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Hi,
You're assuming here that users in rural settings or developing nations
will want to use whatever Jennifer's company is building. I agree that
on-demand, Web-based help is impractical for most small, standalone
consumer applications. However, an increasing number of applications are
running 'natively' on the Web, or are clients that require Internet
access to work correctly. For example, the software
(http://www.capeclear.com/products/) one of my clients makes. So, if net
access is a prerequisite for running an application, then it
disqualifies the getting-help-from-the-web-is-a-pain argument.
Additionally, while you're correct about downloading updated
documentation with patches, it's too narrow a view. When a Web service
is updated, where is the documentation? How do users/applications that
consume that service know about the changes? One effective means would
be a paralell Web service that serves documentation. At the moment this
is a niche issue, but the popularity of Web services is making it an
increasingly common one. Cheers. DB.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bounce-techwr-l-124377 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
> [mailto:bounce-techwr-l-124377 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com] On Behalf
> Of Hart, Geoff
> Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2003 8:47 AM
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: RoboHelp for .NET?
>
> Can't speak to the RoboHelp question, but I can see no reason
> I'd ever want to put application help on the Web--with the
> obvious exception of Web sites and intranets. Forcing people
> to establish a net connection just so they can go to your Web
> site for help imposes an unnecessary burden: time, delay,
> complexity, and for many users outside North America--a
> per-minute cost while they're online. Many rural users may
> lack access to the Internet, others have only slow (dialup)
> access, and most mobile users won't have any access, thus
> potentially depriving several classes of user of any help at all.
RoboHelp Studio maximizes your Help authoring power by combining
RoboHelp Office and RoboDemo, so you can easily create professional
Help systems that feature interactive tutorials and demos.
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