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Here are links to past WinWriters noteworthy items. Select a topic to jump quickly to its resource listings: QuickPolls Results and Analysis, Surveys, Articles and Reviews, News, Commentary, or Other Items.
| QuickPoll Results and Analysis | |
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| See the results of all past QuickPolls along with a quick personal analysis of each by Joe Welinske. (1/04) | |
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| Certification Rolls | |
| ProBooster Certificate Recipients The ProBooster Certificate Program graduates. (4/05) |
LaunchPad Certificate Recipients The LaunchPad Certificate Program graduates. (4/05) |
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| Surveys | |
| 2004 WritersUA Salary Survey The fifth annual edition of this popular survey is based on responses from over 850 of your peers in the U.S., Canada, and other parts of the world. We report on the effects of experience, gender, location, organization size, and more. (2/04) |
2003 WritersUA Skills and Technologies Survey The results and analyses are now available for our fourth annual survey. Close to 500 user assistance professionals provided us with information about the skills, technologies, platforms, and tools we value most. (10/03) |
| 2003 European User Assistance Profile Survey The results for the first in a series of surveys designed specifically for the European user assistance community are available, providing a summary view of several important aspects of our work. Respondents from 15 countries contributed to the results. (5/03) |
2003 WinWriters Salary Survey The fourth annual study from WinWriters on compensation for user assistance professionals is complete. Here are the latest salary figures and trends to help you out as we move into the new year. (1/03) |
| 2002 WinWriters Skills and Technologies Survey What is it that we really do as user assistance professionals? This third annual survey presents the answers in six categories: Technologies, Web-based Help, Skills, Windows Help, Platforms, and Tools. (7/02) |
2002 WinWriters Salary Survey The results of our third annual study are now available. We targeted this survey specifically at user assistance professionals. See how you match up against your peers! (12/01) |
| 2001 WinWriters Skills and Technologies Survey What do we value in our daily work as user assistance professionals? Our second annual survey presents our analysis in five different sections: Technologies, Windows Help, Skills, Platforms, and Tools. (6/01) |
2001 WinWriters Salary Survey WinWriters received responses from over 1,200 people in 45 states of the U.S., in seven Canadian provinces, and in other parts of the world in the second annual study of compensation dedicated to online documentation. (1/01) |
| 2000 WinWriters Skills and Technologies Survey Over 1,300 people responded to our first annual survey that took the pulse of the Help authoring community in the areas of technologies, skills, tools, and platforms and applications support. (7/00) |
2000 WinWriters Salary Survey WinWriters polled 1,100 Help authors in the first annual study of compensation dedicated to online documentation. (12/99) |
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| Articles and Reviews | |
| Divide and Conquer: Providing Web-based User Assistance at the Point of Use Most user questions should be answered at the point of use (or rather, the point of confusion) using embedded assistance. Scott DeLoach explains how we can use field labels, popup windows, UA panels, and dedicated UA areas to assist users. (2/04) |
Microsoft "Longhorn" Help Highlights At the 2003 Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, Microsoft presented details of a radically new Help standard for the next version of Windows, known as Longhorn. Matthew Ellison summarizes the highlights, and discusses the issues in adopting the new technology. (12/03) |
| Indexing Single-Source Documents Single sourcing changes the way you develop information and index it, forcing you to integrate indexing into your information development process. Kurt Ament discusses constructing modular index entries for use in different indexes as well as building indexing standards. (10/03) |
Review of Screen Capture Tools Almost all of us need to include screen captures in our user assistance from time to time. This may be grabbing entire windows or just images of specific drop-down menus, toolbars, or cropped regions that highlight key elements of an application interface. In this article, Matthew Ellison provides a detailed examination of five leading screen capture tools. (9/03) |
| Review of ReWorx 2003 ReWorx is a wizard-driven tool for converting regular Word documents to easily navigable online manuals. This is one of three products marketed by Australia-based RepubliCorp under the Virtual Media brand, the other two being HDK 3.6 and XDK 2002. Matthew Ellison provides an overview of the product and lays out the strengths and weaknesses. (9/03) |
Review of WebWorks Publisher 2003 Quadralay recently expanded its WebWorks Publisher product line with FrameMaker and Word versions of its conversion tool, a server-side conversion tool (AutoMap), and a utility for converting RoboHelp® HTML projects, CHM files, and HTML files to FrameMaker/Word format. David Knopf's comprehensive review describes the key concepts of WebWorks Publisher 2003. (7/03) |
| Review of Sun's JavaHelp 2.0 Sun Microsystems recently announced the release of the long-awaited JavaHelp 2.0 Beta. This comprehensive review by Sarah Leritz-Higgins includes a comparison of JavaHelp 1.1.3/2.0 functionality and an evaluation of JavaHelp 2.0 Beta covering installation, operating system support, migration issues, and new features. (5/03) |
Review of AuthorIT V4 Relatively unknown before the year 2000, AuthorIT has been attracting considerable interest from our user assistance community. With its object-oriented approach and ability to single-source a range of formats, it claims to offer affordable content management. Matthew Ellison reviews the latest version. (4/03) |
| Microsoft Takes Its Help Technology in a New Direction Chuck Martin provides a recap of the announcement from Microsoft canceling development of Help 2.0. Chuck also summarizes the associated report from Cheri Lockett Zubak given at the WinWriters Conference and provides some of his own analysis. (3/03) |
The Trend Toward Flash as a Tool for Web Application Development Joe Welinske describes how the growing movement toward using Macromedia Flash MX for the development of Web-based apps offers new opportunities for user assistance professionals. (2/03) |
| Using Web Standards to Create HTML Files What are web standards and why are they important? Char James-Tanny offers a comprehensive overview of current web standards and how they affect the work of user assistance professionals. (1/03) |
Mixing Online and CHM Content Tony Self examines some practical ways to integrate "live" online content from a Web server with "static" local content stored in a Microsoft HTML Help CHM file to give your users access to the latest Help information. (12/02) |
| Adding a Table of Contents to Web-based Help Dave Gash offers a design and implementation technique for adding a Table of Contents to your custom web-based Help system. (11/02) |
Just Say "Help": Implementing Help in VoiceXML Allen Beebe explores VoiceXML, an emerging W3C standard that brings voice to the Web or the Web to the phone. (9/02) |
| A Usability Test of Web-based User Assistance Matthew Ellison describes the test and its findings. (7/02) |
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| Review of ComponentOne's Doc-To-Help 6.0 Matthew Ellison reviews the latest version, which effectively combines some of the best features of the old Doc-To-Help and True Help to produce this updated Help authoring tool. (5/02) |
An Update on Microsoft Help Matthew Ellison reviews the current Help technology and lays out your options for developing user assistance in support of Windows applications. (5/02) |
| A New Help Resource From Microsoft The latest version of Windows makes it possible for all software vendors to integrate their Help content alongside the OS Help. Joe Welinske's article provides the details to get you up to speed. (1/02) |
Review of RoboHelp Office 2002 Matthew Ellison's four-part review of this very popular Help authoring tool. Covers: Topic Templates, Headers and Footers, MS Word Import, Skins, RoboHelp Starter, Pure HTML Output, Section 508 Compliance, XML Navigation, and Context-sensitive WebHelp. (1/02) |
| Review of Microsoft Office XP Help Matthew Ellison reviews the User Assistance for Office XP. He highlights the features worth emulating, and picks out a few to be avoided. (10/01) |
CHI 2001 Conference Report The 2001 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems offered a number of interesting sessions that could provide food for thought for user assistance professionals. Read Joe Welinske's report on that event. (6/01) |
| FAQs on the Web Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) have been used for many years in print publications—and now in web sites—to answer questions and solve problems. Craig Noeldner discusses the results of a study on FAQs to answer the questions: How prevalent are FAQs on the Web? How are FAQs implemented? Are there any common techniques used in FAQ design? (11/00) |
Embedded User Assistance and IE 5 Behaviors No user interface will ever be completely intuitive to everyone, so there will almost always be a need for some form of user assistance in user interfaces for web applications. Ed Hess shows us different methods to provide the user assistance as embedded Help within an IE5 application. (9/00) |
| Pane Help in MSN Hotmail Web applications, like most traditional desktop applications, can suffer from Help windows being placed in inconvenient locations—often covering the portion of the interface on which the user is working. Rick Schlamp examines Microsoft's attempt to fix this annoying behavior in its popular Web-based application, Hotmail. (8/00) |
Indicating Changed Text in Help Files There are still many circumstances when drawing a user's attention to changed text is important. How do we do that with Help systems? Tony Self shows you how for both WinHelp and HTML Help. (6/00) |
| Case Study: AnswerWorks and the AutoCAD 2000 Help System Autodesk evaluated customer experience using AnswerWorks with the AutoCAD online documentation and found it emphatically positive. Jeffrey Allen discusses the results in this case study. (4/00) |
XML: What Do Help Authors Need to Know? Part 2 In Part 2, Scott Boggan explores XML syntax in much greater detail, demonstrates the power of the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL), takes a look at XML's new linking technologies–XLink and XPointer, and surveys XML authoring tools. (2/00) |
| XML: What Do Help Authors Need to Know? Part 1 Despite all its attendant hype, XML holds great promise for Help authors. In Part 1 of a two-part article, Scott Boggan gives an overview of XML and what it holds for Help authors. (6/99) |
Beyond Help In this WINDOWS Magazine article, Joe Welinske gives a comprehensive introduction to WinHelp development.  (4/95) |
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| News |
| ComponentOne Announces Version 6.5 of Doc-To-Help Free to all current license-holders of Doc-To-Help 6.0, the new release includes support for a statistical-based Search module. Also scheduled for launch this month is ComponentOne Response. (3/03) |
Author IT Version 4 Released The long-awaited Version 4 of Author IT has just been released and will be demonstrated at the 2003 WinWriters Online Help Conference. (1/03) |
| Microsoft Manual of Style Available Online The second edition (1998) of the Microsoft Manual of Style is now available in a free electronic edition. Read about this invaluable source of reference for technical writers. (1/03) |
Security and Microsoft Help Matthew Ellison investigates a recently announced security vulnerability in Microsoft's HTML Help. (11/02) |
| Work Write and KeyWorks Release KeyHelp 1.1 KeyHelp 1.1 features improved popup and embedded windows, auto-sizing secondary windows, and content-level information types. (9/02) |
JavaHelp Update |
| Amaya Documentation Project Summary A team of volunteer writers, managed by WinWriters, completed an update of the online documentation for version 5.3 of the Amaya editor/browser as summarized here. (1/02) |
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Commentary |
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Focus on Accessibility |
An Update on Trends in User Assistance |
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A Mixed Bag of Job Prospects for Tech Writers |
WinWriters.com Rates Highly with STC Members |
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Linux Extends Beyond the Server |
From Clipboards to Computers The rush of seeing software enter a new field. (1/00) |
| The Future for Help Authors Our recent salary survey provided insight on how Web skills affect salaries, so what does the future hold for Help authors? (1/00) |
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| Other Items | |
| "WinWriters" Is Becoming "WritersUA" WinWriters is in the process of changing its name to WritersUA to reflect the growth of cross-platform application development and the broad scope of the work we do as software user assistance professionals. (7/03) |
ProBooster Certificate Recipients The ProBooster Certificate Program graduates. (6/03) |
| LaunchPad Certificate Recipients The LaunchPad Certificate Program graduates. (6/03) |
An Assortment of Web Resources |
| WinWriters Conference Book Raffle Winners To celebrate our 2002 event we've raffled a number of popular books. Here's a list of the lucky winners and the book that each won. (11/01) |
Developing Online Help for Windows Book Winners We've posted the winners of autographed copies of Developing Online Help For Windows (WinHelp 3.x) and Developing Online Help For Windows 95 (WinHelp 4). (5/01) |