The following general resources are Web sites of interest to Help authors, technical communicators, and programmers.
| Help |
| General Help Resources |
|
Helpware Group
www.helpware.net
Provides comprehensive support for MS Help Viewer, Win Help, MS HTML Help, MS Help Support (VS Help), and MS AP Help.
|
HATT Forum
www.egroups.com/group/HATT
Discussion group focused on technical writing.
|
indoition: Software User Assistance
http://www.indoition.com/index.html
Offers links, articles, checklists, and tools for writing support documentation. |
I'd Rather Be Writing
http://idratherbewriting.com/
Blog by Tom Johnson on technical writing. |
MacOS Help
developer.apple.com/macos/help.html
Resource for developing Mac OS X and IPhone OS applications.
|
RoboHelp 8
http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/rh8/rh8.htm
RoboHelp guide, 'try it' exercises, and other articles by Peter Grainge.
|
|
Usable Help
www.g2meyer.com/usablehelp/index.html
An examination of support documentation and Help systems for software and consumer products by Gordon Meyer.
|
OmniHelp tripane on-line help viewer
https://sourceforge.net/projects/omnihelp/
Developer support for OmniHelp, a cross-platform, browser-independent, help system that uses JavaScript and CSS with HTML 4.
|
"What is the best output format for me?," The RoboColum(n)
http://notcolin.wordpress.com/category/technical-writing/
Summary of various Help output formats
|
Adobe RoboHelp Help and Support
http://www.adobe.com/support/robohelp/
|
Author-it Knowledge Center
http://kc.author-it.com/#b45748t24310n12828
|
Flare Tips & Tricks
http://www.clickstart.net/presentations/flaretips_writersua10.pdf
|
Madcap Flare Support
http://www.madcapsoftware.com/support/
|
The Writer's Rough Guide to Everything Flare
http://kungfuwit.wordpress.com/
|
| Microsoft Help |
WritersUA Microsoft Help
www.writersua.com/articles/
news/news_2007_1201.htm
Articles and links focused on Microsoft Help Technologies including WinHelp, HTML Help, Help 2, Assistance Platform, CE Help, and Sandcastle.
|
Help-Info.de
http://www.help-info.de/en/welcome.htm
German-based resource for Microsoft Help technologies including Help 3, Windows Vista AP Help, Help 2, etc. |
The Help Guy
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/thehelpguy/
Paul O'Rear's blog for all things Help technology related. |
Microsoft HTML Help 1.4 SDK
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms670169.aspx
Microsoft documentation and links to download for HTML Help.
|
MSHelpWiki.com
http://www.mshelpwiki.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=MsHelp
Created by Microsoft Help MVPs and maintained by the Help authoring community.
|
| Java Help - Sun Microsystems |
|
JavaHelp
https://javahelp.dev.java.net/ Introduction and support to Java's online help system. |
|
| Oracle Help - Oracle |
Oracle Help for Java
otn.oracle.com/tech/java/help/content.html Oracle support for Java-based help systems. |
|
| DITA |
DITA Overview
http://www.writersua.com/
DITA_overview.htm |
DITA Web Resources
http://www.writersua.com/
DITA_webresources.htm |
DITA Tools A-Z
http://www.writersua.com/
DITA_tools.htm |
DITA Tutorials
http://www.writersua.com/
DITA_tutorials.htm |
DITA History
http://www.writersua.com/
DITA_history.htm |
|
 |
| World Wide Web Technologies |
| General Technology Sites |
|
• www.w3.org
• www.webmonkey.com
• builder.com.com
|
Webmonkey Web Developer Resource Site
hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/reference/
browser_chart |
|
A List Apart
alistapart.com
A non-commercial weekly magazine for web designers, developers, and content producers.
|
Association of Internet Professionals
www.association.org |
|
W3 Schools.com
www.w3schools.com
Free web building tutorials, from basic HTML and XHTML tutorials, to advanced XML,XSL, and WAP tutorials.
|
Joel Sklar web site
www.joelsklar.com/access.htm
Accessibility resources, tools, and demos |
Section 508
www.section508.gov
|
| Active X |
|
Active X controls
www.microsoft.com/com/activex.asp
|
|
| Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) |
• www.w3.org/Style/
• www.cwi.nl/~steven/www/css1-qr.html
• www.msdn.microsoft.com/
library/default.asp?
url=/library/en-us/dnie40/html/css-ie4.asp
• www.css-discuss.org/
|
• www.w3.org/Style/
• www.cwi.nl/~steven/www/css1-qr.html
• www.msdn.microsoft.com/
library/default.asp?
url=/library/en-us/dnie40/html/css-ie4.asp
|
| Markup Languages |
|
HTML
• www.w3.org/MarkUp/
|
DHTML (Dynamic HTML)
• www.webreference.com/dhtml
• www.w3schools.com/
dhtml/default.asp
|
DITA
• www.xml.coverpages.org/dita.html
• www.oasis-open.org/committees/dita
• www.ibm.com/developerworks/
xml/library/x-dita6/.x-dita_downloads.html
|
|
XHTML
• www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/#guidelines
• www.wdvl.com/Authoring/
Languages/XML/XHTML
|
XML
• www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/
• www.w3.org/XML
• msdn.microsoft.com/xml/default.asp
• www.xml.com
• www.gca.org/papers/xmleurope2001/
|
| Scripting Languages |
JavaScript/Jscript
• developer.netscape.com/tech/
javascript/index.html
• www.newarchitectmag.com
• webmonkey.com
• msdn.microsoft.com/scripting/default.htm
• www.javascript.com
• www.cgiscript.net/site_javascript.htm
|
PHP Hypertext Preprocessor
• www.php.net
• www.phpbuilder.com
|
VBScript
• msdn.microsoft.com/scripting/
|
|
| Tools |
|
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. |
| eHelp RoboHelp |
|
The RoboHelp Community
www.helpcommunity.ehelp.com/robohelp/
|
| Adobe FrameMaker |
|
Filtrex
www.blueberry.com
Filter that imports (and exports) many different file types into FrameMaker format.
|
FrameUsers.com
www.frameusers.com
Online user group and reference site for Adobe FrameMaker.
|
|
PatternStream
www.patternstream.com
Expensive but solid way to import databases into FrameMaker.
|
FrameMaker Developer Kit and documentation
partners.adobe.com/public/
developer/framemaker/devcenter.html
|
|
FrameScript
www.framescript.com
|
Framescript email list
groups.yahoo.com/framescript
|
|
FrameMaker developers email list
groups.yahoo.com/frame_dev
|
FrameScript Tutorials
http://www.frameexpert.com/
tutorials/index.htm
|
| Macromedia Dreamweaver |
|
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.
|
| PDF |
|
PDFzone.com
pdfzone.com
All things PDF: tools, PDF connections, how-to, developers corner, services.
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
| Content |
| Editing |
|
The Editorial Eye
www.eeicom.com/eye
|
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. |
| Error Messages |
|
"Error Messages: More Important to Your Web Site Than You Think," Grace Stoeckel, MarketingProfs.com:
www.marketingprofs.com/3/stoeckle1.asp, Subscription required
|
"Issue #10: The Web Shouldn't Be a Comedy of Errors," Scott Berkun, UI Web.com:
www.uiweb.com/issues/issue10.htm
|
|
"Error Message Guidelines," Jakob Nielsen, Useit.com:
www.useit.com/alertbox/20010624.html
|
"Designing and Writing to Reduce User Errors," Michael Albers, WritersUA.com:
www.winwriters.com/
articles/errors/index.html
|
|
"Non-Fatal Errors: Creating Usable, Effective Error Messages," Emily Wilska, WritersUA.com:
www.winwriters.com/articles/
message/index.html
|
|
| Indexing |
|
American Society of Indexers
www.asindexing.org
|
Index-L Listserv
To suscribe, send an email with the contents: suscribe INDEX-L (your name) to:
listserv@bingvmb.
cc.binghampton.edu
|
|
Book - Indexing: A Nuts-and-Bolts Guide for Technical Writers
www.williamandrews.com/titles/
tech_writers.htmldefault.htm
|
|
|
TermTree indexing software
www.termtree.com.au
|
MultiTes indexing software
www.multites.com
|
| Localization and Translation |
|
American Translators Association
www.atanet.org
|
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.
|
| Single Sourcing/Content Management |
|
Association for Information and Image Management International
www.aiim.org
|
@Brint.com
www.brint.com
|
|
The Delphi Group
www.delphigroup.com
|
Documentum
www.documentum.com
|
|
FileNET
www.filenet.com
|
International Digital Enterprise Alliance
www.idealliance.org/
|
|
Hyperknowledge
www.hyperknowledge.com
|
KMWorld
www.kmworld.com
|
|
Verity
www.verity.com
|
|
| Style Guides |
Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications
Microsoft download site 2nd Edition (Version 3)
|
|
|
| Information Design |
| General Design Resources |
|
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.
|
EPSS InfoSite
www.pcd-innovations.com
|
Human Factors International
www.humanfactors.com
Human Factors International offers user-centered design consulting, training, and products
|
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.
|
Intranet Resources
www.intrack.com/intranet
|
Morkes, J. and Nielsen, J. (1997). "Concise, SCANNABLE, and objective: how to write for the Web."
www.useit.com/papers/
webwriting/writing.html
|
"Eye movement tracking research." Stanford Poynter Project.
www.poynter.org/eyetrack2000/
|
|
| Accessibility |
Microsoft Windows Guidelines for Accessible Software
Design
msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?
url=/nhp/Default.asp?contentid=28000544 |
Section 508 Website
www.section508.gov |
WAI Website
www.w3.org/WAI
The Web Accessibility Initative homepage features the latest information
on making your website accessible for everyone. |
Screen Reader Simulation
www.webaim.org/simulations/screenreader
This website provides examples of what it is like for visual impaired users to access the web using a program called a screen reader. |
Low Vision Simulation
www.webaim.org/simulations/lowvision.php
This website simulaties what it is like to view a webpage as someone with a visual imparement might see it.
|
The Bobby Validation Tool
www.cast.org/bobby
A free service that will check your website and expose any accessibility issues. |
Remove colors, CSS, and check ALT tags
www.508compliant.com/tools.htm
A set of demo tools that check the ease of use of your website. |
"Delivering Inclusive Websites"
http://coi.gov.uk/guidance.php?page=130
Standards and guidance on producing public sector websites from the Central Office of Information. |
| Programming Languages |
| Java |
|
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. |
Gamelan and Jars
www.gamelan.com
www.jars.com
Great sources for Java information and products, especially for developers.
|
|
Netscape
developer.netscape.com/tech/java
Netscape's Java Developer Central
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
Hi Spy:PHD Computer Consultants Ltd
www.phdcc.com/hispy
Full-text search applet for CD-ROMs.
|
|
Home Page Search: Babbage
www.babbage.demon.co.uk
Free, client-side search applet for HTML documents.
|
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.)
|
|
| Professional Organizations |
|
ACM
www.acm.org/sigs
sigchi.org/listserv
Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction
|
LISTSERV@ACM.ORG
ACM mailing list that carries both academic and commercial announcements of events, web sites, products, and services of direct interest to the CHI community. The list is a moderated, announcements-only list called CHI-RESOURCES. Subscribe by sending "subscribe chi-resources YOUR_NAME-HERE" as the body of a message to
LISTSERV@ACM.ORG.
|
|
Fullfont.com
www.fullfont.com
Informative resources for technical communicators and computer information systems professionals.
|
HTML Writers Guild
www.hwg.org
The world's largest international organization of Web authors with over 110,000 members in more than 150 nations worldwide.
|
|
Society for Technical Communication
www.stc.org
|
Tech Pubs - Resources for Technical Writers
www.techpubs.com/resources.html
|
|
TC Library
tc.eserver.org
|
TECHWR-L Forum
www.raycomm.com/techwhirl
|
|
Australian Society for Technical Communication
Victoria: www.astcvic.org.au
New South Wales: www.astcnsw.org.au
|
Technical Communicators Assoc. of New Zealand
www.tcanz.org.nz
|
|
TECHWR-L Mailing List Archive
www/cpub.com/archives/
techwrit-l/techwrit-l.html
|
KeyContent.org
www.keycontent.org/
tiki-custom_home.php
|
|
Association of Information Technology Professionals
www.aitp.org
|
|
| Usability |
|
Jakob Nielsen's Usable Information Technology
www.useit.com
|
Article - Secondary Windows in Online Help - What Do Users Really Make of Them?
www.stcsig.org/usability/newsletter/
0101-secondary-windows.html
|
|
Article - Toward Usable Browser Hierarchies for the Web
www.microsoft.com/usability/
UEPostings/HCI-kirstenrisden.doc
|
Usability.gov
www.usability.gov
Resource for designing usable, useful, and accessible web sites and user interfaces.
|
|
Usability Professionals' Association
www.upsassoc.org
|
Usability References
www.usability.com/umi_links.htm
|
|
User Interface Engineering
www.uie.com
|
WebWord Usability Consulting
www.webword.com
|
|
| Graphics |
|
LuminEssence
www.zzpixel.com
Free graphics site with hundreds of coordinated websets, buttons, bars, and icons.
|
W3C Graphics on the Web
www.w3.org/Graphics/
|
|
| Wireless |
|
Microsoft Pocket PC
www.microsoft.com/mobile/
pocketpc/default.asp
|
Wireless Applications Protocol (WAP) Forum
www.wapforum.org
|
|
Wireless Markup Language (WML) Specification
www.oasis-open.org/
cover/wap-wml.html
|
|
