Here’s your chance to be in charge. Tell a writer what to write.

Vote now on your choice of help systems.

This poll has been extended until Next Saturday. When the polls close you will get to see your Online Help System built piece by piece.

Come join us for this interactive demo and watch your the words on the page come to life. Participation is greatly appreciated!

This is the first in a series of posts about creating an Online Help System. A lot of people are still confused by what online help is, as well as how to create the help and deploy it. Over the next few weeks I will show you how to create an online help system from the ground up. I will show you all the parts and pieces that go into deciding what to create and how to get the results for the end user.

Online Help Considerations

Before you start creating an online help system there are several things you must consider.

1) Decide what HATT (Help Authoring Tools and Techniques) to use.

2) Is there existing Online Help in place?

3) Is there existing user documentation?

4) What is the client’s budget?

5) Is there internal staff to turn the project over to at the completion of the project?

I’ve talked about Online Help and what it was and how it’s used.  Online Help is a great tool for replacing those dusty paper manuals that have been cluttering up offices for year.  Online Help is created via a a software program. There are a few out there to choose from, but I have always used and continue to use and recommend, RoboHelp (RH). I’ve been using one version or another of RH since it’s inception by eHelp.

Background

RH was better off when still owned by eHelp. I mean all they did was work on this program and make it better and better. When it was acquired by Macromedia it stalled and the updates weren’t all  that.  Then again Macromedia was focused more on their web design products like Dreamweaver.  I often wondered if they just thought that Dreamweaver could replace RH.  It can’t and I won’t digress here.

Online Help, sometimes referred to as RoboHelp, Popup help, and that thing I click on when I’m stumped and everything else has failed, or even a call to my geeky computer friend help.

Online Help has been around for years.  Most people don’t know this term or what it does.  I was asked recently what I did for a living.  I said I’m a Freelance Technical Writer.  Well, after a blank look (I always was bad at elevator speeches), I explained:  “You know when you click the Help button in Word and there’s a box that pops up with instructions?  That’s what I do.”  “Oh, yeah I never click that.  It’s not very helpful.”

Oy vey!  How many times have I heard that?