Help System Development Issues(Urgent Help Needed)

[rithu4u]

Hi all,

I am into the developing of helpsystem for a software ( for two different versions of the same software) . I am using RObohelp 6 as the Authoring tool. Now i am into some issues , which iam finding difficult to crack.

01.If any information is updated on a common topic, it should get updated in both the help system versions.

02. While an Topic is called from a Context-Sensitive Help, screen shots if any , shouldn’t be displayed

03. There are some features , which are there in ver 1 and not in Ver 2 at present. , In a future release date, we will be installing the feature , based upon which the information is to be updated in the help system.
( for this i have tried to use the webhelp format , along with some java script. using an if condition i have made the information hidden for now. My intention is to change the variable value to make the information visible later when the
software is updated) . As my managers like the .chm feature, is there anyway to accoomplish in therer ?

04. The two different versions for the help system is created by keeping the information as a common and the Screen shots different. ( This i have done by using image swapping by declaring the path in a global variable in a java script file. I tried this on .CHM files too but it didn't work.) Is there any way to accomplish in .CHM file ?

As these tasks are very crucial and Urgent for my current project. It will be very help ful if any one can help me in this regard

Regards and Thanx in Advance

RIthesh

[Peter Grainge]

Welcome to the forum.

It sounds like overall your method of working does not take advantage of conditional build tags. These can be applied to text, images or topics and by using build expressions when you generate the help, you get different outputs.Depending on the degree of difference between the two versions of your product, you could have one project and where the versions require some difference you apply a build tag. It is easier to use these with NOT in mind so I do not want this text, image or topic in Version 1, you apply the build tag version_one.

The hidden stuff for future features could have a build tag of "wip".

I think that will cover all the scenarios you describe and it works in all outputs.

You say your managers prefer CHM. CHM versus webhelp is not really a preference thing any more. Webhelp is for servers, CHMs are for the client PC so it depends on where you want to install the help.

[rithu4u]

Thannk you sir, for your immediate response. Still Iam doubtfull for using the different images for the same topic with common information

Rithesh

[Peter Grainge]

Try it. It works. Otherwise say why you are doubtful.

[rithu4u]

Thank you sir, As I was in urgent need of the information and methods to be used , i had posted in here as well as in HATT.
AS per your suggestion I tried the usage of conditional tags and it worked on all the scenarios i had except the one of hiding the screen shots while an specific topic being called using context-sensitive help.

Thanx And Regards
RIthesh

[Peter Grainge]

As I covered in the reply on HATT, I don't know of any way to make the image hidden when called as a CSH topic. The only thing I can think of is some javascript created by your developers that would only operate when the help is called in that way.