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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, Help & Manual, and AuthorIT; 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.
| Most of the links on this page have been removed. If you need more detail, contact hcexres@io.com. |
| Instructor |
David McMurrey |
| Class meetings |
Online class |
| Office & hours |
NRG 4225 Tues./Thurs. 10:00 - 3:00 p.m., and by apptmt. (Always call before driving all the way out to Northridge Campus.) |
| Phone |
512.223.4804 |
| E-mail |
davidm@austincc.edu |
Getting organized. During the first week of classes, 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
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), nd WebHelp (WebHelp Overview), in this order.
- Read the article "The Future of RoboHelp?"
- Read the article "What's New in Adobe RoboHelp 7?"
- Find an article 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). Soltys' Online Help and Documentation, TECHWR-L (scroll down and search "online help"), WritersUA, and Writing for the Web (within the Soltys page) are good places to browse. — due Sept. 10
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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 Afdobe RoboHelp 7, you'll see generic directions for learning essential help-authoring tasks as well as tutorials for RoboHelp.
Note: The quick-refs are procedures that you write in the form of online help and send to me. These give you all-important writing practice plus additional practice with the online help-authoring tool you are using.
Helps modeling project. Create a set of helps based on an existing, compiled set of helps.
Help-authoring software tutorials. In class, we'll 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. In class, we'll 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.
Help-authoring software tutorials. In class, we'll 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 another set of helps using unformatted text.
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 Oct. 2
See a summary of the evaluations (David! Fix blanks counted as zero.)
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Readings in documentation. Read about theory, process, and format related to documentation.
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.
Help-authoring software tutorials. In class, we'll 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. Don't forget—this is due this week!
Help-authoring software tutorials. In class, we'll 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.
Help-authoring software tutorials. Learn some essential skills for converting helps to and from other applications such as MS Word, Adobe FrameMaker, and web pages.
It turns out you've already done this in prior units. This one's on me!
Essential indexing skills. Study some basic strategies for creating indexes.
Other help-authoring tools. For the next few weeks, we'll explore other leading help-authoring tools, perhaps with some professional help developers as guests.
Other help-authoring tools. Let's continue exploring other leading help-authoring tools, perhaps with some professional help developers as guests.
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.
Final-project setup. Plan your final help project and post details about that project.
Other help-authoring tools. Let's continue exploring other leading help-authoring tools, perhaps with some professional help developers as guests.
Online helps: final project. Start planning, designing, and developing your final helps project for a software (or hardware) product of your choosing.
Project template and prototype. Send in your help project prototype (using Lorem Ipsum).
Critique of online helps 2. Once again, let's 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.
| Activities: |
Evaluate these help files — due Nov. 20
See a summary of the evaluations (David! Fix blanks counted as zero.)
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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.
Thanksgiving break. Let's give it a rest and/or catch up.
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.
Provided hcexres@io.com.
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