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Subject:Re: Laying out large user manuals From:Joe Weinmunson <litlfrog -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- polycom -dot- com> Date:Tue, 5 Mar 2013 13:13:40 -0500
Oh, I don't use Notepad! . . . I use Notepad++. Yes, all hand-coded HTML.
:) The company doesn't own a HAT. I've got various ways I can get
everything into a PDF, that's easy enough. I was just wondering if anyone
had taken the time or found a tool that could take content designed as
separate help topics and move them into a print-friendly format that could
do things like keep headlines with text, place and wrap screenshots, etc.
It sounds like I might just stick with converting to a PDF. I'll start a
longer-term project to make something a little more attractive with desktop
publishing software, maybe a color introductory manual in InDesign or
Scribus.
On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 3:38 PM, Combs, Richard
<richard -dot- combs -at- polycom -dot- com>wrote:
> Joe Weinmunson wrote:
>
> > I wrote and maintain a compiled HTML help file (.chm) for our company's
> > software. It's got around 200 topics all told. Every once in a while we
> > have a user who would really like a printed manual, and the boss is fine
> > with sending them one. I'd like to do something more attractive than just
> > printing out the help file for them. Each topic is a separate HTML file.
>
> What's your HAT (help authoring tool)? Assuming you're not coding HTML in
> Notepad or some such <shudder />, you ought to be looking at what options
> are available in your HAT for creating a PDF, etc.
>
> Richard G. Combs
> Senior Technical Writer
> Polycom, Inc.
> richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
> 303-223-5111
> ------
> rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
> 303-903-6372
> ------
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
--
Joe Weinmunson
“What you read when you don’t have to determines what you will be when you
can’t help it.”
--Oscar Wilde
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