TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
> One of the useful possibilities here is a more responsive and interactive
> help system. Rather than a reference manual that sits on your desk in
> its original wrapping (or in its original folder online), you get something
> like Mac's bubble help, and perhaps a monitoring system that looks for
> "trouble signs" (like repetitive unproductive command sequences - eg
> scanning and closing menus over and over again - or the same info message
> coming up three times in a row, or...), and then displays/updates a monitor
> window with a helpful hint/explanation, and a list of possible tasks they
> are attempting. Then, if they select a task, the help system can walk
> them through it, step by step, monitoring them for mistakes and correcting
> them gently (with an explanation geared towards the misunderstanding that
> might generate that mistake).
Unfortunately, that's what is IN the existing Help system. It's all there,
just waiting for them to click a button. It's glitzy, it's thorough, it's
nonlinear, all the things a Help system should be. They're just not using
it, and they're not even remembering their own actions from the training
class where they used it before.
