Online help vs. CHM help
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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:
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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
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
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In my project I have used CHM. Its more flexible to use CHM.
I always use CHM files in my projects.
NKS
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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.
You don't have to have Internet access to view HTML files, as long as they are also shipped with the product. I prefer HTML help over CHM simply because it is plain text, and thus easier to maintain.
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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.
Help & Manual (www.ec-software.com) is an easy to use help authoring application, allows different output formats and has imho fast and efficient support. rtfm* (yes, this is the title of the book) by Peter Vogel is a concentrated instruction about how to write manuals that users will read (and still being your customers). Happy writing.
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In my project I have used CHM. Its more flexible to use CHM.
Personally I hate online help. Not saying CHM is the best ever or anything like that, but I often find online help has terrible index/contents and the search mechansims aren't always great. They seldom allow for book marking favourite pages and such either. By far the biggest problem with online help though, is having to be online to read it. I might be online most of the time these days, but I have a laptop and mobile data plans are expensive in NZ (wireless hotspost also expensive/uncommon in the areas I visit), so it's not uncommon for me to be working offline. I even had 6 months without internet a year or two ago, because the local telecommunications company 'cabinetised' the roadside equipment and messed up my internet connection. Since my ISP wasn't leagally allowed to access the equipment, and since no one really knew what had happed it took ages to get fixed, and even changing ISP's didn't help. Of course, if you're application is a web one or you have to be online to use it anyway, maybe not such a big deal. Just my 2 cents worth. I fear I'm in the minority again anyway.
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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
Well online could be very easier than CHM. The issue is that if the network or the internet is down and the client needs to check the help, how is the client going to do it? I prefer having a local manual than a web site manual. Nothing different from having a brand new ceiling fan with a clear and simple installation manual (I just installed one in my room ;P).
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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.
Don't do a great deal of this, but prefer to have a CHM. Sometimes supplement with an online version for 'updates'. Still don't think we can always assume that people will have Internet access. I use HelpNDoc http://www.helpndoc.com/store[^]- even the free (non-commercial use) version produces CHM/HTML/DOC/PDF versions of your file that look remarkably similar. The full version isn't expensive at EU$139. Always some limitations and quirks, but this works well for my limited use.
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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