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>>>However, our company was unable to use context-sensitive
>>>help. Blue-Sky
>>>bluntly told us that they don't support PowerBuilder
>>>applications.
<snip>
>>>(If anyone has been able to create
>>>context-sensitive
>>>help with RoboHELP and PowerBuilder, *without* developer
>>>assistance, please
>>>contact me offline.)
I think you need PB 6.5 to add context sensitivity to your applications. I
believe this was a PB limitation and not a RH one.
However, my company really did not invest in online help before I arrived,
and I switched them from RH (which I had used since just before version 4)
to WebWorks Publisher. Also, I made the switch to CHM help files from HLP
ones. My priority now is reducing the 12-month backlog of work so my CHMs
are not context sensitive now . . . they will be for future releases. Sorry
I couldn't help further.
>>>Second, our clients are not always PC literate. Our products are for
>>>attorneys and paralegals. Most attorneys have told us they
>>>prefer books to
>>>online doc. They are used to sifting through tomes and
>>>always print the
>>>online help, anyway. Feedback from our help desk has told us
>>>that many
>>>clients don't even know the online help exists! Feedback
>>>from our trainers
>>>strongly suggests that it's difficult enough to train the clients on
>>>automating their real estate closing transactions, much less
>>>train them to
>>>use the online help because it is *one more* piece of
>>>software! Some of our
>>>clients aren't even connected to the Internet, yet! Our
>>>clients run the
>>>gamut from needing basic Windows training while having heavy
>>>real estate
>>>closing experience to being new to the industry and being
>>>Windows/PC savvy.
>>>You get the point.
Thank you for reminding me to know my audience. Really, I obviously wrote my
last response without this important fact in mind.
However, the fact that many of the users are unaware that online help is
available might be a training issue. Further, while online help is truly one
more piece of software, for HLP and now CHM, as you an I know, Microsoft
includes that one-more-piece of software anyway. Again, can you address this
through training? Can your marketing folks get mileage out of advertising
"we have online help"? Furthermore, won't the Windoze/PC savvy folks be
looking for the online help anyway?
<snip>
>>>My job is to provide
>>>documentation
>>>that will quickly and easily help the clients use the
>>>application, so that
>>>they don't call the help desk every few minutes. I created a
>>>separate online
>>>help file for Frequently Asked Questions that is linked to
>>>the main online
>>>help file.
>>>
Since you provide training, can your trainers educate the clients about the
online help to cut down on support calls? I don't see eliminating online
help as being helpful to the goal of reducing support costs. If the online
help is unknown to the clients, difficult to use, or light on content (which
is not the case, it seems), then I can see how the online help doesn't. In
addition to featuring the online help in training, can you advertise it in
the troubleshooting and introduction sections of your books?
>>>I thank you for your advice and welcome all suggestions.
>>>
>>>Susana Rosend
