Please help with authoring tool questions

Posted by d.warnermurray on April 11, 2005, 10:40 pm

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I am doing a project for school that involves creating help files for a html
authoring tool.
If you could help me with answers to some questions it would really help.

1. What tasks do you expect an html authoring tool to help you accomplish?

2. What do you expect from online help for a html authoring tool?

3. What audience do you think a freeware html authoring tool is directed
towards?

4. What format is most useful for online help?

Thanks to any of you who take the time to help.

Posted by Roy Schestowitz on April 12, 2005, 7:37 am

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d.warnermurray wrote:

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A rich editor is expected to help you in keeping track of what you write. It
can also give you aids like search-and-replace, colours, auto-complete,
etc.

WYSIWYG tools help you if you have little or no HTML authoring experience.
They have other advantages too.

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Popular authoring tools will have many Q&A threads. Web search engines can
be a powerful tool for finding help when needed.

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Probably people who write HTML for non-professional purposes. However, free
does not mean poor. Tools like the GIMP, for example, are very professional
and yet OS.

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I do not understand your question.

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Hope it helps,

Roy

--
Roy S. Schestowitz
http://Schestowitz.com

Posted by kaeli on April 12, 2005, 8:29 am

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enlightened us with...
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You didn't say if this was an installed application, so I'll assume it IS
installed and is geared towards Windows.

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Authoring web pages, what else?
And it better be able to FTP upload to my site or it's useless.

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I expect it to NOT be online. There's nothing worse for a dial-up user than
to have a program installed on their PC that requires an internet connection
for help. Well, there might be something worse, but it's still a Bad Idea.

I now have broadband, but it does occasionally go down. Having the help docs
not be installed with the application is a bad move, IMNSHO.
It's my number one beef for a couple apps I use.

Note that you can make help be HTML files that are LOCAL, not online. This,
IMO, is just fine. I have applications that do this and it's no problem.

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Newbies, intermediate designers with a low budget, and those who aren't web
designers and don't want to be, but want a basic web page.
You have stiff competition from low-cost and mid-level cost tools that
intermediate to advanced users use, such as Coffee Cup and Homesite. So gear
it towards an audience that doesn't use those. ;)

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Not online, as I said.
And check out the help docs of other windows apps. Windows users expect
things to be similar across applications.

Having supplementary things online is fine, but basic help better be
available offline, too.

If it MUST be online, check out Macromedia Dreamweaver, Cold Fusion, and
Flash stuff (though they offer offline help, too). It's pretty extensive and
very nicely laid-out, IMO. A search function is an absolute MUST.

Anyway, my 2 cents.

--
--
~kaeli~
You can't have everything. Where would you put it?
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/wildAtHeart
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Posted by Adrienne on April 12, 2005, 9:26 am

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Gazing into my crystal ball I observed "d.warnermurray"

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I expect the tool to write clean markup. If it is a WYSIWYG, then I expect
to be able to go into Code View and see the code with syntax highlighting.
I also expect the tool to be able to use HTML-Tidy and have a good CSS
editor, or the ability to use a third party CSS authoring tool.

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Frankly, I don't like online help. If I am not connected to the Internet,
then I can't get help. Help should be local.

With that said, each function should be fully explained, and any and all
options of that function should also be explained, even if they look really
simple.

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Freeware does not necessarily mean that professionals will not use it. I
use a lot of freeware, mainly because they always seem to play nicely with
my other software.

Freeware is also attractive to developers who might not be using their own
system, and have to make a quick change to a file. Notepad is okay, but no
syntax highlighting and no line numbering, so you look around for some
freeware.

If the product is good, people will use it, no matter what the price. I
remember when Freixenet sparkling wine was 4.00 a bottle, when no one knew
about it, and now its 9.00 to 26.00 a bottle, and sells out quickly at New
Years. Trader Joe's has very nice wine at 1.99 a bottle, a lot of people
buy it, and like it a lot.

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Again, I don't really like online help. I especially don't like the online
help for Microsoft Office products. It seems I can never find anything.

If I am using online help, like a FAQ, and there a lot of topics, then it's
nice to have a frame based help, ala MSDN.

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HTH

--
Adrienne Boswell
http://www.cavalcade-of-coding.info
Please respond to the group so others can share

Posted by Stewart Gordon on April 13, 2005, 5:46 pm

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Adrienne wrote:
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That's open to interpretation. Do you mean:

- valid HTML?
- reasonably human-readable HTML?
- reasonably concise HTML?
- correct use of logical markup?
- no useless defaults (e.g. page titles, alt attributes)?

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What should Code View do on a WYSIWYDG (what you see is what you don't get)?

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The OP might've meant the other meaning of "online help", which seemed
to be common in Windows 3.x days - help displayed on the computer
screen, as opposed to a dead-tree manual.

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Depends what kind of HTML authoring tool it is.

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I'd thought the OP meant "format" as in "file format". To which my
answer would be whatever's standard for the platform you're writing for.

Stewart.

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