FlashHelp, WebHelp, or HTMLHelp?

[AGsMM]

Hi All,

I am thinking to change our HTM help to FlashHelp or Webhelp, but I am not sure if this changing will lead to any problems our customers.

At first, I planed to change to FlashHelp, but soon I found that to open a FlashHelp, users need to have a flash player installed. I don't know if all our users have it, so I turned to the WebHelp.

Does anyone here can add up the pros and cons of WebHelp?

Thanks

[Peter Grainge]

The first consideration is where the help is going to be installed.

If it is on the users PC, then you should use your existing CHM format. You can use webhelp if you have RH6 or later and apply the Mark of the Web. Note however that links to PDF files will not work if you use that method.

It the help is on a server, then you should use webhelp. If you use a CHM file, then it will not work without a registry change which you should not make without the knowledge to the system administrator.

If your existing help were in CHM format, you would know that so I am guessing your help is installed locally. That brings us to the next consideration, apart from the PDF issue. A CHM is a single file. Webhelp is not compiled so you get a whole bunch of files and folders. Your developers may not like that unless you can persuade them the appearance outweighs that issue.

There is one more important consideration. Your developers will have to change the calls to the help. Make sure they are willing to do that.

[AGsMM]

Thanks Peter.

Our help is installed locally, so I have to use the HTML help.

The reason I want to use WebHelp or FflashHelp is that they have attractive layouts or skins. For HTML help, there are few things that can be customized. Do you have any suggestions?

[Peter Grainge]

Sorry but I think you are pretty much stuck with the CHM appearance.