WinHelp - being helpful

Example of the use of maps

2010-10-25T22:30:00.000+11:00

A bit of a bike ride, the Gong Ride, a 90k cycle ride from Sydney to Wollongong (7 Nov 10).
Click on the route to see notes on that part of the ride.

Gong Ride

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

See also:
Google Places for Business
Use it to get your business found on local search results on both Google Search and Google Maps.
places.google.com/business

Q Macro

2010-09-14T15:10:00.000+10:00

Let's face it you can write a lot of MSWord macros and then forget where you put them, what you called them and too often they are not quite right the next time you want to do something.
The solution is to write the same macro each time, I call it the Q macro. It typically finds and corrects each instance of something or starts with a selection (from a previous search) takes a series of actions and then does that search again and leaves you with the next instance of that search selected. You then make the decision whether to run the macro over that next instance.

Q Macro logic
The macro always follows the same logic.
Use a keyboard shortcut to run a macro to perform a task (on selected text)
The macro includes a move to a next instance using "find"
It also makes whatever movements are necessary to select the exact text to perform the task (above)
To write the macro
Select the text
Tool > Macro > Record New Macro
Macro name is always the same* and keyboard shortcut is always the same Alt+Q
Perform the task (use the keyboard in preference to the mouse)
Ctrl+F to open the Find dialog
Enter the text to find
Select the exact text to perform the task (use the keyboard)
End Macro
To run the macro
Select the text and press Alt+Q to perform the task. The task will be performed and another instance will be found and selected.
If you do not want to perform the task on the selected text then press the MSWord search buttons on the scroll bar (or Ctrl+Page down) to find the next instance.
Then select the text needed for the start of the macro.

Always the Same
Always make the macro name the same - you can find it easily if I need to edit it. Alt+F8 > Q
Overwrite any old instances because each macro is in some way different from the previous macro.
Always make the keyboard shortcut the same - Alt+Q is a very easy key combination with the left hand.

This item also appears in the xdk_hdk users group FAQ pages:
groups.google.com/group/xdk_hdk

Marketing to the Neighbours

2009-09-16T11:33:00.002+10:00

BakerTweet.
I had thought that this was a good idea before I saw that someone had automated it:
feed://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/21645839.rss

Baker Tweet
BakerTweet is a way for busy bakers to tell the world that something hot and fresh has just come out of the oven. It's as simple as turning the dial and ...
www.bakertweet.com

Story of Stuff

2009-08-28T08:11:00.004+10:00

This is a 21-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. It is a great use of a combination of animation and live video to explain a number of complex ideas.
It does teach you, it makes you laugh, and it may influence the opinions of the 7 million people who have viewed it.

USERVOICE

2009-08-26T08:18:00.000+10:00

Note: I don't use this, it looks good and when I see the need I will have a go at setting one of these up. I have participated in someone else's feedback system.

Do you need to provide help to users?
Do you want their ideas for your product or service?
Then look at how the feedback system works at UserVoice.
..their blurb..
Uservoice communities are the easiest way to turn customer feedback into action:
Share ideas.
Vote up the best.
Respond, implement & repeat!
../their blurb..

I particularly liked the idea of voting and the way that voting allowed you to express how strongly you felt about an idea.
Votes are returned to you to use again if the idea is accepted or deleted.
The hottest part of the systems was the way when you are entering your idea (or problem) a real-time search shows the suggestions (or problems) entered by others.

Twitter Mastery

2009-08-10T20:25:00.004+10:00

Advice to people not on Twitter:
JOIN then learn how to get the most out of it.

Pick a topic to Tweet on and stick to that topic for that Twitter account

Consider having more than one account, maybe a busy one and a not-so-busy one

Complete the details in your profile to clearly show your interest in your topic

Choose very carefully who you follow

Unfollow anyone who is too noisy

Don't give away your religious or political preferences without reflecting on whether to show these things by who you follow

Don't follow noisy famous peole - look then up from time to time instead

Avoid following people who don't complete their profile or people who don't have web addresses

Follow people for a while then reconsider them. Maybe you would be better to follow one or two of their followers

Decide whether a person's followers are a better list to check than the people that they follow

Decide each time whether to block any new followers

Block anyone who only ever has one message and keeps repeating it

Block any followers that follow lots of people and have few followers

Do not follow the links of people who follow lots of people and have few followers

Try to have more followers than people you follow

Try to have less updates than the people that you follow

Have a rule about time between updates - one per night?

Search a topic keyword before you post - what is known already?

Look at your own profile. Is it all retweets (RT) or responses? Try to vary between these and new postings.

Delete any of your updates that were a good idea at the time but that look out of place in your profile

Don't just plug your business.

Discuss articles on topics related to what you know. Only when people respect your opinion should you recommend product.

Think of the tweet as the ad for your blog posts

Hundreds of the right sort of followers are much better than thousands of rude video makers and spammers

Get the mood right. Start with a review of your profile.

Finally note that followers are listed in the order they followed. More recent ones are more likely to follow you back.
Winhelp.com.au as such is not on Twitter. We service two accounts on unrelated topics. From time to time we search for Help3 and related topics to keep abreast of changes in the industry.

Wikis for Business

2009-07-02T09:57:00.001+10:00

One tool available to businesses for enabling teamwork and collaboration is the wiki.
You stay in the flow of your work by clicking “Edit This Page” where you see something that needs to be written or re-written.
[more]

Help tools and manuals - nostalgia

2009-05-28T10:52:00.002+10:00

Subject: Re: Help tools and manuals
From: Bruce WHITE
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1996 11:38:44 UT

Dan,
>>They want a separate look, feel, and layout for each of these docs.
>>That means two separate files.

When you plan the project, work out what is common to both.
techwr-l.com/archives
===================
Ah! nostalgia, it ain't what it used to be..

Descriptions of US Federal datasets

2009-05-24T20:57:00.003+10:00

Data.gov claims to increase the ability of the public to find, download, and use datasets that are generated and held by the US Federal Government.
It provides descriptions of the datasets (metadata), information about how to access these datasets, and tools that leverage government datasets.
Further data catalogs will be added. Federal, Executive Branch data are included in the first version.
More: The access point:
www.data.gov
A commentary:
scienceforseo.com/../shiny-new-dataset

Public Relations Research on Social Media

2009-04-17T13:44:00.001+10:00

Coming soon from Public Relations Online - Thoughts & Theory: Special Issue of Journal of Public Relations Research on Social Media
Further to the previous post:
winhelp.com.au/labels/web2.htm

Social network and Web2 apps

2009-04-02T16:12:00.006+11:00

Popular social networks and Web2 applications:
Twitter - Flavour of the month.
Best for keeping up-to-date your idols, a particular topic (eg. #surfing) and/or members of your team.

Linkedin - How timely.
If you think that there is a chance that you might be unemployed soon; hop on this network (don't look too desperate). Then if the crunch comes you might be able to use your presence here to get a job or at least to use it as a reference.

Blogger / MySpace / Multiply - DIY websites or a scrapbook.
All those people you call friends are by definition interested in what you do. Put a collection of your stuff somewhere where they can see it. I prefer Multiply for this purpose.

Facebook - "Friend collecting"
As an older person I use it to keep tabs (in a nice way) on my relatives in that Facebook age group. It helps that I am not the slightest bit judgemental.

It is by playing with tools that you learn how to use them.

Before you forward

2009-03-24T10:58:00.003+11:00

Have you ever felt tempted to forward an email to everyone in your contact list?
OR to just your best 20 or so friends?

Before you mass-forward email consider this:
They might each be suitably impressed and forward that email to their hundreds of friends.

Remember the game where you placed a grain of sand on the first square of a chess board and doubled the number in each square after that?
If you don't then try it and see what happens.

With that email is not just a case of doubling, it may be multiplied by 20 or a hundred at each step.

That email you are about to forward has as its main purpose getting you to forward it!

I expect that there are systemic ways that it can be prevented from bringing the internet to a halt. But the main way that you can contribute is to not forward it.

You may know employees that have a little more time on their hands at the moment, so this may happen more often than when they were busy.

To immunise yourself against the temptation to mass-forward email visit:
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/
The people on that site have seen it all before..

3rd party advertising

2009-03-16T10:42:00.001+11:00

We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you.
[more]

Luchetti and Co Solicitors

2009-02-03T18:12:00.001+11:00

Our sponsors..
Luchetti and Co - North Sydney - Crows Nest

Debategraph

2009-01-22T09:37:00.003+11:00

Question: What is a an argument map with aspects of a wiki, a forum, a blog, instant messaging and social bookmarking?
Answer: Debategraph
Debategraph gives a visual representation of the intricate arguments and issues in a debate and participants can input their views to it.
http://debategraph.org
See a detailed description of an example:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7827112.stm

Keep Track of Formatting

2008-12-17T09:32:00.002+11:00

Office 2007
Something to be aware of for those of you using track changes and fussy about your formatting (and new to Word 2007)
From the Office button select Word Options then Advanced and you will see "Keep track of formatting".
For details see C Kent's page:
How to turn Keep Track of Formatting on and off

Customise the NEWS

2008-11-27T17:13:00.001+11:00

Wotnews allows you to personalise your news from Australia. You set it up to tell you about specific companies or people. Set up a share portfolio or for any interest in a particular industry or sector. Wotnews will find the news on these topics as soon as it breaks. It is delivered to you as an email alert or an RSS feed.
See
wotnews.com.au/tour
OR
Look for a similar facility with your favourite and trusted news source.

Tagging documents

2008-07-19T10:07:00.001+10:00

Structured document formats like DITA, DocBook, and Solbook are characterized by deeply nested tags and a multitude of schema constraints.
Unstructured tagging languages like HTML, on the other hand, are wide open.
Some people think that it is a contest between the two types:
Read the summary [more..]
OR the full article:
blogs.sun.com/.../do_we_really_need_structured.
The answer may lie in the correct choice of tagging for particular information. More uses information should mean more structure to that information (and more tags). More information and more users of the information should also mean more structure.

Backup Traps

2007-11-29T09:32:00.001+11:00

During a full backup some backup software look like they are backing up your directories but they are not. When you point the program to the folder it then writes a list of the files and only backs these up.
Similarly CD burning jobs in some programs work from a file list not a folder list. There is a big difference because each file added to a directory is often more valuable than one of the existing files.
Now that you know, test your "backup and burn" assumptions. Especially if you backup using a full, not an incremental backup.

RSS introduction

2007-07-19T16:48:00.000+10:00

RSS, Really Simple Syndication or "Atom" is a way to read and write information on the web. When reading you can keep track of more sites in less time and when writing you can share your words and ideas more quickly.
It is a method of publishing to the web. You write using blogs or other RSS writers. You read using an RSS reader of some sort. Examples include Outlook add-in to make emails from RSS to Google's home page that makes lines of links from each entry grouped under the heading for that feed. It probably should have been called a Really Flexible Syndication Tool.
Created by people who are service providers, tool vendors and independent developers, it is designed to be a universal publishing standard for personal content and weblogs. [more...]

Download WinHlp32

2007-05-17T10:13:00.001+10:00

Starting with the Windows Vista operating system release, the Windows Help program does not ship as a component of the Windows operating system.
Also, third-party programs that include .hlp files are prohibited from redistributing the Windows Help program together with their products.
Users who want to view 32-bit .hlp files must download the program from the Microsoft Download Center, and then install it on their computers.
To download WinHlp32.exe, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=82148
Users who have not installed this program on their computer are directed to a help topic in the Windows Vista Help and Support application.

Extensible Business Reporting Language

2006-11-07T10:42:00.001+11:00

XBRL International Members’ Newsletter - an easy way of keeping up with XBRL developments and issues around the world.
XBRL stands for eXtensible Business Reporting Language. It is one of a family of XML languages. This one is for a standard means of communicating information between businesses and the internet.
Visit www.xbrl.org for more information on XBRL.

Google your business

2006-10-05T10:34:00.001+10:00

There are a number of developments at Google that are relevant to businesses, especially small businesses.
A good place to start to check them all out is subscribe to the RSS (see below for explanation of atoms, etc)
Google RSS feed is:
http://www.google.com/googleblog/atom.xml

New approach to a News site

2006-05-29T14:26:00.001+10:00

CThings is a news site where users submit articles and the readers choose which stories make the headlines.
cthings.com

Putting it all together

2006-02-01T11:56:00.001+11:00

For years we have been saying "if you don't hurry up it will get easier".
NOW it is easy (and cheaper than you think).

Talk to us about making a website that allows you to:
* Update the website with your news items (using a simple web page interface)
* Syndicate these news items to anyone interested
* Connect with Google AdWords to put in place an income stream.

Google Ads - see what happens

2005-12-07T12:24:00.000+11:00

To the right of this page is a list of advertisments that are randomly selected by Google based on the keywords on this page.
When you run a business blog that means that competitors often end up there.
Also some products appear there that you may not endorse. One example for me is WhitePage (note not White Pages as in the phone book). They provide blogs and are some connection to Namescout Corp (with a registered office in Bridgetown, Barbados).
So I will comment this blog item with comments on the various things that appear in the Google ad list.

Business Blogs

2005-10-12T14:56:00.000+10:00

In July 2005 we said:
Let us show you how to use Blog technology to make and maintain a website for a business. We can setup for you an inexpensive site that you can maintain easily yourself, as often as you like. Most additions and alterations are done using simple web page forms.

This site is one example, here is another:
winhelp.com.au/luchetti

AND guess what!
In October 2005 Microsoft discover the same thing...
www.microsoft.com/business/executivecircle/

XDK and HDK email lists

2005-06-02T06:29:00.000+10:00

We maintain the email list for users of xdk and hdk.
Details of that list are at:
winhelp.com.au/xdkhdk

Those of you still subscribed to the old HDK list (clari.net) should block or automatically delete emails from there. You will not be able to unsubscribe and we have no control over that list - despite being the owner of the list.

Help Authoring Tools

2005-04-04T11:17:00.001+10:00

It seems that users of these tools have been surprised that there is no further development planned on quite a few of these tools. The list now includes RoboHelp.

This probably means that product support from the vendors will also fade. It puts support back on the users to support each other. That is what the email lists are all about.

Is the information lost inside the document?

2004-10-26T16:29:00.002+10:00

Over the years we have developed ways of extracting information from within documents.
For example the document may have information in tables with cells all over the place. This arrangment may not suit the next purpose of the information.
When you don't want to waste your time trying to extract bits and pieces of information, talk to us, or email:
Contact Bruce White

Who did what when?

2004-09-08T13:17:00.001+10:00

Problem: What work has been done on a particular project.
Solution: Check the files created on the PC. Hopefully they were all placed in identifiable places, like their project directory.

1. Use Command Prompt (\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories) to extract the information to clipboard. Right click the [c:\] button for the menu. Type the drive letter you want, then navigate the directories using the command:
cd (then paste the rest of the directory copied from the Windows Explorer address bar).
Use cd.. to move up a level.
2. Paste into MSWord and replace the sometimes fixed widths with tabs (macro for this)
3. Select all text for table - copy & paste into Excel
4. Sort by Date and time
5. Find files with contiguous dates to identify time spent on the project.

Ideas for using BlogThis!

2004-05-30T19:51:00.000+10:00

BlogThis!
We have proved that don't need to be writing diary style to use a blog. For years we have been using it for events lists and What's new pages.
BlogThis! lets you come up with something for the blog spontaneously. Select text and press a browser button.
This means that bumping into something of interest can be turned into a blog entry quickly and easily.

Alertbox on PDFs

2003-07-24T09:00:00.000+10:00

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, July 14, 2003:
PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption
Summary:
Users get lost inside PDF files, which are typically big, linear text
blobs that are optimized for print and unpleasant to read and
navigate online. PDF is good for printing, but that's it. Don't use
it for online presentation.

www.useit.com/alertbox/

MSHelpWiki

2003-05-09T09:52:00.000+10:00

www.mshelpwiki.com demonstrates and explains a Wiki.
Basically it is a website that users can add to, alter or correct. Seems like a good idea, and yes it is moderated, so the work of people who make a mess can be rolled back.
The content of the site is everything you need to know about online documentation, help file authoring and the Microsoft file formats for this purpose. We have been contributing to it.

Editing documents in MSWord?

2003-04-23T10:29:00.001+10:00

Be sure to check the document properties, File => Properties

These can often show information that is not consistent with the content. If the information was borrowed/stolen from someone then it may also show the original author.

Integrated development

2003-03-05T17:18:00.001+11:00

We hold these things to be self evident:
Any manuals and online help (inc. those for software) should be created using an integrated development process.
The manual and the product it supports should be entirely consistent with each other. The content of the manual should be focussed on the functions of the product.
To do this the documentation must start with the functional specifications and be developed alongside the product.

Document conversion problems in HDK

2002-03-01T15:41:00.000+11:00

To find the error, (use a copy of the document) make it into two documents and see which half crashes.
Remember to put a Heading 1 at the start of the second half.

Reboot and then split that document in half until you find the problem. Also watch the compile process for clues on which topic has the problem.

Once you find the topic with the problem, go to the original document and copy the text to Notepad then back. This will clean up the code. If what you find is a table, select the table and convert it to text then back again to clean up the table.

Sometimes the problem is with an imbedded graphic, normalise the graphic in some way and then reinsert it.

HDK features that are also in XDK:

2002-02-06T15:51:00.000+11:00

a number of table of contents options (more in v3.6)
Styles, HDK generates a CSS based on the MSWord paragraph and character styles
projects can process a "header" file or you can mock one up to control the names of the output HTML pages
HTML pages can be split out of a single Word document using paragraph styles
projects can include multiple Word documents.

Word Automatic numbering fix:

2002-02-02T11:46:00.001+11:00

(from: Steve Hudson , HDK List MVP)
Just prior to publishing, make a copy of your document and open that copy.
Press Alt+F11 (opens the VBE), Ctrl+G (goto Immediate Window) and type

ActiveDocument.ConvertNumbersToText

This 'hard-codes' all lists in the document, numbers and bullet points.

The Desperate HDK fix

2002-01-30T14:18:00.001+11:00

1. Backup the whole project
2. Export the template and save it.
3. Go back to the old project and in each of the documents Select All then add the content as item in the Gallery.
4. Make a new project using the exported template
5. Make a new document inserting a Gallery item into each new document.
6. Check that you have the same number of documents as the original project.
7. Go into Topic Outliner and in full screen mode clean up the structure of your hierarchy.
8. Clean up any duplicates (like graphics).
9 Compile and check for errors

Hypertext and PDF?

2002-01-24T23:13:00.000+11:00

Use hypertext (WinHelp & HTML) as the trunk and branches and PDF as the leaves. Hypertext for the information that can be read on the screen and PDF for detail that needs to be printed to be read.

Opening another instance of the browser

2002-01-24T09:02:00.000+11:00

In the HDK URL box add the URL and the target
After the URL add a closing quote
then the exact next line
target="_blank

Note no closing quote for the target string, HDK will supply that.