Re: On-line help applications (Word)

[David Mitchell <mitchell -at- SOLAR -dot- SKY -dot- NET>]

>>> I have been asked to place a 750 page document on-line for a
>>> company [...author in Word...good interface...hyperlinking...
>>> 1000 people using]

>> I've just finished writing a manual in Word, that I then put into Notes...

> Yes, but do your users then have to have Lotus Notes to view them? [...]
> We've bandied around Envoy and Acrobat

We did a test for a 700 page programmers manual.  The programmers did
not like the Acrobat interface.  We are right now producing the files
in Word and distributing them as Word files.  Clients can either use
Word, the Word Viewer, Word Pad, or another tool to import.

Word and the free Word Viewer both support hyperlinking through
GOTOBUTTON fields.  You also get full text search, TOCs, and
indexing.  They are easy to print and you can control the layout.

You may run into size problems.  I haven't tried hyperlinking across
files.  Writing extensions in WordBasic would not seem to tricky.

If clients use Word, you can provide button bars and custom dialog
boxes for navigation.

If the client hates Word or the Word Viewer, he can get an import
filter and use another tool.  The hyperlinking would probably fall
apart, however.

For information on implementing this technique, look at the Hacker's
Guide to Word for Windows by Woody Leonhard.  He describes a
technique that can be adapted called DocCruiser.  Also see the Word
Help on the GOTOBUTTON field




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