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Subject:Re: help:maps on line From:Jane Bergen <janeb -at- ANSWERSOFT -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 20 Sep 1996 11:01:24 +0600
On 20 Sep 96, Marilyn Barrett O'Leary wrote:
> Hi everyone:
> We are trying to develop a clickable map pinpointing zebra
> mussel
> locations in the southern region. To be useful to our audience
> (industries etc)the map should first present an overview of the
> region, and then the user needs to be able to click on a specific
> area within a specific state, gettingan enlargement and more detail.
> We want to get quite specific -- the river mile, the lake, the
Marilyn,
The first question to answer is how this will be distributed. Are you
planning to make this part of an application (such as a help file?)
or a web site (HTML page?). I can see this kind of application
working very well for either one, but the distribution will help
determine the authoring tool.
You could have a "bird's eye view" map with hot spots. When the user
clicks a hot spot (such as a particular site on the map), a new,
more detailed graphic opens. It could be telescoped down to great
detail and you could also include pages with statistics.
If you are planning to send this to customers without a software
program, a stand-alone help file would work nicely. To create a help
file, you can use Doc-to-Help, RoboHelp, or other tools. Yes, there
are also shareware help authoring tools, but I don't know how
successful they'd be at a project like this. I use Doc-to-Help and it
could do this very nicely.
If you want your users to see this set of map pages on the WWW, you
might want to look at some of the HTML authoring tools, and there are
MANY.... just pick up a computer magazine or cruise by a bookstore or
computer store. You can even find some shareware HTML editors.
Hope this helps you.
Jane Bergen
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jane Bergen, Technical Writer
janeb -at- answersoft -dot- com
AnswerSoft, Inc.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
