RE: [great help example for a web-based app]

["Ronan DEPAGNE" <ronan -dot- depagne -at- atempo -dot- com>]

>
> Thanks, Michael. You were the only one who answered my
> posting so far. I guess I can't compete with more
> professional threads like the "personality type" one. Anyway,
> I noticed on a few sites that the help does not look like the
> "conventional" thing with the collapsible ToC, Index and
> Search tabs, it's rather another HTML page of the app with no
> context-sensitivity. Is this what the users expect?
> Erika
>
In my company, we have chosen to use the "conventionnal" type of help
for our web applications, in order to keep a consistent type of help,
whether the application is web-based or not.

I find that it also allows to separate conceptual information from
contextual information, making the help more easily readable, in my
opinion.

So we have "parameters" topics, reachable from the pages of the web
application (with popups, I love popups), and "concept" topics,
reachable from the TOC. This TOC is reachable from the "parameters"
topics, through a Show/Hide button.

But if the application does not need much explaination, I think that the
"parameters" topics could be enough, which allows you to use simple html
pages.

In any case, I think the help for a web application should open in a
different window.

Hope this helps

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ronan DEPAGNE,                            office +33 (0) 1 64 86 83 00
Technical Writer, Documentation Department
ronan -dot- depagne -at- atempo -dot- com
Atempo S.A. (formerly Quadratec S.A.)
Les Boreales, 2, avenue de Laponie
91951 Courtaboeuf Cedex, France                         www.atempo.com

"Time Navigator, the software platform for high-performance Backup and
Restore services"
----------------------------------------------------------------------


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