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-----Original Message-----
From: Francis Anthony
Sent: Friday, July 29, 2011 12:11 PM
To: McLauchlan, Kevin; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Optimizing OnlineHelp for Mobile Viewing
>> Our requirement is that the same published Help be optimal for viewing both from a PC as well as a mobile.
Do you remember what the majority of the internet looked like 15 years ago? That is about what you should be aiming for. Because that is about what mobile browsers can support at this point.
HTML based help for mobile applications should keep to very basic HTML coding. No frames, no fancy javascript or css actions, just the most basic of formatted HTML and all in-line links. Sadly, a lot of traditional Help programs haven't realized that help for mobile applications is going back to the stone age of HTML capabilities (I'm looking at you, RoboHelp) and you are almost better off dealing with it as if you are creating HTML for the web and using a program like Dreamweaver or another HTML editor.
One bonus to going back to basics with the HTML coding - as long as you keep it simple, it should support a variety of mobile browsers (Apple, Android, etc.) without a lot of tweaks (provided you are developing for multiple platforms).
- V
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