B Y  S T E V E   M A N N I N G
Eastern Ontario Chapter

Sounds like a cheesy movie tag line, doesn't it? It is, except for the WinWriters part. But it also describes my anticipation as I arrived in Seattle for the 7th Annual WinWriters Online Help Conference. In the past, as the manager of a documentation department, I'd sent writers to the WinWriters conference. But I'd never gone. The writers, after all, were the ones using the tools and we only had so many training dollars to spend. But now, as a consultant with The Rockley Group, I'd not only be attending, but speaking. Deciding which sessions to go to was difficult.

There were 80+ sessions to attend, divided into 10 tracks. And I knew that all of the sessions would be good ones. Joe Welinske, the President of WinWriters, personally reviews all submissions to keep the quality high. .

Programming for Help
Don Lammers, Shadow Mountain Tech

It was obvious that Don knows his stuff. But this presentation sure taxed my knowledge of C and C++ coding: I'm a technical writer, not a programmer.

Don showed several samples where external DLLs were used to extend a Help system, including an example where the Help system interacted with a setup wizard for scanners. Don also described the various application calls that allowed the DLLs to interact with and manipulate standard WinHelp.

The presentation gave me a good idea of what DLLs could do, but please don't ask me to try it myself.

Custom DHTML Help Using Macromedia Dreamweaver
Sean Pollock, Unlimited Ink

This session was a combination of case study and demonstration. Faced with creating Help for an intranet application for the Ford Company, Sean had first turned to Netscape's NetHelp as a development/delivery tool. He then developed plan B, a DHTML-based system, when Netscape dropped support for NetHelp.

Sean showed us samples of his Help file as it has progressed from NetHelp to present day. The current version is a well-crafted intranet Help file, using DHTML to provide extra usability.

It was really interesting to see Sean use the Dreamweaver tool. I'd played with an evaluation copy of Dreamweaver and walked away unimpressed. Watching Sean work with the tool and observing what he has done has convinced me to give Dreamweaver another look.

Managing Multi-Author Help Systems
Dave Gash, HyperTrain dot Com

If you've never seen Dave speak, you're missing out. He's a very energetic and engaging speaker. He also knows his stuff.

The focus of Dave's session was on the practical steps you can take to facilitate merging Help information from multiple authors. He had some really good tips on the use of aliases and dummy topics that will simplify merging topics.

Summarized, when creating jumps to a topic that someone else is writing, create an alias and point the jump at the alias. Give the alias the exact same ID as the other topic that you really want to jump to. But, alias the ID to a dummy topic in your own Help project. This creates a perfectly good link in your project. When you merge your project with the other writers, the jump automatically points to a real topic. All you have to do is delete the dummy topic.

Preparing .doc Files for Conversion to HTML Using Styles and Cascading Style Sheets
Char James-Tanny, Creative Computing Company

Char's session was an example of how we all have different perspectives and attack the same problem in different ways. I've done a lot of conversions from Word to HTML in the past several months, but I've always tuned my HTML in the output. The focus of Char's session was tuning your input (the Word files) to make maximum use of the Word-to-HTML converter and optimize your output.

The HTML Help API
Dale Rogerson, Microsoft

This was another session that taxed my knowledge of programming. I'm always a little uncertain about presentations by vendors -- you never know whether you're going to get real information or marketing hype. But, Dale gave an excellent overview of the HTML Help system before moving to the code bits. I now have a much clearer understanding of how HTML-based Help works and what will be required to integrate the Help and application to create a context-sensitive Help system.

Oracle Help for Java Update
Ben Gelertner, Oracle Corporation

I went to this session because I knew nothing of Oracle Help for Java. Basically, it's an HTML-based system that uses Java to provide the navigation capabilities that good Help systems must have. The Oracle Help for Java System is shipped in toolkit form, like Microsoft's HTML Help. Unlike HTML Help, there are no third party tools that specifically create Oracle Help for Java.

Oracle had specific plans for the next version of their Help system: it was to build upon the Java Help specification being developed by Sun. But, in an interesting turn of events, Sun announced that it had changed the spec., thereby throwing Oracle's plans into some doubt.

Building a Browser-Based Help System
Ben Weisner, Weisner Associates

This was the last session that I went to, and I'm glad that I did. Ben Weisner has been creating Help systems for a long time and knows a lot about all aspects of Help creation and delivery. The focus of Ben's session was how to create real cross-browser HTML-based Help.

• A surreal moment: I was sharing the elevator with two other people as we descended to the lobby. (This was in the evening, after the conference had ended for the day.) The two, obviously acquaintances, if not friends, turned to talk to each other. I expected a conversation about where to have dinner, or what to go and see. Instead, the one asked the other, "So how are you getting around the browser limitations with cascading style sheets?" It was so unexpected, I did a mental double-take.
• Some of the best information that I collected during the conference came from informal conversations with people. The WinWriters crowd is a friendly group, and most are willing or eager to discuss their projects past and present.
• This is an incredibly focused conference. I've been to the other conferences, the STC Conference, for example, but I'd never been to a conference with such a tight focus. Everyone at the conference was either creating or planning to create online Help.
• I was surprised by the number of people using FrameMaker as their authoring tool and then converting it to other formats. When I think of online, I tend to think of WinHelp and HTML Help and their native tools.

• Use the program to plot out the sessions you are interested in. Then, review the session notes/papers in the proceedings before you make your final decisions. Don't rely on the program alone. There's only so much that you can say about a session in a single column-inch. Reviewing the proceedings for the sessions that sound interesting will help you focus on the sessions that really interest you.
• Don't hesitate to ask questions in the sessions. Speakers love questions. But do follow the speaker's request to hold questions to the end, if so asked.
• Talk to people. Don't be shy, as I mentioned above, the WinWriters crowd is a pretty friendly bunch and they love to discuss their projects. As another attendee told me, it's comforting to arrive at the conference as a new user and discover that the "old hands" have the same problems and issues that you do. And as often as not, they've solved some of them and are happy to share the answers with you.