Online help vs. CHM help
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Pete O'Hanlon wrote:
£1,000 a d
Is this for Inside Bespoke Software, or a desktop app for the masses?
Software Kinetics - The home of good software
Inside bespoke.
Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads
My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier - my favourite utility
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My client asked me for a recommendation about whether his new product should use online help (hosted on his web site), or a traditional CHM help file. Obviously online help can be updated more easily, with no downloads involved. And sometimes CHM help files have to be "unblocked" before they can be viewed. Aside from these things, does anyone have any experience with online help for a product? Any problems with it?
Best wishes, Hans
As already noted, quality is the key, not format. A well-written manual on clay tablets will beat the majority of online help out there. The content focus of online help has shifted in the last decade: Users expect to explore your solftware, and will look for the manual only when they are stuck, more interested in "How to solve X" types rather than understanding your software.
IMO the main downside of CHM is that browser navigation is constantly improving, and users adopt well, whereas the CHM viewer is stuck in the '90. The most significant difference is probably in full text search. Updating Help online is a two-edged sword, as you should preserve existing URL's and content for previous versions. That's no problem only for some software. CHM also offers additional features such as QuickHelp, which may come handy if you want to localize documentation. Still, I prefer a local help as long as it works (i.e. unlike MSDN). Even with a good connection, latency is slightly higher.
FILETIME to time_t
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My client asked me for a recommendation about whether his new product should use online help (hosted on his web site), or a traditional CHM help file. Obviously online help can be updated more easily, with no downloads involved. And sometimes CHM help files have to be "unblocked" before they can be viewed. Aside from these things, does anyone have any experience with online help for a product? Any problems with it?
Best wishes, Hans
If this is a desktop app, what if the user doesn't have an internet connection? No connection, no help. Believe it or not, this is the usual case in my environment. Given that both use HTML as a source, it shouldn't be that hard to make both available.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
We have a technical author on staff to write our documentation. I am aware enough of my shortcomings as an author to know that the task of writing documentation is best left to a dedicated person. Sadly, I am going to have to recruit a new one because Alison has just resigned to move to a contract that's paying her £1,000 a day to write documents; I'm obviously in the wrong job,
Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads
My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier - my favourite utility
Pete O'Hanlon wrote:
£1,000 a day
:wtf: I wonder if I even want to know what kind of documents are these...
FILETIME to time_t
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My client asked me for a recommendation about whether his new product should use online help (hosted on his web site), or a traditional CHM help file. Obviously online help can be updated more easily, with no downloads involved. And sometimes CHM help files have to be "unblocked" before they can be viewed. Aside from these things, does anyone have any experience with online help for a product? Any problems with it?
Best wishes, Hans
Though I am only a student, in my experience, I have preferred CHM help files to online help files for the reason that I am not always around an internet connection, or have my connection limited to a very few number of sites. This has been my case with learning Python, and if it was not for the CHM documentation, I would not have been able to learn much of what I currently know.
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Prasanta_Prince wrote:
In my project I have used CHM. Its more flexible to use CHM.
What do you mean? What can you do with CHM that you can't do with online help?
Best wishes, Hans
...use it on ships with no Internet access? Most of my applications are used in areas where there is no, or very limited Internet access - either limited by bandwidth or firewalls. So, chm is still a necessity to me. Which brings up the next question - any decent apps to make chm help files? I am currently using RoboHelp but that hasn't been supported since 2004. It would be nice to find something not horribly expensive but similar in operation to RoboHelp. RoboHelp could also do online help as well, from the same source.
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My client asked me for a recommendation about whether his new product should use online help (hosted on his web site), or a traditional CHM help file. Obviously online help can be updated more easily, with no downloads involved. And sometimes CHM help files have to be "unblocked" before they can be viewed. Aside from these things, does anyone have any experience with online help for a product? Any problems with it?
Best wishes, Hans
Yes, I prefer Local PDF file's with a url to get updates. I beleve no wants to read information about the whole world, just the basic infoemation as to what this program does and and how to do it. F1 Help ( *.hlp, *.cmp or *.dbf ... files) is great for reminders.
cprich
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Then go for the best option: CHM files available to be downloaded in the web site just to be sure that the information will be available in the computer it will be needed only by installing it... some times there is not an internet connection there... AND Online help system. To get access to the newest and more accurate information. :thumbsup:
[www.tamelectromecanica.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
HTML files don't need to be "online". I use them as a standard even when provided locally with the application. CHM files allow for better out-of-the-box printing options, contents and searching, but this can be done for local HTML files as well, using an appropriate application (we use xsd, xsl and css files I wrote myself for generating the HTML table of contents).
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If this is a desktop app, what if the user doesn't have an internet connection? No connection, no help. Believe it or not, this is the usual case in my environment. Given that both use HTML as a source, it shouldn't be that hard to make both available.
Software Zen:
delete this;HTML can be viewed locally. No internet connection is required.
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HTML files don't need to be "online". I use them as a standard even when provided locally with the application. CHM files allow for better out-of-the-box printing options, contents and searching, but this can be done for local HTML files as well, using an appropriate application (we use xsd, xsl and css files I wrote myself for generating the HTML table of contents).
Bruce Patin wrote:
HTML files don't need to be "online"
:omg: ;) If you re-read the topic line you'll see that the OP is asking what is better: "CHM or online help"... So, you point is?
[www.tamelectromecanica.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
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Yes, I prefer Local PDF file's with a url to get updates. I beleve no wants to read information about the whole world, just the basic infoemation as to what this program does and and how to do it. F1 Help ( *.hlp, *.cmp or *.dbf ... files) is great for reminders.
cprich
PDF provides things lacking in the other formats. PDF can have a table of contents, is searchable, printable. Like HTML, PDF can be viewed either locally or online. Actually, it is better locally, since you don't have to download it. Also, PDF is more universal - I can view PDF files on a Linux machine.
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Bruce Patin wrote:
HTML files don't need to be "online"
:omg: ;) If you re-read the topic line you'll see that the OP is asking what is better: "CHM or online help"... So, you point is?
[www.tamelectromecanica.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
Maybe the OP needs to realize that the question belies poor understanding of the possible solution to the real problem. That's like asking which is better: a Volvo or a car with wheels?
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HTML can be viewed locally. No internet connection is required.
To my mind, in this context the phrase 'online help' means HTML served by the application company's web server.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Maybe the OP needs to realize that the question belies poor understanding of the possible solution to the real problem. That's like asking which is better: a Volvo or a car with wheels?
Then I guess that the best you could do is to ask him and clarify it... I'm sure Hans[^] will be glad to receive as much help as possible to decide which is the best option... ;) Apart from that... Hans has been here for almost 10 years and knows exactly how to ask a good question in order to receive the best result... so I guess that you are wrong and that he really wanted to know which is the best option between online or local help systems... anyway... you should contact him not the others... X|
[www.tamelectromecanica.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
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...use it on ships with no Internet access? Most of my applications are used in areas where there is no, or very limited Internet access - either limited by bandwidth or firewalls. So, chm is still a necessity to me. Which brings up the next question - any decent apps to make chm help files? I am currently using RoboHelp but that hasn't been supported since 2004. It would be nice to find something not horribly expensive but similar in operation to RoboHelp. RoboHelp could also do online help as well, from the same source.
I've been using WinCHM (by SoftAny) since v3.5 ... it's now up to v4. It does have the occasional quirk when switching between straight edit and html edit but nothing serious. It might serve your needs.
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I've been using WinCHM (by SoftAny) since v3.5 ... it's now up to v4. It does have the occasional quirk when switching between straight edit and html edit but nothing serious. It might serve your needs.
I will try that - it has the added bonus of PDF output as well. I have some clients (and boss!) that always wants a 'hard copy manual'. I've gone blue in the face telling them that a hard copy makes no sense as it doesn't have links to be able to get from subject to subject easily, and writing a CHM in linear form will not make the electronic version as useful. So far I have resisted both clients & boss but now I would at least be able to give them a nice looking pdf I hope.
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My client asked me for a recommendation about whether his new product should use online help (hosted on his web site), or a traditional CHM help file. Obviously online help can be updated more easily, with no downloads involved. And sometimes CHM help files have to be "unblocked" before they can be viewed. Aside from these things, does anyone have any experience with online help for a product? Any problems with it?
Best wishes, Hans
We resolved this debate many years ago. We have a commercial product we sell online and have for many years and the only practical answer is both. You use a help generator product to make your downloadable help document and online help site from the same source documents and provide a link to help and a link to download the help. About 1% of our customers download the help and I bet only a small fraction of them actually refer to it. The vast majority read it online. (Of course by vast majority I mean almost no one who uses the product as I'm sure many others have indicated in their responses as well. It needs to be there or you never hear the end of it but almost no one is going to use it so the product better be intuitive and easy to use. All it's good for is making support easier because you can link to a help topic in a support reply.)
There is no failure only feedback
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If this is a desktop app, what if the user doesn't have an internet connection? No connection, no help. Believe it or not, this is the usual case in my environment. Given that both use HTML as a source, it shouldn't be that hard to make both available.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
My client asked me for a recommendation about whether his new product should use online help (hosted on his web site), or a traditional CHM help file. Obviously online help can be updated more easily, with no downloads involved. And sometimes CHM help files have to be "unblocked" before they can be viewed. Aside from these things, does anyone have any experience with online help for a product? Any problems with it?
Best wishes, Hans
I only consider online help if the software requires access to Internet to work. Otherwise, CHM. Or both. Sure, online help can be updated easily, but on the other hand, if the user is using an obsolete version of the software, it can be problematic.
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My client asked me for a recommendation about whether his new product should use online help (hosted on his web site), or a traditional CHM help file. Obviously online help can be updated more easily, with no downloads involved. And sometimes CHM help files have to be "unblocked" before they can be viewed. Aside from these things, does anyone have any experience with online help for a product? Any problems with it?
Best wishes, Hans
Here's a few additional things to think about: * How will your customer handle docs for different versions of their software? * How long will they keep help pages for a version available? * How will they know no more users are still running a given version of SW and the pages can be removed? Note, access for help pages from that version (the easy metric) won't tell the story. * Are they willing to alienate customers (and loose their upgrade business) by taking help pages down too soon? * How long are they prepared to maintain a help server system? What if the server needs upgrades that would render it incompatible with previous versions of the SW? Are they prepared to maintain multiple help servers? * Accessing online docs are slow across the public internet (especially wireless). Will users appreciate that delay? Will they perceive that putting up with the extra delay benefits them in any way at all? * Does your customer want to advertise new products or versions to their users through the help server? I'm against this, but it's an obvious question. So, here's a possible solution: Why not write the docs in HTML and then allow users to access them online or download a copy and access it? That way the users get the best of both worlds and can choose the access that fits their needs.
patbob