Hatrack River Forum: Creating Help Files

This is topic Creating Help Files in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :

Has anyone done this? If so, what software do you recommend for creating them?

I have an assignment at work to create help files for our new software. We laid off our documentation department last year, and since I'm not on-site at a customer location this week I have time to do some documentation. I've never created help files, though I have written user documentation before. Before I get very far, I'd like to make sure I am making good formating choices, which means I should look at how to create the end files.

Any recommendations?

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

Long time ago, I used Doc2Help. It worked OK, but I didn't need any very fancy features.

I can't speak to current versions of the software, or its main competitor at the time - RoboHelp.

Dagonee

Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :

RoboHelp

Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :

Why Kat? I'm downloading a trial version, but if you use it, I'd be interested to hear why you like it.

Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :

What kind of help are you creating? I am assuming it is electronic help.

I like that you can create many different end kinds of help from one project, including written documentation. I like the extra features and tools, the stability, how it handles the basic functions, and, and this makes sense, they have incredible support and help for it. I use it to create the electronic help for all our projects, including the web applications.

I'd send you a link, but it's all internal use.

Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :

Yeah, electronic help, like the type you press F1 and it pops up. Our last documentation manager loved PDF's, but from a user standpoint, PDFs are a pain when you're looking for something specific. So I'd like to stay away from PDF or HTML help files, and end up with Windows Help files.

Thanks for the recommendation. [Smile]

Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :

windows help files are basically html files (though in a compiled form, I think) iirc, but I understand what you mean [Wink]

Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :

My pleasure. [Smile]

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

Go with kat's reccomendation - we looked into it and it looked good. Plus, you can get help from her. [Smile]

Dagonee

Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :

Thanks kat, Dagonee. I downloaded it and it's cool. The pricetag is a bit high, but if it's so easy to use that all of us in Implementation can do it, I figure it's worth it. 'Course, it's not my money... [Smile]

Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :

*nods*

RoboHelp is close to what you might call the industry standard. It's a good choice.