Re: Online help tools

["W. Michaels" <stinky5 -at- TELEPORT -dot- COM>]

Following a short thread from last week:
I used to use the MS Help Authoring tools; I had complete control of how the
end product looked and how the jumps worked. But it is tedious and
time-consuming. To replace it, I choose DocToHelp based on previous
discussions on this list (and price, compared to RoboHelp). But I feel
ambivalent toward DocToHelp.

With DocToHelp, I save a lot of time with how the document is converted and
how the footnote codes automatically build.  But before the conversion, I
have to figure out how to change my manual's styles to the DocToHelp styles
so that the conversion is smooth. That's tedious; I feel like I'm studying
some alien thing - 'if I poke that, does this light up?'

I'm sticking with DocToHelp because I have most of these wierd things
figured out. But is there a more straight-forward Tool, similarly priced? I
guess what I'd rather do is to tell the Tool, 'do this with these styles,
and do that with those' (Maybe I should write my own conversion macros - has
anyone done that?)

James mentioned a product called: Guide Passport. How does this convert your
existing manuscript?

I'd like to know a bit more about how other tools work compared with MS Help
Authoring and DocToHelp. Email off-list is okay.  :)

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W. Michaels  :  stinky5 -at- teleport -dot- com
Michaels Documentation Services