RE: Paper Manual to Online Help - where to start?

[suzy -dot- davis -at- doi -dot- vic -dot- gov -dot- au]

<snip>
::: I personally liked the PDF idea, but when I put it to my
::: client he agreed
::: that it was a great one-off solution, but was outlined that
::: he was hoping
::: for a solution that would easily be updateable by the users.

I don't understand...
___
Thanks - this is great stuff you're all giving me.

I think my project manager started out today thinking that we would be able
to do away with the Word documents all together - which is one of the
reasons why he didn't like the PDF idea - it would mean that user would
have to keep updating Word docs which were complex.  I think he is now
convinced that we need to keep the Word documents as the primary document.

So, now that we have agreed to keep updating the Word docs first there is
no difference whether you convert to PDF or a Help app like RoboHelp for
this requirement.

Secondly he is very attracted to the hierarchical tree style used in online
help applications to structure chapters so they are contained in one place,
and can be easily selected by users.  From my limited knowledge of using
PDFs for this purpose I don't believe we can replicate that tree structure
without building it into the application's menu system.

I am now thinking that the main difference between PDF and a Help app like
RoboHelp is how the help is accessed by the user and presented to the user.

The alternatives are:
a) Help application - the user selects the help from the menu and is
presented with a tree structure. The user can then select the chapter they
require, or search for a specific item.
or
b) PDF docs - Place a folder of Help PDFs on the user's desktop which they
can open.

regards
Suzy

Suzy Davis
Technical Writer/VBA Developer
Create Space Pty Ltd

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