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Online Helps & Help-Authoring Tools (ETWR 2374) is
a workshop-style course in which you study the evolution and function of
online helps; critique existing online helps; learn structuring principles
and navigation tools common in online helps; create online helps using
several leading online help-authoring tools such as RoboHelp, Flare, and Help
& Manual; and write your own online helps for a software
product. This course is still a writing course: you'll focus on audiences,
organization, content, transitions, format, and good writing in general
throughout.
Note: There are other
options to using the recommended software; you do not have to purchase the software.
Please read the options
page.
Getting organized. During the first week, please review the schedule, policies,
objectives, and requirements for this course. Fill out an online
questionnaire and write a brief get-acquainted memo that will be posted on
our course website so we can all get know each other!
Structuring helps & the content of helps. Get
some background on hypertext, the essential navigation tools that make
hypertext usable, appropriate and inappropriate content for helps, and the
concept of task-oriented information.
| Reading: |
Exploring
online help
Online
helps: overview and structure
Watch and listen to Online-help
overview
Go to
the resources
page and read the following:
- Wikipedia.
Read this article overviewing help.
- Read the Help
Technologies page by David A. Knopf, in particular, WinHelp
(WinHelp Overview), HTML Help (HTML Help Overview), and WebHelp
(WebHelp Overview), in this order.
- Read the article
The Future of
RoboHelp?. This article was written at a time when people
thought Adobe would discontinue RoboHelp.
- Read the article
What's New
in Adobe RoboHelp 9?
- Read the article
Understanding
the Help 2.0 Revolution
- Read the article
The
Evolution of Online Help, Part I: Social Media, Open Architecture,
and Mobile
- Read the article
The
Evolution of Online Help, Part II: The Changing Role of Technical
Communicators
- Find an article
in one of the following that looks interesting to you, read it,
and then post a summary of to the class e-mail (gray area in the
upper left of the schedule page) — due
Feb. 19
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Note:
- Be aware of a
Microsoft-related problem with CHM files. (.chm is the extension
of certain help files.) You'll get an error message on some of them. See
Microsoft
help error for details on how to fix the problem.
- E-mail services such
as Gmail are now refusing to allow attachments of executable files. This
means not just .exe files but also .chm files. To get around this
problem, change the .chm extension to .doc. But remind me!
Help-authoring software tutorials. Let's get started learning essential tasks that you must know to create online help and write about those tasks using a help-authoring tool. Because people will be using help-authoring tools other than Adobe RoboHelp 7, you'll see generic directions for learning essential help-authoring tasks as well as tutorials for RoboHelp.
Note: Some e-mail applications will not
allow you to send an attachment with the .chm extension. Change .chm to
.doc but remind your instructor that that's what you've done.
Helps modeling project. Create a set of helps
based on an existing, compiled set of helps.
Help-authoring
software tutorials. Explore essential tasks that you must know
to create online help and write about those tasks using a help-authoring
tool.
Readings in
documentation. Read about theory, process, and format related
to documentation.
Helps modeling project. Don't forget—this is due
this week!
Help-authoring
software tutorials. Explore essential tasks that you must know
to create online help and write about those tasks using a help-authoring
tool.
Readings in
documentation. Read about theory, process, and format related
to documentation.
Helps formatting project. Design and create a set
of helps using unformatted text.
Help-authoring software tutorials. Explore
essential tasks that you must know to create online help and write about
those tasks using a help-authoring tool.
Essential indexing skills. Study some basic
strategies for creating indexes.
Readings in
documentation. Read about theory, process, and format related
to documentation.
Help formatting project. Don't forget.this is
due this week!
Help-authoring software tutorials. Explore
essential tasks that you must know to create online help and write about
those tasks using a help-authoring tool.
Readings in documentation. Read about theory,
process, and format related to documentation.
Brief procedure project 1. Get started on the brief
procedure in which in one online topic you provide some instructions. Be
sure to apply the guidelines on writing style, headings, lists, notices,
and highlighting that you will study next week.
Brief
procedure documentation project 1 . due Apr.
15
Critique of online helps
1. Analyze and evaluate a spectrum of online help systems based
on principles you've encountered so far in this course as well as based on
your ideas about readability, comprehension, audience needs, and document
design.
| Projects: |
Evaluate these help
files . due Apr. 5
See a
summary of the evaluations
(David! Fix blanks counted as zero.)
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Basic page
design. Study some of the standard specifications for headings,
lists, notices, cross-references, tables, highlighting, simple typography
and layout issues, and other. Explore what is common or standard, focusing
particularly on page design concepts for written instructions and
rhetorical strategies for writing effective instructions.
Readings in
documentation. Read about theory, process, and format related
to documentation.
Brief procedure project 1. Don't forget.this
is due this week!
Final-project setup & announce. Plan your final
help project and post details about that project.
Online helps: final project. Start planning,
designing, and developing your final helps project for a software (or
hardware) product of your choosing.
| Projects: |
Get started on your final
help project — first draft due May
6, final draft due May
13 |
Readings in documentation. Read about theory,
process, and format related to documentation.
Task analysis. To develop online help that addresses
users' needs, you must do a careful task analysis& #8212; in other
words, identify those tasks that users want to perform using the software
application. You then use those tasks to structure and write your
documentation.
Help-authoring
software tutorials. Let's explore how you can set up your help
projects for rapid change. Use variables to quickly change key text such
as product names. Use conditions (sometimes called version control) to
create different versions of a RoboHelp project within the same
project.
Final help project. Keep working on that
project!
Online helps: final project.first draft. Complete
the first of your final help project. I will review and get it back to you
so that you can do one final revision.
Online helps: final project.final draft. Complete
your final help project. Hand it in early this week: that way, I can
review and get it back to you so that you can do one final revision.
Informal course
evaluation. Help me improve this course.
Provided hcexres@prismnet.com. |
