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As a technical writer you have probably evaluated multiple help authoring tools - from low cost programs to complex and expensive systems. This article is dedicated to HelpSmith, my favorite help authoring tool, which really takes the process of creating help files to a new level. Let's just take a look at what this great tool allows you to do. Create CHM Files With HelpSmith, you can easily create HTML Help files. Due to the WYSIWYG principle, HelpSmith provides you with a full-featured text editor with integrated dynamic styles support and the live spell checker feature. So the process of working on a help system simply gets to a new quality level. You can use images, create full-featured tables, insert hyperlinks, bookmarks, and so on. Finally, being a complete help authoring solution, HelpSmith makes it possible to create the Table of Contents and the keyword Index for your help file in seconds due to the integrated editors with drag'n'drop functionality. Make Web Help from the Same Source Help Project You can build a WebHelp system by exporting all the information from your source project into a series of HTML files: click the "Create Web Help" command on the "Project" menu or click the corresponding button on the toolbar (which is similar to when you need to export into other help formats) and HelpSmith will prepare all the necessary files. A browser-based help system created with HelpSmith includes a collapsible Table of Contents (similar to the TOC in CHM), an alphabetical Index, and the Search functionality. Then you should put all the files of your Web Help system to your web server or simply copy them to a public folder if you need to provide access for colleagues in your network. Creating a Printed Manual You can use HelpSmith to supply technical documentation both in the electronic (with the mentioned ability to create CHM and WebHelp files) and printed formats. Using HelpSmith, you can see all the results as they are before the final version of the documentation is compiled or printed out. You can print out the manual directly from HelpSmith; or you can export the manual into MS Word, for ex., to demonstrate it to your clients who may not have HelpSmith installed on his or her computer. Dynamic Styles Described above, dynamic styles is a must-have feature for any help authoring application. Dynamic styles allow you to store all formatting information separately from help topics, which lets you make any changes in formatting at any time with No need to manually process a big number of help topics. Also, using styles, you do not have to set the same attributes again and again while working on help topics. Image being able to select the part of text and then apply the necessary style to set the required options to the selection. In addition, HelpSmith allows you to setup different views for a particular style (including styles created by the user), so the same style can look differently when the project is compiled into HTML Help, Web Help, or Printed Manual. So dynamic styles will save much of your time and significantly speed up the process of writing technical documentation and help files. Single Multimedia Repository HelpSmith allows you to use graphical and video files in your help files and provides an advanced way to control that multimedia. All media files that you add into your help project automatically get into a single storage. This makes it possible for you not to waste your time on copying any file from its initial location on your hard disk. In case you need to copy the whole help project to another pc, for example, in order to make a back-up, all multimedia files are already stored in a single place together with your help project. Another benefit of the media repository is that you can update any graphical file with NO need to edit all the topics where that media appears. For example, if you have a dialog box that has changes in the new version of your application, you can create a new screenshot and paste it into the repository instead of the obsolete one. In addition, HelpSmith includes an automatic graphical formats converted that can convert bitmaps (.BMP) or metafiles into a more appropriate graphical format such as .PNG or .GIF when you compile your help project into CHM or Web Help, for instance. No Need to Learn Anything HelpSmith is an easy-to-use product just like any regular office application we use for our everyday computer activities. So even if you are not a help authoring professional, you can start creating first-class help files without the necessity to learn anything about technical issues of creating help files. No need to code .HTML or .CSS or even know anything about it. By concentrating on writing with the help of the features such as the full-featured style system, you will finish your help project much faster than it could be done with any other technical writing tool.
Article Source: http://www.articlebase.info
Robert Richardson is an independent technical writer and reviewer of help tools such as Dr.Explain, HelpSmith from www.helpsmith.com and others.
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