Participating Frequently

Question

help system for Web-based application

Forum|Forum|15 years ago
December 9, 2010
14 replies
2788 views

I'm using RoboHelp 8 HTML to create help for a Web-based application. Ideally, I'd like to have the utility of HTML Help (chm), where context-sensitive help allows a user to simply press (say) the F12 key (or press a "?" icon, as with with Microsoft Word) to invoke help on that particular field or dialog.

Unfortunately, Web-based applications call for WebHelp, since I have to create help for Safari/Firefox/IE/Chrome/etc. users. WebHelp doesn't support context-sensitive help, and I'm looking for a way to get as "light" (easily and quickly deployed) a help system as I can. Again, WebHelp is the de facto, but I'm curious if there are other deployments for help systems I haven't considered. And if there is anything outside RoboHelp that does this well, I'm all ears. Thanks,

Len

HTML

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M

MateoNYC

Participant

Len,

This might be useful to you - earlier this week, MindTouch announced a "F1" type button and help system for web applications, which sounds pretty interesting. Some of the comments also mention the ability to import CHM files, which I know is important to RoboHelp and Framemaker users.

Matt

Jeff_Coatsworth

Community Expert

Sure it can do CSH - I'm doing it right now with my workflow!

L

lenkannapellAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks, gents - I realize I may not be communicating the problem clearly. From the RoboHelp 8 HTML help:

"Field-level (What's This?) topic (WinHelp and Microsoft HTML Help projects) Briefly describes a field. A user accesses the topic by clicking a question-mark icon, and then clicking a field in a dialog box. In RoboHelp, field-level topics are called What’s This? topics.

"Note: WebHelp, WebHelp Pro, FlashHelp and FlashHelp Pro do not support field-level Help. WebHelp window support is available only with the context-sensitive Help API (Application Programming Interface)."

What I'm looking for: In WebHelp, hovering my mouse over a field, then pressing F1 or a ? to invoke help. I think this is technically "field-level help," and I'm curious how to minimize developer involvement. Thanks,

Len

Captiv8r

Legend

Hi Len

FWIW, even Microsoft is backing away from What's This type of help.

You can somewhat accomplish it by creating dialog or page level help. Then sprinkle Bookmarks through the topic and maybe you can coax exit points from the application or page to the bookmark location of the WebHelp. Heck, I suppose you could fudge What's This help by mapping each field to a topic/bookmark (or even individual topics - shudder) and have your developer link to them in a small specific window. But if you were to do this, you would be asking for MORE developer involvement and not LESS as you wish.

Sorry, any form of Context Sensitive Help will require the developer to be involved. Unless you want to become the developer yourself, there simply isn't much you can do to work past it.

Cheers... Rick

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Inspiring

Peter Grainge's info on calling WebHelp, http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/calling_webhelp/calling_webhelp.htm seems to refute your statement: "WebHelp doesn't support context-sensitive help."

Good luck,

Leon

L

lenkannapellAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thank you, Leon - I see that popups are partially supported (can't go from link to link), but maybe this will be good enough. However, I'm trying to create an application with minimal developer hassle, so a developer would have to do very little to program the help.

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