2005-04-04

Help Authoring Tools

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.

2004-09-08

Who did what when?

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.

2004-05-30

Ideas for using BlogThis!

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.

2003-07-24

Alertbox on PDFs

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/

@winhelp3 on Twitter