Tip of the month from PRC
April 1999

Status of HTML help

PRC AcosHelp information included: 26 Sep. 2003
WebHelp experiences added 28 April 1999
Completely new release 7 April 1999
Published 6 April 1999

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Tip of the month is edited by Peter Ring, PRC (Peter Ring Consultants, Denmark)
- consultants on how to write user friendly manuals .

If you have corrections, better texts or suggestions for improvements, please let me know .

Thanks to Bob Johnson, Celerity Solutions, for very useful contributions, and to Joy Zigo, HarperCollins, for leads to WebHelp information.

Introduction
What are the advantages over traditional on-line help (e.g. Winhelp)?
What are the disadvantages versus traditional on-line help (e.g. Winhelp)?
Comments to the HTML help generating applications

Microsoft HTML Help Workshop
Doc-to-help from WexTech
ForeHTML Pro from Forefront
Robohelp HTML from Blue Sky Software

Browser independent HTML help systems
Alternative HTML help systems on their way?

Introduction

HTML help is an emerging technology. I have tried to use it and experimented with it, and I see a lot of very interesting possibilities. Some of these possibilities will lead to more user-friendly on-line help functions. But we will most likely also see a lot of smart gadgets, which is for the sake of the programmer's personal pride, only!

There are currently two types of HTML help:

Microsoft HTML Help (with uppercase H in Help) which is still Windows only. All the help data is included in a single (.chm) file.
Browser independent HTML help , which in principle can use any newer browser. It will therefore will work on any platform, which gives access to modern Internet browsers. There are currently three possibilities:

Generic HTML help: Simply write the help function as a bunch of HTML files + images, etc. It will work, but it's not considered really professional, and the search facilities (index and free text) will be missing unless you design such facilities yourself (see e.g. the "Tip of the month search engine" on http://www.prc.dk/user-friendly-manuals/ufm/tip-search.htm ). Internet based help systems will normally be generic HTML help.
Forefront's InterHelp , generated by ForeHELP Pro 3. All the help data is included in a single file.
Blue Sky Software's Java based WebHelp system, currently included in the Robohelp Office package. All the help data is included in a single file.

The status of other HTML help projects is described in "Alternative HTML help systems ".

Personally, I have (November 1998) only worked with "MS HTML Help Workshop", now in version 1.2.1.

Added September 2003:
In September 2003 PRC launched PRC AcosHelp which makes it possible to make context sensitive help with Adobe Acrobat files (PDF-files). For further information click the banner below:

What are the advantages over traditional on-line help (e.g. Winhelp)?

Winhelp is a typical traditional on-line help. It is basically text with images and internal links, written in a text editor, saved as a "Rich Text Format" (RTF) file, and then converted to a Winhelp (.HLP) file. The links are basically internal and may include pop-up texts when clicking a certain word. In the later versions some extra features have been added, mainly search by index and free text search. The major improvements has been on the editor tools with the development of applications like Robohelp and Doc-To-Help.

HTML help is based on a large number of HTML files, with all the facilities of HTML files. Basically you can use any application to produce the HTML files for HTML Help, but some systems may require, that you use the build-in editor in order to make the proper TOC, index, etc. facilities.

A Windows MS HTML Help window. Click to see it in full size.

In single file HTML help, one file contains all texts, images, sounds, videos, etc. used with the particular help function. It is read by means of a special reader (MS HTML Help) or a standard browser, setting up the index and free text search facilities and displaying the help texts with images, movies or whatever has been included. So far very little difference from e.g. the latest versions of Winhelp.

MS HTML Help is combined automatically from even a large number of individual HTML files. It is consequently very suitable for team projects.

But because HTML help is HTML based, there are some further possibilities:

You can include forms and send the filled in forms via the Internet (or an intranet or extranet) to a pre-defined e-mail address. This can be used for a lot of interesting purposes, e.g.

Spare part order form
Extra accessories order form
Consumables order form
User Registration
User experience feed-back
Q&A service (e-mail based hot-line).

You can use frames e.g. to

Make sure the text and the corresponding image or table is always displayed at the same time.
Display details and explanations in a separate window.

You can use Java and JavaScript to obtain special features. Examples:

In the normal text, the screenshots can be shown in 50% (linear) size. This will make them better viewable with the still very commonly used 640x480 and 800x600 screen resolution. When the mouse pointer is moved over the image, it is replaced by same image in full size for all details. I have used this in the help function for HTMLCleanUp , and it works beautifully. You can even read the width of the window and let that information decide the original image size.
You can let the user swap between "Beginner", "Normal" and "Expert" level, e.g. controlled by buttons on a top frame.
Generate tutorials by combining forms and JavaScript.
Check via the Internet (extranet/intranet) if the current version is the latest version, and if no ask if the user want to make an immediate update.

As you can see, only your fantasy sets the limits!

What are the disadvantages versus traditional on-line help (e.g. Winhelp)?

The MS HTML Help readers are not yet commonly spread (but included in Windows 98). This means that

you need to distribute the viewer with all .dll etc. files with your application programme.
the user must have MS Internet Explorer 3+ installed on the computer. Microsoft has announced a solution to this problem to be ready late 1999.

The MS HTML Help reader is not yet available for all platforms (to my knowledge it's Windows, only). This means that you can only use it with programmes distributed for platforms, which can use your version of HTML help.
To be able to utilise the JavaScript, etc., features the technical writers will need to learn some JavaScript. They don't need to be experts able to develop new JavaScript applications, but they must know enough about JavaScript to be able to copy a facility and adapt it to the actual HTML text.
If using JavaScript, different browsers' very different handling of JavaScript is a problem with the browser independent HTML help systems .

Comments to the HTML Help generating applications

Microsoft HTML Help Workshop

MS HTML Help Workshop 1.2.1 is downloadable (4MB) free of charge from Microsoft on http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/Author/htmlhelp/download.asp .

MS HTML Help is a single (.chm) file HTML help system, using its own Microsoft HTML Help viewer (hh.exe), currently available for Windows, only and using MS Internet Explorer 3+ as a sort of OLE application.

Basically, it works. You can produce nice MS HTML Help files with it. But user-friendly - no way!

The on-line help file (HTML Help of course) is written in the typical specialist-to-specialist style almost all of us hate. There are still features I have not been able to find out how to use. Lots of important features are not documented, e.g. how to make a subheading in the TOC refer to the subheading and not to the top of the HTML page. To make these things work, you must here open the TOC file in a text editor and change the HTML-like code. In the case with the subheading, you must put an anchor at the subheading and enter the anchor in the TOC file manually. Making an index is possible, but very tedious. And again, you must enter anchors and change the links to the anchors manually.

Doc-to-help from WexTech

For more info, see http://www.wextech.com .

Price class: US$ 800.

Thanks to Bob Johnson, Celerity Solutions, for this input:

"For HTML, WexTech has simply added new compiling options to the existing target list. The single-source paradigm still exists. When defining your project, you can define your Help target as one of several varieties of Winhelp (3.0, 3.1, 4.0 [Win 95/NT]) or HTML-based Help (generic HTML, MS HTML Help, or HTML customized for ActiveX or Java controls). You can also define text for specific targets (print only, general online help, or specific online help targets, such as Winhelp or HTML Help).

When it comes to compiling, WexTech has added a third phase. Originally, D2H modified the .doc file slightly, then turned it into a .rtf, which it processed further before compiling. Now, after creating the .rtf, D2H adds a further step, turning the .rtf into a series of .htm files. Depending on the target, it may process these files further, and may compile them into a single help file."

According to the WexTech website it has some -- for some applications -- interesting additional functions, e.g. the possibility to include help functions in the active application window.

ForeHTML Pro from Forefront

For more info, see http://www.ff.com .

Price class: US$ 400.

ForeHTML Pro 3 lets you create Microsoft's HTML Help, Windows CE Help, Sun Microsystems' JavaHelp, and their own new cross-platform InterHelp .

Robohelp HTML from Blue Sky Software

Price class: US$ 800.

For more info, see http://www.blue-sky.com .

I have not tried it, and I consequently don't know very much about it.

Robohelp HTML makes Microsoft's HTML Help compatible files.

Blue Sky Software has developed exclusive technology that allows automatic installation of the components required to display Microsoft HTML Help, without the necessity of installing the Internet Explorer 4.x browser (PRC: 3.x+) on the end user's system. The distribution of this reader is limited to licensed Robohelp users. It can be downloaded from Blue Sky's website (22.1MB).

The RoboHelp Office package now also (at least for a limited time) includes the platform independent WebHelp system using standard browsers.

Browser independent HTML based help systems

Be aware, that using a browser independent HTML help system also exposes your help project to all the problems with different browsers, especially if you use JavaScript. And believe me, it's a mess !!!

Bob Johnson, Celerity Solutions: "Both Blue Sky (creators of RoboHelp) and ForeFront (creators of ForeHelp) are also working on their own versions of HTML-based Help (WebHelp and InterHelp respectively). Both are trying to get past the propriteary formats of MS and Sun. BlueSky says it's developing a detector (it's calling it a "sniffer" last I heard) that looks at the compiled Help files to see whether it should implement Java or Active-X controls. I don't know what ForeFront's approach is."

WebHelp:

WebHelp is now included in the RoboHelp Office package. For detailed information, see http://www.blue-sky.com/webhelp/Sample/start.htm . From what I can see here, the basic GUI is almost the same as MS HTML Help Workshop. The display system is any browser, which is compliant with Java 1.0.2 (or later), making it usable from Unix, Macintosh, and Windows 3.1, as well as Windows 95 and Windows NT.
Tracey Moore on TECHWR-L 19-Apr-99 (others has reported similar problems):

"I've been working with this (WebHelp) and it's been miserable. Works great in Internet Explorer, but in two different versions of Netscape, it crashes. Then I tested it on a Mac, and it wouldn't work in either browser. Then who knows about the other browsers out there, as I haven't gotten to the point of testing them!
Blue-Sky sent me a long list of things to do, none of which worked. They claim that WebHelp was tested on an older version of Netscape and that the newer versions have a different Java engine that causes problems. Wouldn't that warrant a service release of WebHelp"

InterHelp:

InterHelp is included in the ForeHTML Pro 3 package. From what I can see here, the basic GUI is almost the same as MS HTML Help Workshop. The display system is any newer browser (I didn't find a more accurate specification). For more information, see http://www.ff.com/Products/Pro3/indexPro3.htm .
John Garison TECHWR-L 22-Apr-99 (others has reported similar experiences):

"Since I write for browser-based products, the new InterHelp that ForeFront has just released is wonderful - it runs in every browser without a problem. Let's see when RoboHELP finally delivers on THAT one."

Generic HTML help, see "Introduction ".

If you have additional personal experiences with Webhelp or InterHelp, please send me suitable information (incl. links to e.g. advertising material), and I'll be very happy to publish it here with (or without if you prefer that) your name on.

Alternative help systems released or on their way ?

Sun JavaHelp^TM 1.0 was released 26 April 1999. For further information and download, see http://java.sun.com/products/javahelp/index.html . If you have personal experiences with JavaHelp 1.0, please let me know.

Thanks to Bob Johnson, Celerity Solutions, for this input:

JELP from CreativeSoft is another Java-based standard under development. It is supposedly available, but I have only seen the evaluation versions on their website. I have heard it described as "vaporware."

Netscape was working on a it's own technology (NetHelp) until about a year ago, when they scrapped the effort completely.

If you disagree with these ideas - or have other relevant points, experiences, or idea +/-, please e-mail me!

Ideas for new "Tip of the month" subjects are VERY welcome, too!

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Tip of the month from PRC April 1999