Help and Documentation authoring software

[Brawler]

Hi All.

I'm working on a project which has grown somewhat and need to put together some help documentation, you know, like the one you get when you press f1.

So far I can see Microsoft's HTML help, Help & Manual and HelpNDoc. Which is best or any other suggestions?

Freeware always best but can pay if need be.

Thanks.

 

[rrh]

RoboHelp used to be the one to beat. No sure how it rates since it was purchased by Adobe.

 

[Brawler]

Thanks, will check it out.

 

[cerebus]

How much can you afford to pay and what is the scale of the documentation that you require? There is quite a large field of software out there dedicated to technical authoring: AuthorIT (which I haven't ever used), Robohelp (well integrated with Adobe suite of tools), Madcap Flare (my personal favourite authoring tool due to the powerful WSIWYG and topic-based approach), oXygen XML (the one we are currently using, which is good for scaling to a very large and technical environment where you need to control every facet of the publishing process - if you have multiple products with their own timelines and templates and perhaps a DITA framework and all the rest of it, then you need to start looking for a higher order of product like this), Framemaker (which used to be the de facto but is more suited to manuals than online modular forms of help), and so forth.

However, if you really want a cheap and simple tool, MS's HTML Help is probably the first port of call. But just don't expect it to be able to scale to fit an organisation's entire requirement over time.

 

[zippy]

Hi All.

I'm working on a project which has grown somewhat and need to put together some help documentation, you know, like the one you get when you press f1.

So far I can see Microsoft's HTML help, Help & Manual and HelpNDoc. Which is best or any other suggestions?

Freeware always best but can pay if need be.

Thanks.

Is the software only used in-house? If it is rather do the documentation in MS Word or whatever word processor software is used . You can link to them from the corporate website. Or import them into a wiki or something. It's a far cheaper option.

I found that users prefer the documentation and help info to open in seperate app windows. Also when the main program pops up an error code, it's usually a modal pop up window they have to dismiss the dialog before opening the help menu.

 

[Brawler]

Thanks all for your suggestions.

This software seems to be doing the job:
http://www.helpndoc.com/

I have no doubt there is fancier stuff out there but this seems perfect for my needs. I will investigate the others for future use though.

 

[cerebus]

Thanks all for your suggestions.

This software seems to be doing the job:
http://www.helpndoc.com/

I have no doubt there is fancier stuff out there but this seems perfect for my needs. I will investigate the others for future use though.

Looks good. Not everyone requires elaborate help systems. Let me know if you would like more assistance; I'm happy to meet for a coffee anytime as you're just up the road from me.