Online help
Suite Solutions Announces Release of SuiteHelp 3.1
New Version Features Advanced Search Capabilities
April 4, 2013 – Suite Solutions, a leader in content lifecycle implementation, announced today the release of SuiteHelp 3.1, the latest version of the online help platform built upon the most recent web standards and technologies, including HTML5 and CSS3. SuiteHelp 3.1 comes with advanced search functionality. Its stylish out-of-the-box output template is mobile optimized and makes custom branding quick and easy.
Self on Help
Proposal for New <context-help> Element
The DITA Help Subcommittee is discussing a proposal to create a new <help-context> element to hold metadata required for context-sensitive Help. The proposal would see the new element fit under the <topicmeta> element in the ditamap, and/or in the <prolog> element in the topic. The element would hold context numbers and/or context strings, and/or a reference to a window description. (There would need to be a separate element in the ditamap that would store the characteristics of a window named in the context-help element.)
Self on Help
DITA Help Forum at WritersUA Conference
Last week at the WritersUA Conference in Portland, I chaired a "Developing Help with DITA" forum alongside Alan Houser, Matthew Ellison and Scott Prentice (all on the DITA Help Sub Committee). There was a lot of interest from delegates (the majority of whom are Help authors) in using DITA, although most are only 'testing the water'.
Setting up the Eclipse Help Infocenter for publishing Dita content
The DITA Open Toolkit offers an actively maintained output for Eclipse Help. One of the features of this help system is that it can be deployed as a stand alone help server.
Self on Help
Parallel Documentation Universes
Until a few weeks ago, I was unaware that there was a company employing some 200 technical writers just two kilometres from where I teach technical communication in Melbourne, Australia. Likewise, a manager at the company was unaware that my university provided post-graduate education in technical communication. We were operating in two parallel universes. The company involved operates in the "engineering technical publications" field, which seems to be quite separate (and isolated) from the "IT and corporate technical communication" field.