Online Help – Do I Need It?

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?

Ok, seriously, that’s what I do.  And like everything else in this world, sometimes it’s good and sometimes not so much.  I have been developing online help for a long time.  There are times when I’m even brought in to develop documentation only to persuade them of the paperless online help.

If done correctly, and yes I like to think I’m doing this correctly, Online Help is the best tool a user can have.  It’s not linear based like a paper manual, it doesn’t take extra time to print, bind, and ship (not to mention the tree shortage), and it’s searchable. Online Help can be deployed on a multitude of platforms and can be streamlined to be single sourced.

Online Help

Help systems allow for almost every variable out there.  Meaning, every user who needs help can find what they are looking for regardless of how they get there.  Some people prefer the search feature in the help.  They can search on a term or terms and be presented with a list of options.  Click on one and voilà, the answer to your question.  Or some prefer the old fashion index.  A list compiled with entries of the most common used or concrete words much like a paper manual, except when you click on the word it takes you directly to that entry. Or best yet, you’re on a page (web based or otherwise) and you’re stumped as to how to fill out that screen.  Click in the field or F1 and bingo you are taken directly to that point in help that deals with that screen.  Neat huh?

Why did I digress here?  It’s to show you that online help is a great tool, if done correctly.  There is a lot of planning and hard work that goes into a seamless, valid, helpful online help system.  Help should not be intrusive, but it should solve the question that the user has in a timely manner.  It is only as good a the technical writer and the availability of the subject matter experts (SMEs).

The problem with paper manuals (other than that tree thing), is that they are linear.  Like a book you go from beginning to end.  Not that you have to, but jumping around is not easy.  With online help you can link important terms, concepts, and tasks to each other.  With the simple click of the mouse the user can quickly and easily navigate through the online help to reach the answer in question.

I think of it as a modular system where people can get into from any point and still find what they are looking for.  As for the back end, if done correctly from the foundation up, then the technical writer can add modules and update the information on the fly without the end-user ever noticing.  Although since it is pretty good practice to have Release Notes or updated information the user should know when and where the content was updated, and get there with the click of a button or link.

Anyway, that’s Online Help in a nutshell.  If you need it, just drop us a line and we’ll work something out.

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