RE: What would replace WebHelp?

Subject: RE: What would replace WebHelp?
From: "McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>
To: John G <john -at- garisons -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2011 11:02:34 -0400


> From: vwritert -at- gmail -dot- com [mailto:vwritert -at- gmail -dot- com] On Behalf Of John G

> I have been using Dreamweaver to create Help since 2001 ... if it can be done in HTML, it can be done using Dreamweaver.

> It satisfies all of your criteria except maybe the last one - I don't and won't use frames, so not sure about that.

> Using DW allows you virtually infinite creativity ...  think of a help system as a help web instead of Web Help.

> My 2¢,


I came from a mostly FrameMaker background, creating PDF docsets,
and only fell into WebHelp about 7 years ago when our little
company was bought by a bigger company that did WebHelp using
RoboHelp.

Shortly after, they/we were bought by a bigger company that
let the divisions continue whatever documentation types and
tools they'd been using. When RoboHelp began looking like
it was abandoned, I switched to Flare - which also became
the standard non-Word tool for the company.

So I have no background with Dreamweaver or other
general-purpose site/page tool for creating help.
I've used Compozer and other tools to create and re-work
web pages (along with Blue Griffon and some others,
and good old Notepad++), but it's not the same of course.

Anyway, the important part of the criterion that you
mention was not that it used frames, but that it
gave the user a decent suite of navigation tools,
including ToC, Search, linked Glossary, Index, breadcrumbs,
etc... and that it did so without need for a server.

No doubt DreamWeaver lets you do all that with your
eyes closed, but since I already had a company-paid
tool, I haven't needed to learn DreamWeaver.
Might be worth a look, though.

Do you have a public example someplace that I could
look at?

Published output has to live on customer's local drive,
and be accessible offline whether they are using Windows,
Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, or AIX computers.
You copy a bunch of files to your computer (or just
pop in the DVD and cd to that drive) and you double-click
one file (say, for example, "startpage.htm"), and your
default browser opens a comprehensive help system.
For bonus points, it could also be tied into a
GUI application for context sensitivity, but standalone
is the primary need right now. No server.

- kevin

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Follow-Ups:

References:
What would replace WebHelp?: From: McLauchlan, Kevin
Re: What would replace WebHelp?: From: John G

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