Technical Writer's Portal

Applications today have become sophisticated to an extent that, a Help system is required for an average user to understand them. A Help system focuses on providing highly interactive on-demand assistance to the user. A Help system enables one to easily find the solutions to problems, which are encountered while working on the application. An application without a Help system is not considered user-friendly. Help authoring tools available in the market include Microsoft Word, Macromedia RoboHelp X5, Macromedia Authorware, and Lectora. Macromedia RoboHelp X5 is one of the most popular tools.
1. Robohelp X5 and Help Formats
Macromedia RoboHelp X5 not only helps you in creating Help topics but also assists you with tools to link the pages and to add keywords to put together a highly powerful Help system. RoboHelp X5 is the easiest and quickest way to create a Help system with advance features that include Table of Contents, Index, Context-sensitive help, and Glossary. RoboHelp X5 supports all kind of applications ranging from web-based, and .NET to desktop and stand-alone applications. Besides online help, RoboHelp X5 allows you to create printed documentation in Microsoft Word or PDF format. RoboHelp X5, with its user-friendly interface and step-by-step guidance, is equally useful for beginners as well as advanced users. If you have never used RoboHelp X5 before, you can start by selecting the New Project Wizard in RoboHelp Starter and then choose your project format. The different help formats supported by RoboHelp X5 are Web Help, Web Help Pro, HTML Help, FlashHelp, JavaHelp, OracleHelp, WinHelp 4, WinHelp 3, and WinHelp 2000. For advanced users, RoboHelp X5 provides a “TrueCode” view, which enables the advance users to view and modify the actual code to make changes in the document.
Web Help is a browser-based Help system that can be deployed on the Internet, Extranet or Intranet. Web Help Pro is also a browser-based Help system but it is server-based. HTMLHelp is a Microsoft Help system that can be integrated with an application or used as a standalone application under Microsoft Windows. FlashHelp is a Flash-based help system that provides a consistent look and feel across browsers and platforms. JavaHelp is a compressed help system that works with applications written in Java. OracleHelp is Oracle Corp’s implementation of JavaHelp. OracleHelp can work with applications written in any programming language. WinHelp 4 is Microsoft’s RTF-based Help system for 16-bit systems while WinHelp 3 is Microsoft’s RTF-based Help system for 32-bit systems. WinHelp 2000 extends the basic functionalities of WinHelp 4 with a look and feel of HTMLHelp.
2. Key Features of Robohelp X5
RoboHelp X5 has a very powerful built-in HTML editor. In addition to text, the editor gives you facility to insert images, animations, roll-over text, pop-up windows, hyperlinks and multimedia elements in standard formats such as .swf, .avi, and .mp3. In case you are not comfortable with this editor, you also have the option of using other editors such as Macromedia Dreamweaver, Microsoft Front Page, or Microsoft Word. You can use topic templates to maintain consistency across your topics. RoboHelp X5 also provides you a facility to preview a topic before compiling the entire Help project.
RoboHelp X5 has automated wizards for most of the actions generally used to generate a Help system. The Table of Contents Composer automatically generates a table based on organization of topics. For indexing of pages, the Index Designer will automatically search for keywords and build a hyperlinked Index. You may want to provide definitions for technical or uncommon terms. The Glossary Wizard does this task automatically. If you want the users to go through the help topics sequentially, you can do it by using the Browse Sequence Editor. To relate your topics, you can use the Related Topic Wizard.
RoboHelp X5 also allows you to import existing documentation. The formats supported for import are HTML, Microsoft Word, Adobe FrameMaker, PDF, and XML. You can maintain different versions by using RoboHelp’s file check in/check out, time and date stamps, automated file comparisons, and version rollback features. The check in/check out features places a lock when a user is editing a file. The time and date stamp feature assigns time and date to each version of the file. File comparison allows you to compare two versions of a file to see additions, modifications, and deletions. The version rollback feature brings a file back to its previously saved version. Moreover, multiple users, irrespective of their location, can work on a single project simultaneously.
3. New Features of Robohelp X5
In addition to the features that were available in RoboHelp X4, RoboHelp X5 comes with its own set of additional new features. These are support for Microsoft Word 2003, enhanced Microsoft Word Import, and support for print-only pages, global spell checker, and support for JavaHelp 2.0. You can use Word 2003 as your editor, import from Word 2003 as well as generate printed documentation in Word 2003. If you are importing a document containing no styles from Microsoft Word, RoboHelp X5 will apply styles automatically. If you are using printed documentation, RoboHelp X5 allows you to add print-only pages. You can use the global spell checker feature of RoboHelp X5 to search for spelling error, either within a single topic or in the entire Help project.
4. Summary
RoboHelp X5 is a simple yet very powerful authoring tool for creating Help systems. A Help project can be created in any format depending on your organization requirements. You do not have to necessarily start from scratch. If the content is in different format than desired, you can import it. You can also customize the appearance of your Help system to match your application. Using RoboHelp X5, you can create a Help system that complies with World Wide Web Consortium and Section 508 standards. You can even download a 15-day trial version of RoboHelp X5 before buying it. RoboHelp X5 provides a very fast and efficient method of creating Help systems.
Sample http://www.ridgeviewmedia.com/portfolio/docs/WebHelp/AdvisorConnect_Help.htm
Please find the attachment