Re: Help for Windows

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

> I am new to tech writing (actually, I do project management and someone on
> this project didn't want to pay the money for a professional, so I got the
> job), and am trying to learn ForeHelp.  I have only the demo copy right now.
>  Is there anything like - oh,...a user guide, etc. to facilitate the
> learning curve?  Also, I will be evaluating RoboHelp soon.  What are the
> differences (and similarities) between the two?  The pros and cons of each?

> KEG
> keg0 -at- atsoaa1 -dot- em -dot- cdc -dot- gov

Actually, ForeHelp is probably the best tool for you to
use in your situation -- And, yes, the real product does
come with a pretty good user guide and sample application
for you to play with.

The advantage that ForeHelp has over RoboHelp is that
it is much more wysiwyg -- it hides all the codes and
footnotes from your prying eyes and presents each topic
that you create in a window that looks almost exactly like
a help window. When you insert a graphic in ForeHelp, you
see the graphic, not the .rtf graphic notation (e.g.
{bml icon.bmp} which means insert the bitmap file icon.bmp
and left align it).

RoboHelp allows you to work in Word, so if you're a WordWiz
you'll appreciate having your favorite editing commands
available, but it looks like Word, not like Help, and when
you insert a graphic you see the graphic notation, not the
picture. However, RoboHelp lets you bypass the user-friendly
dialog boxes and get down and dirty with the guts of the .rtf
file. I like this, because I know what I'm doing with .rtf
guts ;-), but other writers have run screaming from the
room when I start messin' with footnotes.

So, for your first help project, I recommend ForeHelp. If
you make this a career move and decide that you want to learn
more about what makes help run, there's time enough to switch.

Hope this helps.

Sue Gallagher
sgallagher -at- starbasecorp -dot- com