[OSGeo-Discuss] Help authoring tools (John Lindsay)

[John Lindsay]

Hi Dan,

For the Whitebox GAT project, I've been using html with ccs for formating and create the help files in Komodo Edit. It's quite a simple approach but find that I can create quite nice help entries in this way. I can embed graphics, equations, links to other help entries, etc. Using ccs allows me to make style changes quickly. The other nice thing about this approach is that I can very easily embed the help entry for each tool in the tool's dialog box, so the user has no excuse for not reading the help! I can also use the same files for the online version of Whitebox's help (http://www.uoguelph.ca/~hydrogeo/Whitebox/Help/MainHelp.html). Perhaps there are better solutions (with dedicated help creation programs) but this is the solution that seems to work best for me.

John Lindsay, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Dept. of Geography, Univ. of Guelph
Guelph, Ont. N1G 2W1   CANADA
Phone: (519) 824-4120 x56074
Fax: (519) 837-2940
Email:  jlindsay at uoguelph.ca
Department Web: www.uoguelph.ca/geography/
Personal Web: http://www.uoguelph.ca/geography/faculty/lindsay.html