Re: [dita-adoption-help] DHTG - Topics to be covered

[Scott Prentice <sp10@leximation.com>]

Hi Tony...

Thanks for doing this. We also need a topic on .. "Using Quadralay 
ePublisher to Publish to Help Formats".

I'm looking again at the current layout for the DHTG, and it still 
doesn't feel quite right.

At the top level we've got ..

- Introduction
- Help Delivery Technologies
- Help Development Tools and Techniques
- Resources

Introduction looks fine, general introductory info and such .. and 
Resources seems fine with additional info that doesn't fit elsewhere. 
The topics currently in the two main sections doesn't seem like there's 
a clear enough reason for being there (yes .. I'm the one who set this 
structure up).

The Help Delivery Technologies section seems like it should have no 
tool-specific information, just a listing and description of the actual 
Help formats that we discuss. These topics should be completely 
tool-neutral, and just provide a general description of each format, and 
its use (perhaps pros/cons), with a list of tools that can be used to 
create this format. This section would only be updated to add new 
formats and links to tools that support those formats (once it's been 
written, of course).

The Help Development Tools and Techniques section is where the 
tool-specific info should be. There would be a new topic (or group of 
topics) for each tool/technique. Currently, this section contains 
sub-sections for a number of tools, followed by a sub-section called 
"Help Development Techniques" .. this contains topics that discuss 
methods for handling HTML/CSS that applies to many of the Help formats. 
Should this sub-section be moved into it's own top-level section so we 
end up with the following structure? ..

- Introduction
- Help Delivery Technologies
- Help Development Tools
- Help Development Techniques
- Resources

In general, I'm thinking that we just need to move a number of topics 
from the Help Delivery Technologies section into the Help Development 
Tools section. The following topics are really about "tools" not Help 
delivery technologies ..

- Leximation AIR Help plugin
- Eclipse Help (the second topic with this name)
- CSHelp Plug-in
- Eclipse_CSH Plug-in for Dynamic Context-Sensitive Help
- Context-Sensitive Help Using the Enhanced HTML (htmlhelp2) Plug-In
- Context-Sensitive HTML Help Using the The DITA Open Toolkit

Anything that assumes that the user is working directly with the 
DITA-OT, that "tool" would be under the "DITA Open Toolkit" sub-head 
(all of the above fit into this category), and if you're working with 
another tool/utility, that tool would be the heading (even if that tool 
uses the OT under to hood).

I think this will make it easier in the long run to add new topics for 
new tools as they become available.

Does this all make sense, and seem like a reasonable approach? In my 
mind this was what I had intended when I reorged this the last time, but 
when I look at the current structure, it's not what I would have expected.

Talk to y'all later today.

Thanks,

...scott


Tony Self wrote:
> Greetings, colleagues!
>
> I have created the shell of a "sign-up" page at:
>
> http://wiki.oasis-open.org/dita-adoption/DITA_Help_Technologies_Guide_Alloca
> tion
>
> where volunteers can put their names down to write a not currently covered
> topic for the DITA Help Technologies Guide. 
>
> So far, I have figured out that we need additional topics on:
>
> * Using the Plus Plug-ins
> * Creating Microsoft Help 3 Content
> * Creating WebHelp with MadCap Flare
> * A Help API for Web-based User Assistance
> * Creating Adobe AIR Help with RoboHelp
> * Using ditac to Publish to Help Formats
> * Using DITA2Go to Publish to Help Formats
>
> Can anyone think of any other topics that we need to add? If so, could you
> please e-mail the list with your suggestion, or else update the table in the
> Wiki?
>
> If you are able to write one or more of these topics, could you please put
> your name in the corresponding Volunteer column, so that we don't have any
> duplication of effort.
>
> I hope to chat more about this at this afternoon's meeting.
>
> Cheers
>
> Tony Self 
>
>
>
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