002 13:30:03 -0700
A couple of people requested, so I am posting a brief summary of the
responses that I received regarding my question on providing web-based user
assistance/Help for a web site (not a web application).
Several people recommended Deva Tools. I've been trying it out myself and
I'm somewhat impressed. Ben Weisner and his colleagues have crafted
something quite nice. (When I posted a question directly to their help
email, it was Ben himself who answered.)
A couple of people said that to get context sensitivity, I'd probably have
to use JavaScripting.
One person pointed me to an actual web site's Help system that was built
with RoboHelp. While quite nicely done, I found that this system had two
very major drawbacks: it took way too long to appear and it placed a
"powered by RoboHelp" (or something similar) logo in the upper right. I
found this latter item particularly egregious, a blatant screen real estate
grab by eHelp.
I'm not quite entirely convinced, however, by the need to have the
"standard" tri-pane window for a site's Help system. No e-commerce site that
I've researched so far (of those that actually had Help systems) use this
model. But then, these sites have no level of context sensitivity either.
I'm leaning toward the DevaTools solution. I read somewhere that the CSS can
be tweaked so that the item in the TOC that relates to the topic displayed
on the right is highlighted, which is one useful feature.
Thanks to all who responded (except the spammer, a maker of one Help
authoring tool--you know who you are).
--
--
"I don't entirely understand it but it is true: Highly skilled
carpenters don't get insulted when told they are not architects,
but highly skilled programmers do get insulted when told
they are not UI designers."
- anonymous programmer quoted in "GUI Bloopers"
Chuck Martin
User Assistance & Experience Engineer
twriter "at" sonic "dot" net www.writeforyou.com
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Check out RoboDemo for tutorials! It makes creating full-motion software
demonstrations and other onscreen support materials easy and intuitive.
Need RoboHelp? Save $100 on RoboHelp Office in May with our mail-in rebate.
Go to http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l
Free copy of ARTS PDF Tools when you register for the PDF
Conference by May 15. Leading-Edge Practices for Enterprise
& Government, June 3-5, Bethesda,MD. www.PDFConference.com
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
