Process for both nice layout and help authoring ?

[Torben Dam]

I hope this is the right forum to ask in, my question is general. Please move if not

I want to create documentation for technical products. Ideally there should be help files and PDF documentation. Obviously I want to write once and create different documents.

The software I have is InDesign CS3 for layouts. This is a great software to do things like wrapping around graphics, fancy headers etc. But it is not as good in structuring text.

H&M seems promising, it's simple to structure text and content. While it produces nice output in PDF, it's not really possible to have full control of layout, wrapping, etc. After all, that's not the purpose of this software.

So, what's the best approach to write the content to be used for both help files and fancy PDF documents ?

I have also considered using MS Word to write, then importing into H&M.

What do other people do that use H&M ? Are you simply happy with the PDF documents produced, and don't need to edit them later ?

[Martin Wynne]

I want to create documentation for technical products.......So, what's the best approach to write the content to be used for both help files and fancy PDF documents ?

Hi Torben,

There seems to be a contradiction there. Users of technical documentation are not usually the least bit interested in fancy layouts. What they want is raw information which is easy to find, fully indexed, clearly written and comprehensive. Fonts and colours should be used to provide meaningful emphasis, differentiation, table headings, etc. It's nice if it can look pleasant too, but the last thing technical users want is arty-farty stuff. The standard output from H&M for both Browser-based Help and PDF is just fine for its intended purpose.

regards,

Martin.

[Torben Dam]

Thank you for your input.

However I have to disagree a bit with you.

Think of the manuals you get from f.ex. HP and Canon with their products. They have a very nice layout, and certainly are something you can't do with H&M. There are just something you can't do without a proff. publishing software. Also to have control of things like kerning, linespacing, ligatures and many other typographical parameters.

The same content can do just fine in plain CHM file online. But for print, it should look good sometimes.

Or am I just being contradictive and confused ?

[Martin Wynne]

Think of the manuals you get from f.ex. HP and Canon with their products. They have a very nice layout, and certainly are something you can't do with H&M.

Hi Torben,

Yes, but they are consumer products. You referred to documentation for technical products. You certainly don't get anything like that with say, a Programmable Logic Controller.

The restrictions on fancy formatting are the price to be paid for having a single-source for multiple output formats. And also the need to keep file sizes within reason for online access. I occasionally use a Desktop Publishing program for fancy stuff -- but I know I can't have multi-coloured text spiralling round a rotating Earth in WinHelp!

regards,

Martin.

[Dean Whitlock]

So far I haven't needed any fancy layouts in my PDF outputs -- at least, nothing fancier than what H&M can provide -- but that may be changing. Has anyone had success using a PDF editing tool to replace the covers and other "marketing" pages after H&M has compiled its PDF version? It seems that trying to edit the content pages would produce nothing but headaches, but that the surrounding pages could be made fancier without too much effort. But I have never used any of the PDF editing tools so am just guessing. Any advice out there?

Thanks,
Dean

[Byron S.]

Adobe's Acrobat Distiller will easily delete and insert pages from and into a PDF. It can do other tricks like cropping and rotating pages. I still use an antique version (4.0) and it works fine. I don't know much about the new version, and its latest bells & whistles, except that it's expensive. I suspect security and collaboration features are much enhanced; but v4.0 has security features that let you set whether a document needs a password to open, whether the document can be printed, and whether the viewer can select text and graphics.

[Tim Green]

For a less expensive alternative to Acrobat have a look at Foxit PDF Editor and the other Foxit products:

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/pe_intro.php