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Winston

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Originally posted by sunny
MS Help Workshop.
Originally posted by J0n
There is also HTML Help Workshop (dunno if it is the same as what sunny posted), but it is better than the one that comes with Visual Studio 6 in that you can write your help pages in HTML, and it is a lot easier to use.
Yep, that's the most commonly used help file system, it compiles into what they call a .chm file, however it's a really outdated tool. I wrote a help file system myself which populates a tree view with html documents and was flexible.
 

sunny

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HTML Help Workshop is a slightly newer revision of the original Help Workshop Compiler.

Yes they're all very old tools, but for compatibility with older Windows versions you can't get past if you want help files to look exactly like the same as the ones you see in other programs, including things like the contents page and index search.

The HWC itself is a pain to use, there are many wrappers for the HWC around. This is the one I use.
 

Winston

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Originally posted by sunny
HTML Help Workshop is a slightly newer revision of the original Help Workshop Compiler.

Yes they're all very old tools, but for compatibility with older Windows versions you can't get past if you want help files to look exactly like the same as the ones you see in other programs, including things like the contents page and index search.

The HWC itself is a pain to use, there are many wrappers for the HWC around. This is the one I use.
well its not the only tool that allows index and search, u can also make your own like i did :p
 

Seraph

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Hmm one more thing
The online help , an accessible help file from your program
yes?
So is it just like an online user manual?

I mean it cant be exactly the same , doesnt the online help detail more specifically on how to play the game, and strategies and tips etc (well in my case for the game im making)..

Where as the User Manual contains more things like Installation Guides , Troubleshooting .. FAQS , legal information etc

?
 

sunny

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Originally posted by Seraph
Hmm one more thing
The online help , an accessible help file from your program
yes?
So is it just like an online user manual?

I mean it cant be exactly the same , doesnt the online help detail more specifically on how to play the game, and strategies and tips etc (well in my case for the game im making)..

Where as the User Manual contains more things like Installation Guides , Troubleshooting .. FAQS , legal information etc

?

The User Manual is not a synonym for the Installation Guide etc etc. It just so happens that the Installation Guide etc are in the same book as the User Manual in most cases. The User Manual has to teach the user how to use the piece of software.

Online help could just be an online version of your user manual, but that wouldn't be very user friendly - something that is searchable is more like online help. Other things you can look at for online help are tooltips and interactive tutorials.
 

hornetfig

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^ that looked pretty.

Make sure it looks pretty, that is the most important part for most for your teachers/markers (generally speaking, of course some of them may not be so easily fooled by presentation...).
 

Merforga

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Originally posted by hornetfig
^ that looked pretty.

Make sure it looks pretty, that is the most important part for most for your teachers/markers (generally speaking, of course some of them may not be so easily fooled by presentation...).
Pretty as in colourful pretty or layout pretty?
 

ezzy85

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but make sure its not the blinding colours. eg. bright yellow and red buttons with a green background dont seem to work very well.
 

hornetfig

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excuse me, how does that fit in my defintion of pretty?! :p

surely even programming monkeys can tell that (I hope :eek: )
 

Winston

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Originally posted by Merforga
Pretty as in colourful pretty or layout pretty?
Pretty as in well-designed interface designs, and confined within UI rules, as far as i see it, so far most SDD students sucks balls at UI design sorry to be frank, some experienced ones might be better, but some people just think it's a joke, they have their programs title like something like "CoOL ProGrAm..."

and inconsistent layout, some don't even know how to utilise the controls properly, for example some dude once had 40 options controls, for 40 different options lol wtf... you should use like a combobox or something, the controls are there for you to use, take it for granted, and it's also a learning experience.

Originally posted by ezzy85
but make sure its not the blinding colours. eg. bright yellow and red buttons with a green background dont seem to work very well.
I hate that people should be shot when they make programs like that... arggghh...
 

asdf

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IMO its the programming that counts rather than focussing too much on making things look pretty...These things can be learned simply by experience i recon...

edit: and the kids that have "CoOL ProGrAm" in their program titles are usually the ones that dont enjoy programming anyway...so it all works out in the end. :)
 
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hornetfig

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^ that would be true in the real world, but I would presume you by now know that SDD is not even approaching the same universe as the real world.
 

Beaky

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Originally posted by hornetfig
^ that would be true in the real world, but I would presume you by now know that SDD is not even approaching the same universe as the real world.
hahhaa the SDD syallbus needs a reality check
 

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