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.
John Bartol is producing a demo: <<This is to be used as a feature demo
for prospective clients rather than a procedural demo for existing
customers. Now, the system being shown is character-based and is *not*
'flashy'. The key features of the system lie in the reporting, database
management, and other tools. What I'd like to do is make a demo that
lets me 'transition' items into the display. For example, if showing a
feature that touts inventory tracking/ordering where there is static
information on a screen shot, and associated reports (and graphics),
I'd like to do something like: - show the screenshot - highlight the
key info on the screenshot and display callout text ("Look at the
wonderful info :-)") - fade in the report/graphic samples - go on to
the next point (either automagically or through keypress on button)>>
Sounds like Macromedia's Flash is exactly what you need. My former
employer did a bunch of this stuff, and with a little training, you can
accomplish surprisingly powerful results. With a lot of training, the
sky's the limit.
<<Overall, I'd like to have a screen that shows thumbnails for each
feature as the demo menu - click the appropriate thumbnail, jumps to
that demo portion.>>
If you want something bare bones (e.g., you don't have time to learn
Flash), try Powerpoint or any of its competitors. Most presentation
software allows hyperlinking to specific slides and between files (I
know PP does, and assume the competitors now do too), and most software
also allows you to perform more transition effects than any reasonable
person would want to do. <g> Combine this with transiations between
slides and you've got a surprisingly powerful way to produce a demo.
WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word features support for every major Help
format plus PDF, HTML and more. Flexible, precise, and efficient content
delivery. Try it today!. http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
Doc-To-Help includes a one-click RoboHelp project converter. It's that easy. Watch the demo at http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList
