Web design and help tools
Fernando Rodríguez
Hi,
I'm looking for some tool that lets me create either a website or help files
from a single source. Do you have any recomendations? I'm getting more and
more insatisfied with Dreamweaver...
Carl Colijn
Fernando Rodríguez <f...@easyjob.net> typed:
Hi Fernando,
... Notepad? Or of course an improved version like e.g. Crimson Editor
(that's the tool I use). The help pages of my programs are made up of a
bunch of HTML files, which are opened from within the application via the
ShellExecute command.
The benefit of using HTML files for the help pages is that it's a matter of
copy/paste to put them on-line as well. I use a script that gets the latest
version of the applications (including help pages) out of the source version
control system and copies them to the correct locations on the web site.
Coupled with the program "HTP" (a text template expanding program; see
http://htp.sourceforge.net/ref/) I build a system of templates to ensure a
common look & feel for the pages.
Another benefit is that you can use all sorts of web design techniques to
make your help pages flashy ;)
Kind regards,
Carl Colijn
--
TwoLogs - IT Services and Product Development
A natural choice!
http://www.twologs.com
ShellDispenser: restarting Windows Explorer couldn't be easier!
http://www.twologs.com/en/products/shelldispenser.asp
Dennis Crane
Igor Jese
into that trap again :-(
--
Igor Jese
MockupScreens - a Rapid GUI Prototyping Tool
http://mockupscreens.com
Igor Jese
help as PDF with Open Office.
Some people I know use DocBook to write a single document and later
publish it as PDF, HTML, or whatever. As I understand under the hood it's
XML which is transformed according to different XSL stylesheets.
Regards,
Igor
John A Fotheringham
>from a single source. Do you have any recomendations? I'm getting more and
>more insatisfied with Dreamweaver...
I use my own AscToHTM and AscToRTF conversion tools.
http://www.jafsoft.com/asctohtm/
http://www.jafsoft.com/asctortf/
Using these I create a single text file and can convert it into
multi-page HTML, or into RTF for generating a WinHelp file. Both
products support a pre-processor system that allows you to add
GOTO links as hyperlinks to other topics.
All the product's documentation - including the context sensitive help
- is created this way. These work well if you want a largely
text-based help file.
--
John A Fotheringham (Jaf) www.jafsoft.com
Brain the size of a planet, with the body to match
fuzz...@gmail.com
I use `rest2web <http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/rest2web/>`_ for my
online docs and project documentation.
You keep your source file(s) in a text format, using a simple 'plain
text markup' called `ReStructuredText
<http://docutils.sourceforge.net>`_.
You supply a single HTML template and rest2web puts your content into
the template and can automatically add sidebars, breadcrumbs etc. It's
simple enough to use a different template for your distributed
documentation and the online stuff.
You still need to do *some* HTML, but you keep all your documentation
in a nice plain text format which is much easier to edit and maintain.
All the best,