Re: Multiple RoboHelp Help Files

Subject: Re: Multiple RoboHelp Help Files
From: bkane -at- ARTISOFT -dot- COM
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 12:26:36 MTN

Aaron Morrison wrote <snip>:

Our question is how we should structure our Help Files:
One Help/multiple .RTFs
Or
Multiple Help files.

I say go for the multiple Help files.

I posed a very similar problem to the list a month or two ago. We have a
software product that has several modules, and users can install only one,
all 13 or any combination of the 13.

The problems this presented were:
- We didn't want users to be able to see Help topics for modules
they didn't install.
- We also wanted the users to be able to get to the Help for all
modules they did install from the same Help window.

We're now using a process that REALLY WORKS well (it's NOT a
Master.cnt file)! This takes a little time to set up, but it's
not technically difficult, and it is worth it. But I don't
think you'll find this technique in the RoboHELP docs.

Here's how we did it in RoboHELP 4.0:

1. Create one Help project (hpj) for every module of your
application. Each of those projects can have as many files as it
needs, such as the introductory doc, the howto.doc and screens.doc
for context-sensitive Help.

2. After creating topics, go to the Contents Composer and set up
Contents within each Help project.

3. Create an additional Help project as your central hpj. I'll
refer to it as the Main.hpj.

Important: Put ALL of these Help projects and their docs in the
same folder. This looks like a mess, but you have to do it.

4. In the doc file for the Main hpj, put generic introductory
topics that will work for every scenario -- whether they've
installed one or all modules. At the very least, you could throw
in the obligatory "how to use the online Help" topic.

5. Set up Contents for this Main.hpj as well.

6. Using Windows Notepad, open the .hpj file for every Help project
except the Main.hpj and scroll to the Options section. Add the line
CNT=MAIN.CNT (where MAIN.CNT is the file name of the .cnt file for
your "main" Help project).

7. Now open the Main hpj and open the Contents Composer. From the
Contents menu, select Add External CNT file. Use Browse to select
all the other .cnt files. This ensures that the Main (combined)
Contents page appears whenever Help Topics is called by the user
from whatever topic in whatever .hlp file.

8. As for links/jumps: You can use jumps only when they refer to
topics that are located within the same Help project, but you
can't use them between projects in this modular application
scenario. In order to be able to jump from a topic in one Help
project to a topic in another project, you must use A-link
keywords. (More on this later.)

9. Now you will set up the Help Contents window's Index tab entries
and A-links to include all topics from all installed Help files. To
do this, go to the Main.hpj, open Contents Composer, and from the
Contents menu, select Setup.

- Click the Index button and Browse to Add each additional .hlp
file to the list in the main field.
- As you do so, copy and paste the name of each .hlp file you
browsed for from the Help File field to the "Title to be listed
in the Index combobox" field. OK back to the Contents Setup
window.
- Click the Link Files button and Browse to Add each additional
.hlp file to the list in the main field. OK out.

10. Now for the links: I'm sure you're familiar with K-links. Every
time you create a new topic, you enter K keywords that will show up as
index entries. Keep doing this, but also be sure to click the Advanced
button in the Insert New Help Topic window so you can enter A-link
keywords. Example: If the topic title is "Using voice chat," I put
"voice" in the A-link field.

A-links are references that stay in the background. The user will never
see the words you enter in the A-links field. Instead, you'll be using
them when you set up a "Related Topics"-type button in every Help topic
that needs to refer to topics that reside in other Help projects.

All of the links between Help systems are set up using A-link keywords
rather than regular jumps so that only those topics which are
available are included in the Related Topics window. If you used
regular jumps, users would get an error when they clicked a jump to a
.hlp that wasn't installed (something like "help topic not found").
This does not happen with A-links.

When the user installs only two of the product's modules, he will see
only Help topics for the modules that are installed. There won't be any
dead-end links to topics like there would be if you used jumps.

The Related Topics button is commonly used in Windows 95 Help. But it
doesn't have to be titled Related Topics; you can rename it. The object
is to create a button users can click to see a list of other topics
that might be helpful. See your RoboHELP manual to learn how to set up
these "mini-buttons."

Using A-links instead of jumps takes some getting used to because you
can't just throw them into the middle of a sentence. But you can say,
"See the Related Topics below [blah blah blah]" to make sure they don't
miss them.

I'm not very experienced using A-links or minibuttons yet, so if
anyone has more advice to lend, please copy me or the list on it!

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Beth Kane
bkane -at- artisoft -dot- com
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