Creating Online Help – The Basics (Part 1)

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.

Choosing a Help Project

Image via Wikipedia

Prior to learning the basics and setting the foundation, we have to identify what needs our help.  In this case, Literature and Latte have graciously agreed to let me use their software Scrivener for this demonstration.  Almost anything can be documented and deployed via an Online Help system, however, I find the most challenging and rewarding projects to be Software products.

Software products can range from simple to complex and the Help will hopefully take even the most challenging scenarios and simplify them for the end user.  Help can also be setup as interactive Training. Before all that design and research and documentation begins though, we must first decide on how to create the Help.

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?
6. What is the client’s current hardware configuration?
7. What are the deliverables that are expected?
8. What is the deadline?

After you have answered the questions above, you can give the client a good estimate on time and a broad picture of the deliverables and timeline.

The CreativeAce Help System

Using the survey above, here’s the defined frame work we’ll use going forward.

Image via Wikipedia

1. What HATT to use? In this case, we are going to use RoboHelp. Why? Because this is my tool of choice and I think it is one of the best tools out there.  I have been using RoboHelp (RH) for more years than I care to tell you and I’ve been with them through thick and thin and like most software products that have longevity it only gets better.
2. Is there existing Online Help in place? No, we are going to create this system from scratch.
3. Is there existing user documentation? This is a new project for the Windows platform.  There are tutorials associated with Scrivener so we can use that as a basis for research.  There is also a forum for Windows users which can be leveraged for general knowledge as well as a possible Troubleshooting or FAQ section.  And, while it may not be totally compatiable, Scrivener for Mac has been out for a couple of years.  We can see what MAC has and get an idea of what to expect in the Windows version and see what Windows may grow into.
4. What is the client’s budget? Not applicable, in this case.
5. Is there internal staff to turn the project over to at the completion of the project? In this case it’s not applicable, but I may update or add to the demo to show different features of Scrivener and/or RoboHelp.
6. What is the client’s current hardware configuration? Linux servers with help deploying in Flash via a browser. Main browser types to optimize for: Internet Explorer and Firefox. Versions To-Be-Determined.
7. What are the deliverables that are expected? An interactive Help System with Glossary and possibly printable job aids.
8. What is the time frame or deadline of the project? This is dependent on my current schedule. Let’s not rush this project and say 8-12 weeks.

Summary

Now that we have the basic questions asked and answered, where do we go from here? Next we layout the foundation of the project. We need to decide what is being document and how it should look.

Come back next week to see how what an Online Help System is comprised of and how we start laying the foundation for Scrivener for Windows.