By Marion Lindsey, STC senior member
The following article describes the HTML information center designed for the IBM Automation Connection product. The design structure helps the user get answers quickly about software that is comprised of several components. Hopefully, it also increases the likelihood that the user will return for additional or updated content.
With the advent of web browsers, it is now possible to create an information center that includes web pages and HTML Help systems. This innovative and evolutionary step in online information, provides endless design possibilities, and the cost is a fraction of printed documentation. In addition, HTML accommodates cross-platform Windows NT and AIX compatibility and the ability to dynamically update content by distributing files over the Internet.
An HTML information center gives users a powerful way to navigate large libraries of text through an organized front page design.
By using one image or text name, a consistent style is easy to propagate throughout the center.
Browser-independent HTML online Help includes these features:
Navigation
pane
Topic
pane
The two pane window contains a Navigation pane, controlled and loaded by a Java applet, that supports the table of contents, index, and other features. A Topic pane displays HTML text and manages hypertext navigation. Sophisticated users can actually customized information that appears in a topic.
Web pages are created with an HTML editor available with web development tools such as Microsoft’s FrontPage98, or a text editor, such as Notepad. HTML Help systems are implemented using RoboHELP, or some other Help authoring tool. Of course, a graphics tool is a must for creating banners and other web page graphics. You can add special effects graphics (such as the color border around the Contents and Index tabs) to the Help system at the last moment; otherwise, you will have to edit the HTML source every time you compile and then generate the HTML Help system.
Most users access Help from a Help menu. Keep this in mind when you add a link to a Help system from the information center. In effect, you launch the user into Help text from outside the application. This means the user might lose her sense of place. To correct this, add an additional step in a procedure that describes to the user where they are in the application. Include this consideration in your consistency style guidelines.
Also, be sure to provide a way for the user to get back to the main contents page. Add navigation links that are inside the browser window, and create a navigation structure that can be replicated from page to page. Unfortunately, your control over navigation is limited if a user is deep within a Help system. For this chance scenario, encourage the user to set a bookmark that enables a jump straight to the main contents page.
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