Re: Navigation in pdf/NetHelp

[Bill Bledsoe <bill -dot- bledsoe -at- CMS-STL -dot- COM>]

Michel,

a couple more comments below...

Michel Vallee wrote:
>
> Right, it was here and now at the Winhelp Conference in May
> (or was it April?) 1996, when Microsoft announced the death
> of Winhelp, and that HTML-Help would be there... I don't remember
> when, it was supposed to be here some time ago anyway :>|.

Actually, Microsoft said specifically in their announcement "way back
then" that they would NOT be getting rid of RTF-based help for a long
while!

> But then,
> about Netscape Help... did you, or would you use it for your customers?

A resounding yes... not all of us are using Win95 on a Pentium.  Our
product runs on, and will continue to run on for a long period of time,
a UNIX platform. Nothing MS does is an option for me in terms of our
users.

> Now maybe (probably ) I'm gonna look the greatest fool that ever
> breathed on this planet, but I still have to *see* a document using
> Netscape Help with popups, contents, and an index... I use Netscape
> Navigator v3.0 (and I confess it's an old version 3.0), and there's no
> popup whatsoever anywhere to be seen, especially not under the
> Help option (not that there are no opportunities to use them). Now
> I don't have the Gold option, and God forgive me for my ignorance
> if I'm wrong :< )).

We're rolling out NetHelp with all of the features you mentioned, plus
more, in about four weeks. (Wahoo!)  And that is for Netscape 1.0
NetHelp.  We've had to build our own JavaScript based Index and Search
Engine, but we really haven't had that difficult of a time doing it.

And in NetHelp 2.0 (Which you can see in the released version of NS
Communicator today), those things are built for you with some handy
utilities from NS.  We'll have our project moved over to NS NetHelp 2.0
by Christmas.

> The truth is, you are a technical writer, you work for an IS company,
> people who ought to know no technology lasts very long these days,
> they still expect you to provide them with a "permanent" solution
> for documentation.

Well I will say that your documentation is only as permanent as the
software... and with release schedules accelerated from once a year to
once a quarter (or even Monthly in some cases!) I don't think that
document permanence is the issue with an online document.  Just like
software, interface consistency and usability become very important.

> They never heard of Netscape Help (of course
> they don't know about HTML-Help either), and you're gonna have
> a very hard time convincing them to adopt it, and if you do convince
> them, pray God that it lasts many years, and if it does not, that
> the conversion to HTML-Help is not too painful, $$$-ly speaking.
> The truth is most people who know about these Help offerings
> agree Nescape Help won't survive long after HTML-Help is born.

I REALLY have to differ here.  As soon as Big Bill has MS Internet
Exploder running on all UNIX platforms, I can maybe "think" about
HTMLHelp, but the truth of the matter is, given the underpinnings of
MSIE, and HTMLHelp's reliance on non-standard technology like Active X,
I don't think it'll ever be an option for:

UNIX Machines
JavaStations
Network Computers (NC's)

At least in the next 3 years or so..

>
> p.s.: Thank you for your comments, Bill.

no problem... always glad to chime in on a Hazy Monday morning, in St.
Louis.... where we're still waiting for Sir Dick of El Segundo to bestow
upon us, some more words of wisdom

cheers,
--
****************************************************
Bill Bledsoe
Senior Technical Writer - CMS
Bill -dot- Bledsoe -at- cms-stl -dot- com or intlidox -at- anet-stl -dot- com

Prediction 4
"The people who are studying Tai Chi Chuan instead
of saving money are planning to beat us up and take
our stuff when we've retired"

Scott Adams - The Dilbert Future
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