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Help SystemDo you all use HTML help workshop to create your help system. I am finding
it quite clumsy to use. Mayeb because I am not used to using it. Do any of you use any other techniques to create help for your progs? Whats the current popular approach to creating help? I am only wanting a straight help file accessible from a menu - no context sensitive stuff. TIA Hi JJ,
Try Pocket CHM Pro, which can be found at http://www.flyskysoft.com/ . I find it quite helpful in this matter. Regards, Cerebrus. Thanks Cerebus. I will take a look, but ideally wanted to use a 'free'
method initially as this project is already well over budget and is coming out of my pocket(!) JJ Show quoteHide quote "Cerebrus" <zorg***@sify.com> wrote in message news:1142844964.413268.114770@e56g2000cwe.googlegroups.com... > Hi JJ, > > Try Pocket CHM Pro, which can be found at http://www.flyskysoft.com/ . > > I find it quite helpful in this matter. > > Regards, > > Cerebrus. > Hi,
No problem, there are lots of CHM makers available, but most are shareware. You might consider searching these newsgroups. I recall others having asked the same question often, but didn't follow the threads. Personally I don't find the HTML help workshop that tricky to use. It *does* take some getting used to, though. Regards, Cerebrus. I did try searching but maybe used the wrong criteria - sorry. I will do
that but do have one more question. I wanted to know, before going down one path or another, what people were currently tending to adopt for their help systems. For instance, I notice Microsoft seems to be going away from the help menu containing the 'search', 'contents and index', etc, typical chm help, and more towards the single 'Help System...' entry in their menus. For example see the help on Outlook 2003 (not Outlook express). This contains a search only and link to relevent HTML pages. Others, like adobe for instance, seem to use HTML pages with their own search and index. Either way it seems the old chm 'search', 'contents and index' menu entries style is on its way out, doesn't it? Whats your view? Show quoteHide quote "Cerebrus" <zorg***@sify.com> wrote in message news:1142846778.957868.196640@t31g2000cwb.googlegroups.com... > Hi, > > No problem, there are lots of CHM makers available, but most are > shareware. You might consider searching these newsgroups. I recall > others having asked the same question often, but didn't follow the > threads. > > Personally I don't find the HTML help workshop that tricky to use. It > *does* take some getting used to, though. > > Regards, > > Cerebrus. >
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"JJ" <a**@xyz.com> wrote in message Butting in here.... out of order, to boot <g>news:uU3IPJATGHA.4452@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl... >I did try searching but maybe used the wrong criteria - sorry. I will do >that but do have one more question. > > I wanted to know, before going down one path or another, what people were > currently tending to adopt for their help systems. > > For instance, I notice Microsoft seems to be going away from the help menu > containing the 'search', 'contents and index', etc, typical chm help, and > more towards the single 'Help System...' entry in their menus. For example > see the help on Outlook 2003 (not Outlook express). This contains a search > only and link to relevent HTML pages. > Others, like adobe for instance, seem to use HTML pages with their own > search and index. > > Either way it seems the old chm 'search', 'contents and index' menu > entries style is on its way out, doesn't it? > > > Whats your view? Pocket CHM Pro is an excellent utility. Since it's under 100 bucks, the time you'll save by using it will far outweigh (by a mile) the cost involved in messing with MS Help Workshop (which is an antique, no matter how you look at it). It supports everything html help has to offer. If you want something that'll generate "MSDN looking" help files and integrates with dotNet (iirc... I'm pretty sure it's written in dotNet anyway <g>), check out http://www.west-wind.com/. It has a bunch of dotNet specific stuff built in so it may save a pile of time too. iirc, it generates html help 2.0 files (it's been a while since I've looked real close <g>) Personally, I like the "little tool" (Pocket CHM) better but ymmv. Note that >>anything<< is better than using the workshop directly. Finally, if you ask me, MS help has gone to the dogs. The very best help system of all time shipped with VB5. Immediately afterwards, (right before VS6) MSDN hit the streets and "help" has been going down hill since. The help system in VS.Net is ridiculous imo. Repeat after me.... it should NOT take 2 full minutes to open MSDN on a 3 ghz PC with 1.5gigs of ram... repeat... It should NOT take.... well, you get the drift... and, once it's open, it's rarely showing you a page that makes sense. I'm about ready to jam a paperclip under my F1 key so I quit accidentally hitting it (yes... I think it's >that< bad) -- Ken Halter - MS-MVP-VB (visiting from VB6 world) - http://www.vbsight.com Please keep all discussions in the groups.. Well said!
Show quoteHide quote "Ken Halter" <Ken_Halter@Use_Sparingly_Hotmail.com> wrote in message news:%23qTY1sFTGHA.2088@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl... > "JJ" <a**@xyz.com> wrote in message > news:uU3IPJATGHA.4452@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl... >>I did try searching but maybe used the wrong criteria - sorry. I will do >>that but do have one more question. >> >> I wanted to know, before going down one path or another, what people were >> currently tending to adopt for their help systems. >> >> For instance, I notice Microsoft seems to be going away from the help >> menu containing the 'search', 'contents and index', etc, typical chm >> help, and more towards the single 'Help System...' entry in their menus. >> For example see the help on Outlook 2003 (not Outlook express). This >> contains a search only and link to relevent HTML pages. >> Others, like adobe for instance, seem to use HTML pages with their own >> search and index. >> >> Either way it seems the old chm 'search', 'contents and index' menu >> entries style is on its way out, doesn't it? >> >> >> Whats your view? > > Butting in here.... out of order, to boot <g> > > Pocket CHM Pro is an excellent utility. Since it's under 100 bucks, the > time you'll save by using it will far outweigh (by a mile) the cost > involved in messing with MS Help Workshop (which is an antique, no matter > how you look at it). It supports everything html help has to offer. If you > want something that'll generate "MSDN looking" help files and integrates > with dotNet (iirc... I'm pretty sure it's written in dotNet anyway <g>), > check out http://www.west-wind.com/. It has a bunch of dotNet specific > stuff built in so it may save a pile of time too. iirc, it generates html > help 2.0 files (it's been a while since I've looked real close <g>) > > Personally, I like the "little tool" (Pocket CHM) better but ymmv. Note > that > >>anything<< is better than using the workshop directly. > > Finally, if you ask me, MS help has gone to the dogs. The very best help > system of all time shipped with VB5. Immediately afterwards, (right before > VS6) MSDN hit the streets and "help" has been going down hill since. The > help system in VS.Net is ridiculous imo. Repeat after me.... it should NOT > take 2 full minutes to open MSDN on a 3 ghz PC with 1.5gigs of ram... > repeat... It should NOT take.... well, you get the drift... and, once it's > open, it's rarely showing you a page that makes sense. I'm about ready to > jam a paperclip under my F1 key so I quit accidentally hitting it (yes... > I think it's >that< bad) > > -- > Ken Halter - MS-MVP-VB (visiting from VB6 world) - http://www.vbsight.com > Please keep all discussions in the groups.. > Thanks guys.
I have to say, in agreement with you, that there appears to be quite a lot of inconsistency in the way products provide help. On this occassion I have finally managed to use the HTML help workshop to create my CHM files. But it took a lot of hand coding and messing about, and next time I will look at the software you mention. I don't know whether VS2005 deals with help any better. Why on earth this type of thing isn't integrated into the development environment. Why should you have to add each help fiile to your distribution by hand? Seems odd that you can't add a new 'help project' to your solution to me. But I am just a newbie in this software..... JJ Show quoteHide quote "Martin" <x@y.com> wrote in message news:uX$flKHTGHA.1576@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl... > Well said! > > "Ken Halter" <Ken_Halter@Use_Sparingly_Hotmail.com> wrote in message > news:%23qTY1sFTGHA.2088@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl... >> "JJ" <a**@xyz.com> wrote in message >> news:uU3IPJATGHA.4452@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl... >>>I did try searching but maybe used the wrong criteria - sorry. I will do >>>that but do have one more question. >>> >>> I wanted to know, before going down one path or another, what people >>> were currently tending to adopt for their help systems. >>> >>> For instance, I notice Microsoft seems to be going away from the help >>> menu containing the 'search', 'contents and index', etc, typical chm >>> help, and more towards the single 'Help System...' entry in their menus. >>> For example see the help on Outlook 2003 (not Outlook express). This >>> contains a search only and link to relevent HTML pages. >>> Others, like adobe for instance, seem to use HTML pages with their own >>> search and index. >>> >>> Either way it seems the old chm 'search', 'contents and index' menu >>> entries style is on its way out, doesn't it? >>> >>> >>> Whats your view? >> >> Butting in here.... out of order, to boot <g> >> >> Pocket CHM Pro is an excellent utility. Since it's under 100 bucks, the >> time you'll save by using it will far outweigh (by a mile) the cost >> involved in messing with MS Help Workshop (which is an antique, no matter >> how you look at it). It supports everything html help has to offer. If >> you want something that'll generate "MSDN looking" help files and >> integrates with dotNet (iirc... I'm pretty sure it's written in dotNet >> anyway <g>), check out http://www.west-wind.com/. It has a bunch of >> dotNet specific stuff built in so it may save a pile of time too. iirc, >> it generates html help 2.0 files (it's been a while since I've looked >> real close <g>) >> >> Personally, I like the "little tool" (Pocket CHM) better but ymmv. Note >> that >> >>anything<< is better than using the workshop directly. >> >> Finally, if you ask me, MS help has gone to the dogs. The very best help >> system of all time shipped with VB5. Immediately afterwards, (right >> before VS6) MSDN hit the streets and "help" has been going down hill >> since. The help system in VS.Net is ridiculous imo. Repeat after me.... >> it should NOT take 2 full minutes to open MSDN on a 3 ghz PC with 1.5gigs >> of ram... repeat... It should NOT take.... well, you get the drift... >> and, once it's open, it's rarely showing you a page that makes sense. I'm >> about ready to jam a paperclip under my F1 key so I quit accidentally >> hitting it (yes... I think it's >that< bad) >> >> -- >> Ken Halter - MS-MVP-VB (visiting from VB6 world) - http://www.vbsight.com >> Please keep all discussions in the groups.. >> > > Hi,
>> Seems odd that I think the answer is in your first statement :>> you can't add a new 'help project' to your solution to me. >> I have to say, in agreement with you, that there appears to be quite a lot The amazing amount of variation in the type of help implemented would>> of inconsistency in the way products provide help. discourage any 'standard' Help project template. Regards, Cerebrus. Take a look at free HelpMaker from http://www.vizacc.com/
-- Peter Macej Helixoft - http://www.vbdocman.com VBdocman - Automatic generator of technical documentation for VB, VB ..NET and ASP .NET code 
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