I'm new to Help Authoring and have been reviewing H&M along with RoboHelp, AuthorIt, and Doc-To-Help.
I see that RoboHelp has a format called WinHelp 2000 that extends the functionality of WinHelp to display the multi-pane format like HTML Help. This looks very intriguing. Does anyone know if this is proprietary to RoboHelp? Does H&M have any plans to implement it?
Could anyone make a recommendation about the "best" format to use? I've seen a number of comments saying that there are many reasons HTML Help is better, but I haven't seen them listed. Any advice would be most appreciated.
WinHelp 2000
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Tim Green
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Every help format has its place for different needs, but WinHelp is rather antiquated and not really suitable for modern applications. You can find my take on the basic pros and cons of WinHelp vs HTML Help on my website, here:
http://www.it-authoring.com/articles/faq.htm
I'm not sure what WinHelp 2000 is but it sounds like a proprietary add-on or set of add-ons for the Robohelp stable, so it's less than likely that it will ever make an appearance in Help & Manual. Also, since WinHelp itself is (thankfully) a dying format you also can't expect to see any new additions to it in Help & Manual in the future.
Basically, the uses of the main help systems available are as follows:
HTML Help is the number-one choice for applications running on users' computers. It's a compact, single-file format, it's very powerful and flexible and all users are instantly familiar with it, which makes it automatically intuitive.
Also it eliminates browser compatibility problems by using the Internet Explorer engine and only the Internet Explorer engine. You can criticise Microsoft's behavior in browser wars if you will, but this focus is a godsend for the developer because it completely eliminates the nightmare of programming HTML for scores of badly-programmed, half-compatible browsers. In HTML Help you can implement extensions using scripting and your own HTML code and be absolutely certain that it will work on users' computers. This is not generally possible with browser-based HTML.
HTML Help is also nice for programmers because it's easy to interface with, with good facilities for context help, What's This? help and so on, and again the guarantee that everything will work as advertised.
Browser-based HTML is preferable for help accessed via the Internet or intranets with slower performance. The advantage over HTML Help here is that the user only needs to download the page he or she is currently viewing; with HTML Help you always have to download the entire help file before you can view. Here too the programmer can interface with the help quite extensively, but your options are not as good or as clear-cut as with HTML Help.
PDF is good for additional documentation distributed on CDs and also by download, particularly if you want to distribute manuals that users can print out themselves. You can also create interactive PDFs with active links, but the interfacing options with the program are much more limited.
MMHelp is a proprietary e-book format exclusive to Help & Manual. It packs your entire help project and the MMHElp viewer into a single .EXE file that you can distribute through downloading or on CDs. The advantage of this format is that no external software, browser or viewer is needed. It just runs, on all versions of Windows. The disadvantage is that there is no programming interface, so it is really basically just an e-book.
There are other options too, of course. There are Java-based help systems and you can also "mix your own" with any HTML editor -- both Adobe and Macromedia have done this but personally I'm not very impressed with the results. They're a little bit clunky, I don't see any advantage over HTML Help and they force users to waste time familiarizing themselves with a new system that doesn't give them any tangible benefits rather than concentrating on getting the information they need.
Hope this helps a little...
http://www.it-authoring.com/articles/faq.htm
I'm not sure what WinHelp 2000 is but it sounds like a proprietary add-on or set of add-ons for the Robohelp stable, so it's less than likely that it will ever make an appearance in Help & Manual. Also, since WinHelp itself is (thankfully) a dying format you also can't expect to see any new additions to it in Help & Manual in the future.
Basically, the uses of the main help systems available are as follows:
HTML Help is the number-one choice for applications running on users' computers. It's a compact, single-file format, it's very powerful and flexible and all users are instantly familiar with it, which makes it automatically intuitive.
Also it eliminates browser compatibility problems by using the Internet Explorer engine and only the Internet Explorer engine. You can criticise Microsoft's behavior in browser wars if you will, but this focus is a godsend for the developer because it completely eliminates the nightmare of programming HTML for scores of badly-programmed, half-compatible browsers. In HTML Help you can implement extensions using scripting and your own HTML code and be absolutely certain that it will work on users' computers. This is not generally possible with browser-based HTML.
HTML Help is also nice for programmers because it's easy to interface with, with good facilities for context help, What's This? help and so on, and again the guarantee that everything will work as advertised.
Browser-based HTML is preferable for help accessed via the Internet or intranets with slower performance. The advantage over HTML Help here is that the user only needs to download the page he or she is currently viewing; with HTML Help you always have to download the entire help file before you can view. Here too the programmer can interface with the help quite extensively, but your options are not as good or as clear-cut as with HTML Help.
PDF is good for additional documentation distributed on CDs and also by download, particularly if you want to distribute manuals that users can print out themselves. You can also create interactive PDFs with active links, but the interfacing options with the program are much more limited.
MMHelp is a proprietary e-book format exclusive to Help & Manual. It packs your entire help project and the MMHElp viewer into a single .EXE file that you can distribute through downloading or on CDs. The advantage of this format is that no external software, browser or viewer is needed. It just runs, on all versions of Windows. The disadvantage is that there is no programming interface, so it is really basically just an e-book.
There are other options too, of course. There are Java-based help systems and you can also "mix your own" with any HTML editor -- both Adobe and Macromedia have done this but personally I'm not very impressed with the results. They're a little bit clunky, I don't see any advantage over HTML Help and they force users to waste time familiarizing themselves with a new system that doesn't give them any tangible benefits rather than concentrating on getting the information they need.
Hope this helps a little...
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)
Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)
Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
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smdavenport
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