Re: Technology needed for WebHelp used with service-based software

Subject: Re: Technology needed for WebHelp used with service-based software
From: Julie Stickler <jstickler -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 11:22:37 -0400

1 - Search is in the toolbar in the default Flare skins.
You can create links to see also topics, or use Relationship Tables to have
Flare generate them automatically.
Flare has breadcrumbs, and if you want to create browse sequences it
supports that too.
Flare can have full size images, or display thumbnails that you can click
to view full size.
By default Flare doesn't have a KnowledgeBase, but you can either link to
your own forum, or look into buying MadCap Pulse (which has some very cool
features).
Inserting links to forums and support is simple.

2 - Flare does have a master project feature, and it works rather well. At
my last gig I created a master project that linked almost 50 separate
projects. I wrote a script (easy peasy, I'm not a coder) that generated
each individual project, then generated the Master project. When you use
the Master project you get a combined TOC and a combined index. I was
actually surprised that it was relatively painless to do. Probably the only
issue that I ran into was realizing that if I wanted to create links
between topics in different projects, they had to be hard coded, because
relative links go one way. They can't point up the tree to the Master
project and then take a u-turn to go back into another child project. (I
only mention that because it took me a while to realize that. D'oh!).

Hope that helps!

On Fri, Sep 19, 2014 at 7:55 AM, Gillen, Lori <Lori -dot- Gillen -at- mckesson -dot- com>
wrote:

> Hi-
>
> My department wants to use Flare 10 to build an Online WebHelp system to
> use with service-based software. We want the landing page to be intuitive
> and interactive so that it will be a useful gateway to an equally intuitive
> Help system that contains all of our documentation.
>
> To make the landing page useful, we want to include the following
> information:
>
>
> * A prominent Search feature that returns meaningful results
>
> * Links to related/see-also topics
>
> * Orientation capabilities, such as breadcrumbs
>
> * Images to click for information or as part of procedural topics
>
> * A forum or knowledgebase for our customers
>
> * Links to other resources such as customer support and forums
>
> Our team agrees that the landing page accessed by the link below provides
> the type of design that we want to use for our own Help system.
>
> http://www.unidesk.com/support/learn/2.7.0/plan
>
> My questions are as follows:
>
>
> 1. Is Flare 10 capable of accomplishing all that we need for our new
> help system and if not, what additional technology do we need to use to
> create the kind of help we want?
>
>
>
> 2. Multiple writers will be working on individual parts of Help. Is
> Flare capable of merging individual projects together into one big Master
> Help system?
>
> Thank you,
>
> Lori Gillen
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> Read about how Georgia System Operation Corporation improved teamwork,
> communication, and efficiency using Doc-To-Help | http://bit.ly/1lRPd2l
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
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--
Julie Stickler
http://heratech.wordpress.com/
Blogging about Agile and technical writing

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Read about how Georgia System Operation Corporation improved teamwork, communication, and efficiency using Doc-To-Help | http://bit.ly/1lRPd2l

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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Technology needed for WebHelp used with service-based software: From: Gillen, Lori

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