On-line help - programmer's involvement

[Jill Scudamore <jillian -at- YORKU -dot- CA>]

I work for a large University which has recently finished the
implementation cycle for our new Student Information System. The
programming team has moved into a maintenance phase, and no new
upgrades are expected for quite some time.

I'm starting to investigate the possibilities of implementing
on-line help and context sensitive help. In order for my proposal to
be accepted, I need to provide an estimate of the amount of time
that the programmers will need to work with my files in order to
integrate them into the applications.

Since I have never produced this type of documentation, I'm
completely in the dark. DO the programmers have to work some magic
on my files? If yes, is it a five minute job? Or is this a major
project? The on-line help will be loosely based on my 400 page
manual, so there will be quite a large number of topics.

Unfortunatly, I don't know which tools I'll be using yet, so I can't
give you much information. I do know that I'll be writing the
documentation on Frame 5.5. I'm assuming that I'll be using RoboHELP
also.

Thank you in advance for any information.

Jill.

Jill Scudamore
SIS Training Coordinator
Office of the Registrar
York University
North York, Ontario

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