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Subject:Re: Hosted Help - server specs? From:Julie Stickler <jstickler -at- gmail -dot- com> To:Hannah Drake <hannah -dot- drake -at- formulatrix -dot- com> Date:Wed, 4 Dec 2013 14:57:34 -0500
Ah, I should probably mention that we have a web application. (and I've
worked on Web applications my entire career). That could be one reason why
I've never produced a CHM file outside of school work. =P
On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 2:53 PM, Hannah Drake
<hannah -dot- drake -at- formulatrix -dot- com>wrote:
> We do, because of the first issue I mentioned -- half of our customers are
> online, half aren't (they don't have to be for some of our products) and
> some have very conservative IT people who don't like programs accessing the
> internet.
> CHMs seem easier to package than webhelp. But maybe there is something I
> don't know? It was the format they used when I got here in Jan, and I'm a
> newb to TW tools. I also assumed webhelp was meant to be hosted on a
> website.
>
> However, we are kicking around the idea of producing webhelp
> for at least one of our products
> (I also use Flare).
>
> Hannah L. Drake
>
> On 12/4/2013 2:49:24 PM, Julie Stickler <jstickler -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> Also I find it kind of interesting that you talk about "the traditional
> CHM" as backup.
>
> I've been a technical writer for over a dozen years now, and I've never
> produced a CHM file. I've always produced some flavor of WebHelp. Are
> people still producing CHM files? (not to derail my own topic, but I'm
> curious).
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 2:11 PM, Hannah Drake wrote:
>
> > 1) Are all of your customers hooked up to the Internet? any
> high-security
> > customers? These kinds of things can cause hosted "help" problems.
> > 2) Most companies that have online help also do the traditional CHM as a
> > backup, so you can't completely get rid of in-product help.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 1:31 PM, Julie Stickler wrote:
> >
> >> I've had several requests from various product managers about moving
> from
> >> having our Help files built into the product to having our Help and
> >> documentation hosted on a Web site somewhere. I'd love to make this
> >> change, because Release Notes are always changing up to the very last
> >> minute, and then we have to rebuild the installer and run through the
> QA
> >> test suite again. Decoupling the doc deliver from the builds would have
> >> so
> >> many benefits for not just our process, but would allow me to make doc
> >> updates as needed (vs. on the release schedule).
> >>
> >> I've got several ideas about how to go about this, but before I head
> down
> >> to talk to IT about getting server space, I thought I'd tap the
> collective
> >> brain power of TechWrl and see if there's anything I haven't thought
> of,
> >> or
> >> good advice from the TW brain trust.
> >>
> >> Anyone made the move to Hosted docs? Have any lessons learned to share?
> >> Success stories? Horror stories? Stuff you wish you'd done differently?
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Julie Stickler
> >> http://heratech.wordpress.com/
> >> Blogging about Agile and technical writing
> >>
> >>
> >> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> >> New! Doc-to-Help 2013 features the industry's first HTML5 editor for
> >> authoring.
> >>
> >> Learn more: http://bit.ly/ZeOZeQ
> >>
> >> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> >>
> >> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as
> hannah -dot- drake -at- formulatrix -dot- com -dot-
> >>
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> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Hannah L. Drake
> > Lead Technical Documentation Specialist
> > Formulatrix, Inc.
> >
> > 781-788-0228 x137 (office)
> > 617-610-6456 (cell)
> > hannah.drake.formulatrix (skype)
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Julie Stickler
>http://heratech.wordpress.com/
> Blogging about Agile and technical writing
>
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> New! Doc-to-Help 2013 features the industry's first HTML5 editor for
> authoring.
>
> Learn more: http://bit.ly/ZeOZeQ
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as hannah -dot- drake -at- formulatrix -dot- com -dot-
>
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
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>
> Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
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>
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>
> Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public
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>
