Frame > Online Help

[annette.marx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Hi Carla,

I can identify with your situation, since I have been in exactly the same
situation last year.

so here is what I can tell you:

the main problem with converting Frame docs to any kind of Winhelp format is
that Frame does not generate Microsoft RTF, which is the basis of winhelp
files, easily.

A solution for this might be the mif2rtf filter from Jeremy - I have not
worked with it myself but from the responses of others, it should be good. 

If you want to create Winhelp (or HTML help) I would advise you to go with
RoboHelp - it is rather easy to learn, supports many output formats and has
very good documentation. In my opinion, it is the ideal tool for someone who
needs to get results in little time. Plus, there is also a good newsgroup
for RH users (I am not sure, if it is only for registered users, though). To
subscribe to it, go to http://www.blue-sky.com/techsupp/discuss.htm.

One tool I cannot recommend is HDK - it is apparently very powerful but has
a steep learning curve and a useless user documentation. 

Another way of creating online help would be the Webworks Publisher from
Quadraly - I have not worked with it myself, but there are probably people
on this list who can tell you more about it. From what I understand, it is
however more a tool for putting printed docs online than for creating
genuine online help.

If you only need to put your print docs online, the tool of your choice
could be Adobe Acrobat, which generates pdfs. A plus of this solution is
that Acrobat integrates very well with Frame. 

To tell you more, I would need to know what exactly your requirements and
tools are - do you need context-sensitve help, field level help, which
development tools do the software department use (what's this help is much
easier to generate for applications written in C++ than in Powerbuilder, for
example)?

If you have any questions, don't feel shy to mail me either on the list or
privately :)

HTH

Annette Marx, M.A. 
Technical Writer, AEC Market Group
Tel + 49 89 54769 479 Fax + 49 89 54769 427
annette.marx@eur.autodesk.com
Autodesk GmbH, Hansastrasse 28, 80686 Munich, Germany



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