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The following general resources are Web sites of interest to Help authors, technical communicators, and programmers.
Select a topic to jump quickly to its resource listings: Help, DITA, Tools, Content, Information Design, Programming Languages, Professional Organizations, Usability, Graphics, or Wireless.
Submit a listing for this directory.
| Help |
| General Help Resources |
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Helpware Group
www.helpware.net
Australian based website that provides comprehensive support for MS HTML Help 1.x and MS Help 2.0, FrontPage and Delphi.
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HATT Forum — Discussion of Online Help
Tools and Techniques
www.egroups.com/group/HATT
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MacOS Help
developer.apple.com/macos/help.html
An overview of current Apple Help technologies.
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Usable Help
www.g2meyer.com/usablehelp/index.html
Gordon Meyer's web site examining documentation and Help systems for software and consumer products.
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OmniHelp tripane on-line help viewer
https://sourceforge.net/projects/omnihelp/
OmniHelp is a cross-platform, browser-independent, tri-pane help viewer built in pure JavaScript and CSS with HTML 4. Some functions (such as help embedding) may in the future be in Java, C, or C++; CSH is fully supported. All code is under the LGPL.
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| World Wide Web Technologies |
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| Tools |
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TechComm Toolbox
http://techcommtoolbox.com
Enables visitors to view listings by category or alphabetically, includes full-text search for specific entries, and encourages end-users to comment on their experiences. Anyone (including companies that provide applications or services) is welcome to submit their favorite application or service to the site.
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| Macromedia Dreamweaver |
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Deva Tools for Dreamweaver
www.devahelp.com
A suite of integrated utilities that work with Macromedia Dreamweaver (Windows PC version) to create navigation systems for your web site, intranet, or HTML-base help.
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| PDF |
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PDFzone.com
pdfzone.com
All things PDF: tools, PDF connections, how-to, developers corner, services.
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PlanetPDF.com
PlanetPDF.com
A comprehensive, popular, and independent web site exclusively focused on Adobe Acrobat/PDF users and uses, which offers many free tools and plug-ins for Acrobat.
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PrintToPDF
www.jwwalker.com/pages/pdf.html
Inexpensive tool for the Macintosh that creates PDFs from within many applications without needing the full Adobe Acrobat package.
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| Content |
| Editing |
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The Editorial Eye
www.eeicom.com/eye
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The Technical Editors' Eyrie
www.jeanweber.com
Provides resources covering the wide range of knowledge and skills that technical writers and editors need when editing manuals, online Help, web sites, and other materials. This site demonstrates that technical editing goes far beyond copyediting and proofreading. |
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| Error Messages |
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"Error Messages: More Important to Your Web Site Than You Think," Grace Stoeckel, MarketingProfs.com:
www.marketingprofs.com/3/stoeckle1.asp, Subscription required
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"Issue #10: The Web Shouldn't Be a Comedy of Errors," Scott Berkun, UI Web.com:
www.uiweb.com/issues/issue10.htm
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"Error Message Guidelines," Jakob Nielsen, Useit.com:
www.useit.com/alertbox/20010624.html
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"Designing and Writing to Reduce User Errors," Michael Albers, WritersUA.com:
www.winwriters.com/articles/errors/index.html
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"Non-Fatal Errors: Creating Usable, Effective Error Messages," Emily Wilska, WritersUA.com:
www.winwriters.com/articles/message/index.html
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| Localization and Translation |
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American Translators Association
www.atanet.org
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MultilingualWebmaster.com
www.multilingualwebmaster.com
MultilingualWebmaster.com was created to provide an open forum for developers and managers of multilingual web sites. Our goal is to share information and innovation and to promote "best practices" in multilingual web site design.
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| Information Design |
| General Design Resources |
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Saul Carliner's website
saulcarliner.home.att.net/id/
Processes, techniques, and models of information design focusing on designing and dveloping content including worksheets for preparing an information plan, instructions for setting objectives and planning an evaluation, guidelines for choosing a "type" of communication product and media, and issues to consider when setting editorial guidelines.
saulcarliner.home.att.net/idbusiness
Various resources on the business and management of information design groups including worksheets for setting budgets and schedules, tips on starting a successful work team, and an overview of the production and maintenance phases.
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EPSS InfoSite
www.pcd-innovations.com
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Human Factors International
www.humanfactors.com
Human Factors International offers user-centered design consulting, training, and products
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Idea Watch
www.ideawatch.org
Web site that focuses on Information Design gurus, books, ideas, and best practices. Offers advice about how to improve the user experience. Encourages technical communicators/information designers to be more intellectual and think more critically.
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Intranet Resources
www.intrack.com/intranet
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Morkes, J. and Nielsen, J. (1997). "Concise, SCANNABLE, and objective: how to write for the Web."
www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html
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"Eye movement tracking research." Stanford Poynter Project.
www.poynter.org/eyetrack2000/
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| Programming Languages |
| Java |
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Sun Microsystems
java.sun.com
Home page for JavaSoft, the subsidiary of Sun Microsystems that is developing Java. It contains many links to other sources of information about Java.
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Gamelan and Jars
www.gamelan.com
www.jars.com
Great sources for Java information and products, especially for developers.
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Netscape
developer.netscape.com/tech/java
Netscape's Java Developer Central
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1st Java Navigator 5.0: Auscomp
www.auscomp.com
Adds Java tab and tree navigation control to Web pages. Features include unlimited tabs; choice of tab location (top or bottom); customizable fonts, colors, and images.
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HelpIndex: PHD Computer Consultants Ltd.
www.phdcc.com
An applet for navigating through collections of HTML documents, with contents tree, server-independent keyword indexing, and index table selection. Version 2.1.0.
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IMINT.COM
www.imint.com
Applet menus and Java information management systems for websites and intranets are our sole speciality. 30 products across 6 ranges serve every need and every pocket.
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HTMLSearch:MandoSoft
www.bigfoot.com/~mandosoft
Lite (free) and Pro (shareware) versions. Both allow you to search HTML pages that are stored on a CD, LAN, etc., or on a Web server.
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Hi Spy:PHD Computer Consultants Ltd
www.phdcc.com/hispy
Full-text search applet for CD-ROMs.
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Home Page Search: Babbage
www.babbage.demon.co.uk
Free, client-side search applet for HTML documents.
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Quest Agent
www.jobjects.com/products/questagent
Enables fast document searching from any Java-compatible browser without a server. Current version uses SWISH index files to find documents. Quest Agent is especially suitable for publishing HTML documents on a CD-ROM or a floppy disk. (SWISH is a popular software for indexing collections of Web pages or other text files, and it's free: sunsite.berkeley.edu/SWISH-E.)
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