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Re: Queries on Single Sourcing

Subject: Re: Queries on Single Sourcing
From: Peter Neilson <neilson -at- alltel -dot- net>
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 01:02:19 -0500

On Fri, 13 Feb 2004 10:19:25 +0530, <Anagha -dot- Mulay -at- smartstream-stp -dot- com> wrote:

For our software product, we generate an online help file as well as
a printed manual. We plan to implement single sourcing. Can you
suggest which is the best tool? FM + Webworks or RoboHelp + Word

Philosophically, there should be a substantial difference between
the manual and the help file. "Help" should be concise and oriented
towards solving a problem. The manual should perhaps be tutorial or
comprehensive, or both. The user who gets a portion of the manual as
"help" feels like the little girl asking about elephants:

"Mommy, please tell me about elephants."

"Why don't you go ask your father?"

"Mommy, I don't want to know THAT MUCH about elephants!"

The last time I worked on help files, we faked them by a kind of
single sourcing. The feeling was that the competition had a help
system and we did not, but that the effort to make good help was
too great. So instead we made a useless "help" that looked good
in a bullet list of features, but served no purpose if someone
actually tried to use it. I spent two weeks fighting the decision,
trying to explain that one week of my time was all that was needed.
Then I gave up. Portions of the manual, not my well-crafted help
files, were shipped. That company is now long gone, but I'm still
around. Does that mean I won?




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References:
Queries on Single Sourcing: From: Anagha . Mulay

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