TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
RoboHelp is designed strictly to produce WinHelp--online help for the
Windows operating system.
I understand you're not particularly interested in HTML, but this may be
your best option. You *can* use RoboHelp to create an HTML version (not
HTMLHelp) of online help. This is called WebHelp. I have converted Winhelp
files to "webhelp" files to run on Unix.
Please note that HTMLHelp is not cross-platform at all. HTMLhelp, a
Microsoft creation, is designed to run on IE4 *only*. (Note: when I was
exploring this several months ago, there was no IE version that could run on
Unix, only Netscape.) If you've seen any HTMLHelp files, the TOC/Index on
the left is created with an ActiveX control (strictly IE4 compatible). What
Blue Sky did was create a version of HTMLhelp, utilizing a java applet for
the TOC/Index rather than ActiveX so that it could be viewed in Navigator as
well as IE. It looks very similar to HTMLhelp.
Note: I had pretty good luck converting WinHelp files to WebHelp, although
it was not a very smooth process, mainly because I knew very little about
HTMLHelp at the time. I understand it is easier to convert to HTMLHelp
first and then to WebHelp.
Sella Rush mailto:sellar -at- apptechsys -dot- com
Applied Technical Systems (ATS)
Bremerton, Washington
Developers of the CCM Database