creating help files for application

[hawkieboy]

Hi

I am looking for suggestions on what kind of software is out there to assist with creating help files to be used with my applications.

I imagine that there are several applications out there so pointing me to the advantages of each kind would be of great help.

The kind of stuff that will need to be in the help files is text,screen shots etc

Nick

your help and advice is appreciated

 

[ChrisRChamberlain]

hawkieboy

HTML Help is a free Microsoft application which should meet your requirements.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...tmlhelp/html/hwMicrosoftHTMLHelpDownloads.asp

FAQ184-2483 - the answer to getting answered.​

Chris

 

[Mike Gagnon]

hawkieboy

These might help you:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...s/fox7help/html/dgcreating_graphical_help.asp

http://www.west-wind.com/wwHelp/

http://www.interdata.nl/uk/products/robohelp.html

Mike Gagnon

If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ184-2483 first.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Hawkieboy,

In addition to the good advice you have already been given, you might want to look at the HTML Help Workshop, which comes with VFP.

It is not a help authoring tool. You create your help pages as ordinary web pages, using your favourite web authoring tool. But the Help Workshop will tie them all together into a single CHM file, and help you create a table of contents, index, etc.

Mike


Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk

 

[hawkieboy]

Thanks all for the replys just another question i tried out html help workshop and created a dummy .htm in word.

what i did was put a couple of lines of text and inserted an image then saved it as a html file. I then attached it to my help project and clicked view compiled help after compiling it, when it came to viewing the file i could see the text but not the image(the usual little red cross in the top left hand corner). Any sugesstions.

thanks
Nick

your help and advice is appreciated

 

[ShyFox]

It's something about the path to that picture. I remember that long ago I did something like that and it ain't worked. Also, the formatting counts.
Why don't make a sketch of how should look your page, create it in ... I always forget that program from Office made to create html files, and look into the code and try to transfer itt into workshop.
I really don't work with workshop but I make a set of html files that I deliver to the costumer with my application.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Hawkieboy,

Check the HTML source code. Look at the <img> tag for the image. The src attribute will tell you the path and filename. Don't forget that this is a relative path (relative to the path of the root file in the help project).

Mike


Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk

 

[wgcs]

I'd challenge Mike's statement that HTML Help Workshop &quot;is not a help authoring tool&quot;...

Originally, our help was stored in Foxpro DBF help files, using the Foxpro DOS help system; I wrote a small quick&dirty utility to convert the DBF into a bunch of HTML files for the help workshop to use...

..But ever since, the only thing I ever use is HTML Help Workshop for authoring our help. I believe that clean and neat HTML is best for help files, because it is easy to read, and is smaller to distribute. Using MS Word, or even Frontpage, will give you bloated html files that, as you've found out, may even fall apart as you try to move them around.

HTML Help Workshop comes with a nice HTML reference file that is very useful for remembering exactly what those tags were on < TABLE >, etc.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Wgcs,

I'd challenge Mike's statement that HTML Help Workshop &quot;is not a help authoring tool&quot;...

Well, it depends on what you mean by authoring tool.

I meant that it does not help with actually creating the HTML pages, in the way that Frontpage does. On the other hand, I suppose it does help with the overall authoring process, so on that basis I accept your point.

Mike


Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk

 

[wgcs]

I'm sorry for being a little ornery...

Saturday, after installing a DVD player, my Win2k machine started BSOD'ing on every boot, even when trying to boot into Safe Mode or Safe Mode Command Prompt Only....

Today I'm rebuilding my machine...

 

[Mike Lewis]

Wgcs,

I'm sorry for being a little ornery...

I didn't notice it.
Hope you get your machine back on the air soon.

Mike


Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk