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We use HDK help authoring to create a series of help files that are linked
together for purposes of creating a global Contents and Index. In HDK, you
designate one help file as the master file and all others as the "slave"
files. We can link topics from one help file to another. The separate help
files are transparent to the user of the help system - it looks like one
help file.
Nancy Burns
Senior Technical Writer
Breault Research Organization (BRO)
nburns -at- breault -dot- com http://www.breault.com
----------
> At 04:31 PM 9/12/97 -0400, Aaron Morrison wrote:
>
> >Our company maintains several software products, all of which can work
> >in conjunction with the "parent" product. However, some of those
> >products can also work on a standalone basis. Our dilemma is that when
> >these products work together, they share certain processes.
> >We want to be able to link each of the products together so you can find
> >help on a certain topic without having to go into the other product and
> >access Help.
> >
> >Our question is how we should structure our Help Files:
> >One Help/multiple .RTFs
> >Or
> >Multiple Help files.
Responded to by: Stephen Forrest <techwriter -at- IBM -dot- NET> on 9/12/97:
>
> One major drawback to multiple help files is that when you do an index
> search from within a help file, you only have access to the index for the
> help file you are in. Topics in the other help files can easily be linked
to
> but they cannot be searched for.
>
> I suggest you do modular documentation so that the appropriate nuggets
can
> be assembled in the help file for each of your product distributions.
>
>
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