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Re: Managing one set of help files for multiple products
Subject:Re: Managing one set of help files for multiple products From:"Trudy Evans" <tevans -at- actrix -dot- gen -dot- nz> To:"TECHWR-L" <TECHWR-L -at- LISTS -dot- RAYCOMM -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 12 Nov 1999 22:40:08 +1300
Ann,
We are using a tool call AuthorIT. It can do what you want and it only
costs $US99.00. It will import all you RTF files and manage them properly.
AuthorIT uses an Object Oriented approach to creating hard copy, Windows
95/98/NT on-line Help, HTML Help, and HTML pages from a single source while
still retaining the specific features and characteristics of each media.
This means that you enter and format the information once and only once, to
get all four forms of documentation. It also means that you can share the
common components (topics, graphics, links, index entries, etc) between
your different versions and only include the specific differences.
For more information on AuthorIT, you can visit the AuthorIT website http://www.author-it.com. You can also download a free trial version and
try it out for yourself.
Regards
Trudy
ann -dot- firth -at- marcam -dot- com wrote in message <27708 -at- techwr-l>...
>
>
>
>Currently we have one set of help files (generated from .RTF files) for our
>product. A new product is being added which is a scaled-down version of the
>current product. Of the information that is common to the two products,
most can
>stay as-is. Some information needs to be edited and some removed.
>
>While under an extremely tight deadline we were able to produce help for
the new
>product using the existing files. However, there is much we'd like to do to
>improve it. We produced the new help by (a) highlighting text not needed
and
>then running a macro to strip it out and create a new set of files, along
with
>(b) removing files from CNTs and the batch file used to build the help.
>
>Question: Are there others of you out there, maintaining help for more than
one
>version of the same product? Are you able to do so with one set of files
and
>still stay sane (seriously folks)? If anyone is maintaining duplicate file
sets,
>I'd like to hear from you too, to see how you do it.
>
>Our current tools are: MS Word 7.0 and MS Help Workshop 4.0. We are open to
>investigating other tools if they will help simplify our situation.
>
>Please respond to me directly, to reduce the amount of traffic to the list.
>
>Thanks in advance for your help,
>Ann Firth
>ann -dot- firth -at- marcam -dot- com
>
>
>
>
