atw: Re: Microsoft online help
- From: "Suzy Davis" <suzy.davis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2011 09:19:08 +1000
Hi austechies
I've been away for a bit and have just come back.
I like the look of that product too.
I've been developing a Word-To-Web product for a while now, which allows you
to convert MS Word documents (ie a chapter of a book), into XHTML pages that
meet your website or intranet's HTML requirements.
I didn't develop it with Online Help in mind, but on reading this thread it
could be adapted or evolved in that way. I'd be interested in hearing from
anyone who is interested in this area about any frustrations you might have
with the available tools and what you would prefer.
Why did I write it? I realised that for my business to be successful I
needed to have a way of getting MS Word documents that provided step by step
instructions, brochures, etc, both into PDF format where they could be
emailed to someone, and also up on my website with little bother. I didn't
want to have a huge back log of documents waiting to be converted; and I
wanted everything to be concurrent.
I've set it up so that when you finish writing your chapter, or 2 page
instruction sheet etc in MS Word, you can convert it to PDF and it will
convert all the MS Word-to-Word document links to PDF-to-PDF links; and when
it converts to HTML, it converts it to true HTML (not MS Word HTML) which
you store in the document template's building. It then maps the Word styles
to HTML tags, and creates separate HTML page documents with Previous and
Next tags. And the idea is that it creates and HTML page that looks as good
as the PDF document; ie reflects your branding, and enables consistency of
branding message. Often an organisation's online documentation looks like
it has been created by a different company to their hard copy documentation.
(And I realise my website is not a good advertisement - I'm in the
development phase at the moment).
I'm at home in MS Word, and with some much documentation to look after I
just wanted it all to be in the same base format.
You can take a look at my first knowledge base drafts here -
http://www.createspace.com.au/Learn/appsEfficiencyKB/LearnMenuAE.html
It's still in beta - but thought it might be worth telling you about. I'm
aiming to keep my prices low - and expect it to retail around $150 per user
+ templates.
My next phase would be to run the program over a directory of documents and
it will create the higher level menu page/TOC as well.
I'm by no means an online Help technical writer - as a technical writer I
worked in the paper manual space mostly. But this discussion makes me
wonder how many of you are like me and would like to be able to manage your
documentation in the MS Word space - I probably should contact the EC
Software guys - who are doing what I would call a medium to high end online
help system, and see if I can build a Word addin for there tool. Is that
something that would be of use to people?
I would be interested in hearing about this - it might just be me but I
thought worth seeing if anyone else has an interest in this kind of thing,
and if so,what. J
Apologies if readers think this is a self promotion; it really isn't my
intention right now - I'd be waiting a few months until my product was at
least in its final development stages and a better advertisement for it
before I did that.
I am genuinely curious about what Help authors might want in this area.
Regards Suzy
Suzy Davis
Microsoft Word Templates, Apps for Microsoft Office
& Documentation Projects
www. <http://www.appsforoffice.com/> appsforoffice.com
(Melbourne) Australia
Email <mailto:suzy.davis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> suzy.davis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bob Trussler
Sent: Monday, 6 June 2011 1:08 AM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: Microsoft online help
In some govt departments, the access to the internet is restricted and this
can make searching for help quite annoying.
In these situations, help that is part of the product does work better, and
it actually works.
Bob T
On 2 June 2011 15:59, Howard Silcock <howard.silcock@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This looks really interesting. I hadn't heard about this product.
I am getting a bit tired of RoboHelp and have been wondering about other
options. I'd love to hear from you and any other users what your experiences
have been like with this or other products for producing online help.
Howard
On 2 June 2011 15:07, Peter Sanders <peter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi
One company that does use it's own product for help file production is Help
and Manual.
http://www.helpandmanual.com/
Their product is excellent and their own help file is a superb example of
software help. If you need to create documentation for software, this is
something you should consider.
I have met the Austrian based developer, he is very enthusiastic about his
help tool and he and others are very responsive to user questions and
feature requests.
Kind regards
Peter Sanders
Sent from my iPad
On 02/06/2011, at 9:39 AM, Howard Silcock <howard.silcock@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thank you to everyone who participated in this discussion. I hope it was
clear that I wasn't so much concerned about solving the specific problem I
mentioned (I found the answer easily enough) but more about the atrocious
quality of the online help. It surprises me that such a big company
apparently has no concern about putting out such rubbish under its name. In
general I agree with Christine about Microsoft's attitude, but wouldn't
agree that it's always been like that. Maybe my memories just go back
further. I remember getting a printed manual for an early version of Word
for the Mac in the '80s (I don't think there was much, if any, online help
then) and thinking how well it was done. (Ah, yes, the good old days!)
Mind you, the online help for Adobe products is even worse. It's
particularly noticeable with RoboHelp, which after all is supposed to be a
tool for creating online help. Ironically, they don't use their own product
to produce the online help, as far as I can see. But they do still produce a
PDF manual which you can download. You just have to be particularly
persistent to find where to download it from. And in the latest version
they've decided to dispense with the index,.
Howard
On 2 June 2011 10:42, LIVERANI Petra <Petra_LIVERANI@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I tend to find googling rather than using Help for any application the most
efficient way of getting "help". Googling will sometimes take me to online
Help in any case and when it does I feel it gets me to the Help item I want
faster than actually searching via the online Help - I can't prove it, just
a feeling.
Petra
Petra Liverani
Technical Writer / UX Designer
petra_liverani@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Transport Management Centre
Transport NSW
25 Garden St, Eveleigh NSW 2015 | PO Box 1625, Strawberry Hills NSW
2012
P: 8396 1617 | F: 8396 7950 | X: 81617
_____
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Howard Silcock
Sent: Wednesday, 1 June 2011 5:02 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Microsoft online help
Is it my imagination, or is Microsoft help getting worse and worse?
I need some information about Outlook 2010. Since Outlook 2010 features
'calendar groups' and they seem to be prominent in the menus, I thought I
could learn more about them by typing 'calendar group' into the help search
box. I've found the search pretty unhelpful in the past, but I thought if I
used the name of a major feature, surely I would find something. But the
list of topics returned was bizarre - most of them have nothing whatever to
do with calendars (or groups). For instance, why would it show me 'Keyboard
shortcuts for Outlook'?
I know I could probably find the information by a Google search, but what
surprises me is how a big company like Microsoft can let their online help
get so bad. Obviously they're not hiring too many technical writers!
Howard
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