Re: Online Help Questions

["Martin, Chuck" <chuckm -at- EVOLVESOFTWARE -dot- COM>]

Two basic guidelines:

*       the space on your distribution media
*       the space on your users' hard drives

These days, the first one is of little consequence, especially with good
Help design. The second is simply a consideration that all developers
should consider--but usually don't. One of the biggest causes of Help
file bloat: unneeded graphics. Also, in a WinHelp system, placing
graphics into the source document rather than referencing them will
cause file bloat.

As far as archiving: all your source files. You don't need to archive
any database files generated by your Help tool because if they get lost,
they will simply be rebuilt automatically. Ideally, you'd use the same
source code system as the rest of your development team so all the
necessary files will be integrated for all your product builds.

--
"You don't look American."
"Everyone looks American, because Americans are from everywhere."

- Doonesbury
Chuck Martin, Technical Writer
Evolve Software                  | Personal
chuckm -at- evolvesoftware -dot- com        | writer -at- grin -dot- net
www.evolvesoftware.com           | www.grin.net/~writer

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mary Beth Fowler [SMTP:U0016471 -at- HONMFG -dot- COM]
> Sent: Thursday, November 13, 1997 6:16 AM
> To:   TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject:      Online Help Questions
>
>      We are in the process of setting up standards for our online help
>      systems. I have questions in two areas.  Any input would be
>      appreciated . . .
>
>      1. We're thinking about a guideline to delimit the size of help
> files.
>      Any ideas for file size considerations, either of the source file
> or
>      the .HLP file?
>
>      2. We need a tool to archive our help systems. Have you used a
> good
>      one? Which of the many Windows help files generated do you
> archive?
>
>      Thanks!
>
>      Mary Beth Fowler
>      Honda, Tech Writer
>      U0016471 -at- honmfg -dot- com
>
>
> ~~
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