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It's hard to say without knowing more details, but one option might be
to put the legacy and new topics in one project, begin all topic
headings for the legacy code "Legacy: ...," link only from legacy to
new topics, not vice-versa, and hide the legacy topics when generating
the help for the new tool.
On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 12:25 PM, Deborah Hemstreet
<dvora -at- tech-challenged -dot- com> wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
>
> I am working on a project that is somewhat of a brain twister. There is
> legacy documentation and new documentation. All of it exists only in the
> form of Online Help and is distributed this way via the Internet to
> customers. The customers are rather high-level end-users setting up a very
> complex software that is utilized by their end-users.
>
> This documentation is only for the administrator level. Let's call the
> product: Brain Twister, or BT for short.
>
> The product is having a new module added that is going to replace it. Lets
> call it the Legacy Module (L-Mod) and New Module (N-Mod). While N-Mod will
> eventually replace L-Mod for all customers, this is going to be done in
> stages. All new customers will only ever get and see N-Mod.
>
> The problem presented to me: The online Help is available for all admin
> levels of BT. What is the best way to distribute the online HELP given the
> following constraints:
> 1. Very low budget - this needs to be quick and dirty, but as professional
> as possible
> 2. Documentation must be available at ALL times for L-Mod and N-Mod until
> N-Mod is released to ALL customers (probably 1-2 years)
>
> My Development Issues
>
> 1. Tool: RoboHelp v8
> 2. Deliverable: FlashHelp
> 3. Currently everything exists in ONE project; same key words exist for
> both L-Mod and N-Mod.
>
> My Proposal
> 1. Have a full L-Mod help and an additional N-Mod Help accessed separately
>
> My Problem: N-Mod help links to L-Mod help where relevant since the SW is
> basically two integrated packages, and I only found out about the
> distribution problem well into the project.
>
> My Questions:
> Are there are other thoughts for how to do this? Is there an easy way to
> split up the Help and somehow link back to the OTHER Help, back and forth?
> How would YOU handle key words that bring up two different topics with two
> different ways of doing the SAME thing, depending on if the user has L-Mod
> or N-Mod installed?
>
> Re usability- this is a huge issue (think, Red button for OK) - we cannot
> change the world and I cannot even try to. Just want to give my client
> something that works within their limitations that is as USEABLE and LOW
> COST as possible.
>
> Thanks in advance for your thoughts and suggestions...
>
> Deborah
>http://www.tech-challenged.com
>
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Are you looking for one documentation tool that does it all? Author,
> build, test, and publish your Help files with just one easy-to-use tool.
> Try the latest Doc-To-Help 2009 v3 risk-free for 30-days at:
>http://www.doctohelp.com/
>
> Help & Manual 5: The all-in-one help authoring tool. Easy to use
> but still has all the power you need. Get results fast in an intuitive
> authoring environment that works like a familiar word processor.
>http://www.helpandmanual.com/
>
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Are you looking for one documentation tool that does it all? Author,
build, test, and publish your Help files with just one easy-to-use tool.
Try the latest Doc-To-Help 2009 v3 risk-free for 30-days at: http://www.doctohelp.com/
Help & Manual 5: The all-in-one help authoring tool. Easy to use
but still has all the power you need. Get results fast in an intuitive
authoring environment that works like a familiar word processor. http://www.helpandmanual.com/
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You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
