Re: Help tool and training

["Wing, Michael J" <mjwing -at- INGR -dot- COM>]

Paul;

My first question is do you need a Help Authoring Tool at all?  I've tried
an assortment of HATs and always found them too constraining.  Thus, I've
worked all my projects HATless and developed my own macros to perform
redundant tasks.

If you are only producing help files, the focus should be on mastering RTF
and WinHelp (assuming you are working WinHelp) instead of learning a tool
that manipulates them for you.  Therefore, if troubleshooting and
customization is required, you work directly with the source (instead of
through an interface).  Thus, you remove one layer of troubleshooting (is it
a WinHelp, RTF, or HAT problem?).  My suggestion is to first to try to work
the RTF files without a HAT.

Mike

Michael Wing (mailto:mjwing -at- ingr -dot- com)
Principal Technical Writer
Intergraph Corporation; Huntsville, Alabama
http://www.ingr.com/iss/products/mapping/

"Humpty was pushed!"


> A co-worker will shortly be inheriting an online help project that was
> created by someone in a different company. The goal is to update and
> recompile the entire project. The fly in this particular ointment is
> twofold:
>
> 1) The original help file was created with Doc2Help, but we do not have
> any Help Authoring Tool currently onsite, which leads to...
>
> 2) The "newbie" factor. My co-worker has never created online help, and
> she is unsure of which HAT to use, or what the learning curve is.
>
> As always, I thank you all in advance for your shared wisdom,
>
> Paul
>