Re: Folio, Lotus SmarText

["Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher -at- STARBASECORP -dot- COM>]

> Paul Cassidy writes:

> > We have been looking at WinHelp, but have also
> > seen some reviews for Folio and Lotus SmarText.
>       ....
> > Advice, thoughts, articles to read?

And Chet Ensign answers...

> First reaction I have is that you have to pay royalities to distribute Folio
 or
> SmarText titles. The WinHelp viewer is already sitting there waiting on every
> PC running Windows.

[and some other good stuff I've snipped]

Second reaction, Paul, is to consider the expectations of the
user. The reactions I get when I'm out doing usability testing
and the chatter I see on our compuserve forum indicate that
*our* users want our products to look, act, taste, and smell
just like Microsoft products (no wisecracks from the peanut
gallery, please!). Granted, our users are mostly developers
who live, think, and breath MS user interface standards --
but I've gotten this reaction from some "civilians" too.

So, give WinHelp a good strong look, or investigate MS
MultiMedia Viewer toolkit (the way MS presents its info
CD's). And try giving some of your users a call to ask
for their opinions (you can get the names of registered
users from your tech support guys - they may even give
you the names of some who've commented on the documentation
before). Nothing impresses a customer like a call to ask
how we can do better -- they're usually more than happy
to tell ya! ;-)

Sue Gallagher
StarBase Corp,Irvine CA
sgallagher -at- starbasecorp -dot- com