Like any other development task, creating a help system for your applications requires choosing the best tool for the job. In my introductory article “Choosing the Online Help Format That Works Best for Your Project”, I described in detail the different help formats available. Now it’s time to evaluate the tools for creating help and see what they offer.

The mechanics

With a few of these tools, you create content in the tool’s development environment (depending on the software, this may be Microsoft Word or a custom solution), use the navigation window to assemble the topics in the order you want, and then click a button to have the program compile the topics into the help output you specify. Of course, there’s much more to it than that, but once you get past the learning curve, creating a basic help system takes no more time than creating any other documentation.

In fact, some development tools can actually reduce documentation development time by supporting single source. Single source means that you can turn the same set of help topics into printed documentation and any or all of the different help formats by simply specifying the output. If you need to create both print and online help, or online help in two formats, these tools will save you time.

The tool is only half the battle.

Of course, choosing a tool is the really easy part of it all. Writing online help topics is different from other documentation projects you might have done:

The usability requirements for online help are much stricter than for printed documentation. First, online help should be much more concise. Users shouldn’t have to scroll through a window to read it. If a topic requires more space than a window, methods such as view sequences should be used.
When users turn to online help, they are usually looking for answers to problems. You need to create an effective index and table of contents to help users find what they need quickly.
You will need to minimize or remove graphics. They take up valuable screen space, and users can usually see what they need in the application window itself.

Benefits

An online help system can be a useful complement to printed documentation, and can even replace printed manuals, saving printing and shipping costs. In addition, users often find online help more convenient and accessible than books and manuals. So, while most developers cringe at the thought of having to develop online help, the effort is usually worth it. Fortunately, there are a number of tools available to make the job as painless and efficient as possible.