Software question? (one tool to rule them all, one tool to find t hem...)

Subject: Software question? (one tool to rule them all, one tool to find t hem...)
From: "Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 15:40:47 -0400

Stacy Camacho wonders: <<Is there one software tool that can be used for
developing printed manuals that can easily be converted to PDF and online
help? ... Currently we are using MS Word to create printed manuals and the
online help
is being hard-coded in html.>>

Any of the main writing tools can do this, but with greater or lesser ease.
If you're using Word, RoboHelp or Doc-to-Help would be the add-on tool you
need to use to accomplish this goal; I find RoboHelp to be a better-designed
tool if you're specifically creating help files, but Doc-to-Help is arguably
the better tool if you're just trying to dump a printed manual online as a
help file (and has a well-reviewed product called "smooth scaling" that lets
you resize screenshots without destroying their legibility). If you're using
Frame, WebWorks Publisher seems to be the tool of choice. Both combinations
let you produce HTML Help easily (which seems to be what you're aiming for)
and both work just fine with Adobe Acrobat to produce PDF files.

But (and it's a biggie), the question you need to ask first is whether it's
really a good idea to try this kind of single-sourcing; the content,
purpose, and details of online help are dramatically different from those of
printed manuals, and it's generally a mistake to try producing one file that
does both. We've discussed this many times on techwr-l, so have a look at
the archives for details.

--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
"User's advocate" online monthly at
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