Re: On-line help tools for SGI

[Mysti Rubert <Mysti -at- SYBASE -dot- COM>]

We use DynaText in our online docs.  The biggest "gotcha" we have is the
handling of tables (can't be inline, I think) and especially graphics.  I
don't
know if its a clash between DynaText and Frame, or our particular
implementation
or what, but we have TWO versions of every frame graphic in each doc--one
for print, and one for online.

Icky.

What does SGI author in, especially the graphics?

Mysti
 ----------
From: TECHWR-L
To: Multiple recipients of list TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: On-line help tools for SGI
Date: Thursday, August 24, 1995 9:44AM

Monica Stein writes:
> Hello,

> I need to select an authoring tool to create on-line help and on-line
> documentation for our Unix based (SGI) products. Our printed documentation
set
> (approx. 3000 pages) is produced using Frame 4 on the SGI (I just received
the
> Frame 5 upgrade).  I have looked at HyperHelp, but was wondering whether
there
> were other tools that I was overlooking. I understand that Frame Viewer
could
> be a possibility, but it is a costly solution. I would appreciate hearing
your
> recommendations.


You might look at Electronic Book Technology's DynaText. I've just
started looking at it so I can't give a ton of detail. They have a
variety of tools that create SGML-base electronic docs.
The various tools create what they call "Dyna-books" from SGML, Frame
MIF files, RTF, and InterLeaf ASCII (is that different from regular
ASCII?). They have extensive and FAST search capabilities. You can
also customize the product to give it your company's look and feel.
Probably a key point for your situation is that DynaText is the
on-line tool used by SGI. If you look at SGI's on-line docs, you're
looking at DynaText. My understanding is that you could create your
books in DynaText and they could show up in with the on-line docs
already on the SGI machines.

Bad part - it looks a bit pricey to me, but I'm not sure what a
reasonable price is for this stuff.  Getting that integration with the
tools native to your supported platform might make it worth the cost.

If you're interested, you might check out http://www.ebt.com.

I also have a request. I want to also look at InfoAccess's Guide
Passport.  I know there have been a couple queries about this product
recently. I saw a demo at the STC conf, but I'd be interested to find
out the results of these recent queries. What do current user's think of
Guide Passport? If anyone has already looked at both Passport and
DynaText, I'd REALLY like to hear your opinions.


Sally Derrick
Tivoli Systems Inc.
sally -at- tivoli -dot- com