[austechwriter] Re: HELP... MS HTML Help Vs RoboHelp or others

Hello Mike,

Wednesday, April 30, 2003, 4:33:37 PM, you wrote:
MOH> I was on the verge of ordering RoboHelp Office X3 International from
MOH> eHelp when a colleague asked; "why would you want to pay $1125 when you
MOH> can download MS HTML Help for FREE?" As I had never heard of MS HTML
MOH> Help, my answer was; "show me more."
MOH>
MOH> Now I am confused - the major difference seems to be the "add ons"
MOH> included with RoboHelp - things like RoboScreenCapture and WebHelp.
MOH>
MOH> Can anyone enlighten me as to the pitfalls of using MS HTML Help to
MOH> produce .chm's? BTW we will eventually provide F1 help too.

It basically comes down to "time = money". The MS HTML help compiler
is a bare bones product with nothing in the way of content or
structure management.

Lots of people (usually programmers) start off using the bare
compiler because it's free, but eventually switch to a proper
authoring tool in order to speed up the authoring process.

Most of the authoring tools have downloadable demos. It'll probably
take you a couple of days to figure out what is best for your
work flow. I'm guessing that your existing doco is in Word which
probably means that you'll be doing Word -> HTML -> CHM. Word's native
HTML export filter produces horrid looking HTML. You may be better off
using the Word import filter supplied with a proper help authoring
tool and then go from there.

Context sensitive help is no big deal. It's just a case of mapping
ID's. Some authoring tools integrate into the programming environment
better than others. For example, "Help and Manual" becomes part of the
Delphi IDE so you can write the help text for a GUI form while looking
at the form in design mode, even before the program has run. Visual
C++ is supported by most major help vendors. Again, it's a question of
looking at the demos and seeing what fits in to your work flow.

A word of caution, check the news groups and mailing lists of whatever
help tool you choose. You may find it better to pick up a slightly
older and less feature rich version of a product rather than the
latest and greatest version. Help authoring systems have a somewhat
checkered history when it comes to stability and timely release of bug
fixes. As a general rule, wait six months after a product has been
released before considering it for use in a mission critical doco
project.

If you are dealing with large projects (100's of pages), then stress
test the demos. If a particular demo is limited in the number of pages
it can do, then ask the vendor for an unlimited version. If the vendor
says "no", then move onto the next. There are several to choose from.

In my experience, the up front cost of an authoring tool is only a
small percentage of the total cost of ownership. The availability of
timely Bug fixes and peer to peer support are far more important in the
long run. I could delve into the politics of accountants, budgets,
fixed costs and "time = money" calculations, but I'll leave that alone...

Good luck !

Regards,
 Mike Buckler     
--

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