RE: Is RoboHelp bad for e-commerce?

["David Knopf" <david -at- knopf -dot- com>]

Mary Choy (mchoy -at- sirius -dot- com) wrote:

| 2. i have one client who said CHM is out of the question because
| a) it requires
| IE, and b) the product is totally web-based and if the client
| tries to access
| the CHM over the web, it takes an eternity because it has to
| "download" the
| entire file before it will display. (??)

This is true. CHM is not a good choice for publishing information on the
Web. The end user must have IE and the HTML Help system components locally
installed. In addition, before IE can display a CHM, it must download the
entire CHM into the browser cache. Very inefficient, and particularly
annoying at dial-up speeds!


| 3. i have another client for whom i first did a webhelp system
| (from robo). but
| performance hits on netscape and mac were extreme. long load
| time, etc. so i
| ended up doing all html, with just a little javascript to create an index.
| (if you want more details on that, email me off list.)

The new version of WebHelp (WebHelp 3 with RH2000) is faster. I haven't done
timed comparisons on a Mac, but the new version loads much faster in
Netscape on Windows. You'd have to test performance to judge its suitability
for your own applications.

Nothing wrong with a solution based on HTML and JavaScript, though. As long
as you're meeting the needs of your users; that's the most important thing.

Regards,

David Knopf
Knopf Online
Tel: 415-550-8367
E-mail: mailto:david -at- knopf -dot- com
Web: http://www.knopf.com

Certified RoboHELP Instructor & Consultant
WebWorks Publisher Certified Trainer