I will return riding the crest of a #wave

Bruce may be quiet for a while:
winhelp.it@googlewave.com

Reading these sites:

The Complete Guide to Google Wave, by Gina Trapani & Adam Pash
completewaveguide.com

Google help pages:
wave.google.com/help
and videos:
youtube.com/user/GoogleVideos

..and other stuff:
twitter.com/winhelp3/google

Help tools and manuals - nostalgia

Subject: Re: Help tools and manuals
From: Bruce WHITE
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1996 11:38:44 UT

Dan,
>>They want a separate look, feel, and layout for each of these docs.
>>That means two separate files.

When you plan the project, work out what is common to both.
techwr-l.com/archives
===================
Ah! nostalgia, it ain't what it used to be..

Download WinHlp32

Starting with the Windows Vista operating system release, the Windows Help program does not ship as a component of the Windows operating system.
Also, third-party programs that include .hlp files are prohibited from redistributing the Windows Help program together with their products.
Users who want to view 32-bit .hlp files must download the program from the Microsoft Download Center, and then install it on their computers.
To download WinHlp32.exe, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=82148
Users who have not installed this program on their computer are directed to a help topic in the Windows Vista Help and Support application.

XDK and HDK email lists

We maintain the email list for users of xdk and hdk.
Details of that list are at:
winhelp.com.au/xdkhdk

Those of you still subscribed to the old HDK list (clari.net) should block or automatically delete emails from there. You will not be able to unsubscribe and we have no control over that list - despite being the owner of the list.

Help Authoring Tools

It seems that users of these tools have been surprised that there is no further development planned on quite a few of these tools. The list now includes RoboHelp.

This probably means that product support from the vendors will also fade. It puts support back on the users to support each other. That is what the email lists are all about.

Is the information lost inside the document?

Over the years we have developed ways of extracting information from within documents.
For example the document may have information in tables with cells all over the place. This arrangment may not suit the next purpose of the information.
When you don't want to waste your time trying to extract bits and pieces of information, talk to us, or email:
Contact Bruce White

Who did what when?

Problem: What work has been done on a particular project.
Solution: Check the files created on the PC. Hopefully they were all placed in identifiable places, like their project directory.

1. Use Command Prompt (\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories) to extract the information to clipboard. Right click the [c:\] button for the menu. Type the drive letter you want, then navigate the directories using the command:
cd (then paste the rest of the directory copied from the Windows Explorer address bar).
Use cd.. to move up a level.
2. Paste into MSWord and replace the sometimes fixed widths with tabs (macro for this)
3. Select all text for table - copy & paste into Excel
4. Sort by Date and time
5. Find files with contiguous dates to identify time spent on the project.

Alertbox on PDFs

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, July 14, 2003:
PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption
Summary:
Users get lost inside PDF files, which are typically big, linear text
blobs that are optimized for print and unpleasant to read and
navigate online. PDF is good for printing, but that's it. Don't use
it for online presentation.

www.useit.com/alertbox/

Integrated development

We hold these things to be self evident:
Any manuals and online help (inc. those for software) should be created using an integrated development process.
The manual and the product it supports should be entirely consistent with each other. The content of the manual should be focussed on the functions of the product.
To do this the documentation must start with the functional specifications and be developed alongside the product.

Document conversion problems in HDK

To find the error, (use a copy of the document) make it into two documents and see which half crashes.
Remember to put a Heading 1 at the start of the second half.

Reboot and then split that document in half until you find the problem. Also watch the compile process for clues on which topic has the problem.

Once you find the topic with the problem, go to the original document and copy the text to Notepad then back. This will clean up the code. If what you find is a table, select the table and convert it to text then back again to clean up the table.

Sometimes the problem is with an imbedded graphic, normalise the graphic in some way and then reinsert it.

HDK features that are also in XDK:

• a number of table of contents options (more in v3.6)
  
• Styles, HDK generates a CSS based on the MSWord paragraph and character styles
  
• projects can process a "header" file or you can mock one up to control the names of the output HTML pages
  
• HTML pages can be split out of a single Word document using paragraph styles
  
• projects can include multiple Word documents.
  

The Desperate HDK fix

1. Backup the whole project
2. Export the template and save it.
3. Go back to the old project and in each of the documents Select All then add the content as item in the Gallery.
4. Make a new project using the exported template
5. Make a new document inserting a Gallery item into each new document.
6. Check that you have the same number of documents as the original project.
7. Go into Topic Outliner and in full screen mode clean up the structure of your hierarchy.
8. Clean up any duplicates (like graphics).
9 Compile and check for errors

Hypertext and PDF?

Use hypertext (WinHelp & HTML) as the trunk and branches and PDF as the leaves. Hypertext for the information that can be read on the screen and PDF for detail that needs to be printed to be read.

Opening another instance of the browser

In the HDK URL box add the URL and the target
After the URL add a closing quote
then the exact next line
target="_blank

Note no closing quote for the target string, HDK will supply that.