Online help systems are the online format of user documentation. The online tutorials and F1 helps are the popular forms of online help systems. These help systems are also known to be context sensitive. Some programs are more sophisticated, displaying different help messages depending on where you are in the program (webopedia).
Online help systems are very helpful because they appear instantly, you do not need to go through user manuals, and still perform the task you are doing while looking at the help tutorial right on the computer screen.
According to book, Is the Help Helpful? Online help is as much a part of the user interface as windows, dialog boxes, or Web pages. It must be planned and designed as part of the project, with similar consideration for users’ requirements.
Types of Online Help
The term “online help” (sometimes called user assistance) applies to Win help, HTML help, HTML-based help, Web help, Java help and other forms of online information, and includes features known as “show-me help”, embedded help, and several varieties of electronic performance support systems (Weber, Granor, ebrary).
Win help is the old format which is based on the Rich Text Format (RTF). It has been a popular help format but these the new formats are being implemented such as HTML-based help or Web help etc. If you do remember, Microsoft Windows 3.0 – XP has the standard Win help.
Talking about Microsoft, it has various types of help platforms for delivering help systems such as Win help, Compressed HTML help, HTML help 2.0 etc.
Advantages of Online Help
Online help systems are in high demand these days because it is more approachable by the user. Many people do not like reading through all the text before they reach the actual instructions they are looking for. Greg Kearsley in the book, Online Help Systems, gives a comparison between the online and offline documentation. According to Greg Kearsley, the main advantages of online documentation are availability, keyword searching, and ease of distribution. One of the significant advantages of online documentation is the ability to search for terms or phrases via keyword searches, - big improvement over fixed indexing.
The reason why online help systems are more used than the printed documentation is that the online help is consistently updated when the software is updated. On the other hand, the printed document needs to go through the printing and binding procedure before getting into the users’ hands.
Help Authoring Tools
- Adobe Robo Help
- Doc-To-Help
- AuthorIT
- HelpScribble
- Dr.Explain
Acknowledgements:
- Names mentioned in Help Authoring Tools
- Wikipedia
- WritersUA
References
Kearsley, Greg. 1988. Online Help Systems: Design and Implementation. Published by Intellect Books.
ISBN 089391472X, 9780893914721
Weber, Hollis, Jean, Granor, E., Tamar, and ebrary, Inc. 2004. Is the Help Helpful? How to Create Online
Help That Meets Your Users’ Needs. Published by Hentzenwerke. ISBN 1930919603,
9781930919600
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/H/Help.html
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