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Using Doc-To-Help 2.0 | |
By: Linda G. Gallagher
Certified Doc-To- Help Trainer
December 1996
Doc-To-Help 2.0 from WexTech Systems (800 WEXTECH or http://www.wextech.com) is one of the commercial authoring tools you can use to create Windows Help files. Version 2.0 is the latest version that runs with Windows 95 and Word for Windows 7.0; it lets you create Windows Help files that are compatible with Windows 3.0, 3.1, and 95.
Doc-To-Help is essentially a series of Word for Windows templates that contain predefined styles and macros. You can use the templates to easily create both printed and online documentation from a single file. Tools within Doc-To-Help let you customize the printed or online versions by including or excluding text and graphics to fit the medium.
As in previous versions, Doc-To-Help lets you use its predefined styles to create printed and online manuals. You can modify the Doc-To-Help styles or create your own. You must be sure to create the styles in both the printed manual template and the Help file template. (Doc-To-Help stores the styles that control the look of the Help file text in a separate template. If you add or change a style in the printed version, you need to make the same changes in the Help file template.)
Doc-To-Help uses heading styles to define topics when you convert your project into Help. Each new heading creates a new topic using the same hierarchy in the Help file as in the printed file. That is, each Heading1 becomes a topic with all of its Heading2, Heading3, and Heading4 text as subtopics.
When you make your project into Help, Doc-To-Help automatically converts all cross-references to jumps, and all glossary terms and margin notes to popups. (Margin notes are text you create in the left margin of the printed manual. Authors often use them for tips and other adjunct information.)
Version 2.0 takes full advantage of the new features included in Windows Help 4.0 (the Windows 95 version of Windows Help). You can define different types of topics--for example, conceptual and procedural. You decide how you access the topic, via a jump or popup. You also set other characteristics, such as whether the heading appears in the nonscrolling region at the top of the window.
Doc-To-Help then lets you define the type of window (for example, main or secondary) that each topic type uses. You can create your own window types to fit your needs. You can define which buttons appear in a window type, the size and location of the window, and the window colors. The topic and window types give you complete control over the look of your Help file.
You set these and other options in tabbed dialog boxes that are generally easy to use. You can control the Help file's contents tab and the index via these dialog boxes also. You decide which heading levels appear in the contents tab of your Help file. You can control whether the words you use in your printed index become keywords in your online index. (Doc-To-Help's indexing tool lets you create a good index by letting you control the terms that appear in the index, as well as the terms you search on to create your index entries.) As in other Windows Help 4.0 files, the Help files you create with Doc-To-Help can have full-text searching and can include multimedia. You can also create Windows 95 "What's This Help?" with Version 2.0.
Doc-To-Help offers additional tools, such as the Hotspot Editor (also called the Segmented Hypergraphics Editor or SHED) and the Navigator to let you dress up your Help files. The Hotspot Editor lets you create segmented hypergraphics. A segmented hypergraphic is a graphic with hotspots you can click on. Click on a hotspot and a new window of information pops up.
The Navigator is a handy tool for both Windows Help authors and for the end users of your Help file. The Navigator gives you a complete hierarchical list of the topics in the Help file. It looks like a detailed table of contents and works something like the File Manager or Explorer, letting you expand or collapse the topics and subtopics in the Help file. When you click on a topic title, the Navigator takes you directly to the topic. Help authors can use the Navigator's Next and Previous buttons to go through each Help topic sequentially to find any errors or problems. The Navigator helps your end users know where they are in the Help file and go directly to topics of interest to them.
Working with Doc-To-Help is like creating any document in Word--no need to learn a new metaphor or new way to work with text. In your planning, you must take into account that you are creating both printed and online documents, but when you write, you don't need to learn a lot of new tools to create a simple Help file. Of course, you can use Doc-To-Help to create only Help files and skip the printed version altogether.
The biggest difficulty using Doc-To-Help is resolving some of the odd things that occur when you make your project into Help. (Make Into Help is the function that converts your Word file into the proper format for the Windows Help compiler.) The Doc-To-Help manual and Help file include information about the most common errors and how to fix them. You may find, though, that you get other odd errors that you need to resolve. This is where having access to the WexTech forum on CompuServe comes in handy. You can usually get a resolution to your problem within 24 hours. You can also call their technical support number in New York. If you don't have access to CompuServe, you may want to consider purchasing their Extended Technical Support package.
Many of the errors that occur during Make Into Help relate to oddities within Word for Windows and do not relate directly to Doc-To-Help itself. The folks at WexTech realize this and are willing to give advice about how to resolve problems that Word causes.
The other difficulty with Doc-To-Help is waiting for a large project to Make Into Help and then compile. If you have a large Help file with lots of graphics, these processes can take an hour or more. I believe that you run into similar situations with some of the other authoring tools. I strongly recommend that you compile every couple of days as you write. I find it much easier to resolve problems as I go rather than wait until the end. You can also see how the size of the file affects the time it takes the make the project into Help.
I have found Doc-To-Help to be a good tool for creating both the printed and online documentation for software applications that perform a narrow set of functions. It probably would not work well to document Word for Windows, but it can work for both commercial and internal applications that have a limited set of functions. My clients have been happy with the results and the savings they realize from having a single source for both types of documentation.
I'd be happy to share my experiences with Doc-To-Help with anyone who is looking into Windows Help authoring tools. You can reach me at (303) 450-9076 or 73654.1420 @ compuserve.com.
© 1996 Linda G. Gallagher, all rights reserved.
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