StrataFrame Forum
Home      Members   Calendar   Who's On
Welcome Guest ( Login | Register )
      



Writing help filesExpand / Collapse
Author
Message
Posted 11/13/2007 8:58:24 AM


StrataFrame Novice

StrataFrame NoviceStrataFrame NoviceStrataFrame NoviceStrataFrame NoviceStrataFrame NoviceStrataFrame NoviceStrataFrame NoviceStrataFrame Novice

Group: StrataFrame Users
Last Login: 10/12/2008 10:41:53 AM
Posts: 69, Visits: 1,282
Hi all,

may I ask what kind of software to use for writing help files? Something recommendable?

TIA and friendly greetings,

Ralph

Post #12641
Posted 11/13/2007 10:03:05 AM


Advanced StrataFrame User

Advanced StrataFrame UserAdvanced StrataFrame UserAdvanced StrataFrame UserAdvanced StrataFrame UserAdvanced StrataFrame UserAdvanced StrataFrame UserAdvanced StrataFrame UserAdvanced StrataFrame User

Group: StrataFrame Users
Last Login: Today @ 11:01:38 AM
Posts: 793, Visits: 11,574
Hi Ralph.

Have a look at HelpStudio from Innovasys (www.innovasys.com)

Post #12645
Posted 11/13/2007 11:23:34 AM


StrataFrame Developer

StrataFrame Developer

Group: StrataFrame Developers
Last Login: Today @ 9:52:47 AM
Posts: 4,770, Visits: 4,732
That is what we use, HelpStudio.  We use SandCastle to produce our class libraries, but HelpStudio for everything else. 
Post #12655
Posted 11/13/2007 12:34:59 PM


StrataFrame User

StrataFrame UserStrataFrame UserStrataFrame UserStrataFrame UserStrataFrame UserStrataFrame UserStrataFrame UserStrataFrame User

Group: StrataFrame Users
Last Login: 11/07/2008 5:12:40 AM
Posts: 150, Visits: 529
Robohelp and Captivate.

Not very comfortable since being purchased by Adobe.

Post #12678
Posted 11/13/2007 5:37:04 PM


StrataFrame Developer

StrataFrame Developer

Group: StrataFrame Developers
Last Login: Today @ 9:52:47 AM
Posts: 4,770, Visits: 4,732
We used to use RoboHelp and we blew off a lot of fingers trying to get large help files out the door....definitely DO NOT recommend RoboHelp!!!
Post #12691
Posted 11/14/2007 10:44:12 AM


StrataFrame Novice

StrataFrame NoviceStrataFrame NoviceStrataFrame NoviceStrataFrame NoviceStrataFrame NoviceStrataFrame NoviceStrataFrame NoviceStrataFrame Novice

Group: StrataFrame Users
Last Login: 10/12/2008 10:41:53 AM
Posts: 69, Visits: 1,282
Hei, many thanks to all. :-)

Did someone try HyperText, FastHelp, ForeHelp, HelpScribble or HelpMagician? What about Help&Manual? Flare is priced a bit above my limit...

There are so many help authoring tools out there, I'm confused and really don't know which to choose.

I had a look at FastHelp, and it seems easy to learn, not very expensive, and allows to develop the same help file in different languages for multilingual apps.

But at the first look, all hats (help authoring tools) look nice...

Some more comments about hats?

TIA and friendly greetings,

Ralph

Post #12698
Posted 11/19/2007 8:51:28 AM


StrataFrame Developer

StrataFrame Developer

Group: StrataFrame Developers
Last Login: 10/21/2008 9:20:58 AM
Posts: 2,685, Visits: 1,887
Ralph,

We haven't tried any of those products.  HelpStudio Lite (the free version) came packaged with the Visual Studio SDK and we liked it much more than RoboHelp, so we started using it.  We went to the full version of HelpStudio because the full version is required to compile .chm files.  The lite version only does Help 2.0 which requires the Microsoft Document Viewer (think Visual Studio help).

A word of caution, though, we tried the DocumentX for our class libraries initially, and it had lots of issues with compiling help from our DLLs.  It took some 19 hours to analyze and build the help for just the 4 core SF DLLs, and half of the time would crash.  The SandCastle script runs in about 10 minutes.


www.bungie.net
Post #12756
« Prev Topic | Next Topic »


Reading This TopicExpand / Collapse
Active Users: 0 (0 guests, 0 members, 0 anonymous members)
No members currently viewing this topic.
Forum Moderators: Ben Chase, Trent L. Taylor, Steve L. Taylor

PermissionsExpand / Collapse

All times are GMT -6:00, Time now is 11:06am

Powered by InstantForum.NET v4.1.4 © 2008
Execution: 0.141. 14 queries. Compression Enabled.
Site Map - Home - My Account - Forum - About Us - Contact Us - Try It - Buy It

Microsoft, Visual Studio, and the Visual Studio logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.