Guidelines for writing HTML help

Author

Abraham, Lissy ; Dyer, Susanna ; Hackell, Stella

Author_Institution

Apple Comput. Inc., Cupertino, CA, USA

fYear

2000

fDate

2000

Firstpage

453

Lastpage

462

Abstract

The paper provides guidelines for writing HTML help content for end users of Apple hardware and software products. The guidelines were developed by the editors in Apple Computer´s Instructional Products (IP) group to respond to the problems that arose as documentation shifted from print books to HTML help. Initially, writers struggled to “retrofit” their print content for the onscreen environment. However, the differences in how users interact with print and onscreen help demanded not just a small revision, but a major rethinking of the instructional content. Looking to minimalist principles for guidance, we created these guidelines to help writers develop content that supported the goal of Apple´s HTML help: to help users get tasks done without slowing them down or getting in their way

Keywords

Apple computers; help systems; hypermedia markup languages; system documentation; text editing; Apple Computer; Apple hardware; HTML help content; HTML help writing; Instructional Products group; documentation; end users; instructional content; minimalist principles; onscreen environment; onscreen help; print content; software products; Acceleration; Books; Computer aided instruction; Computer hacking; Documentation; Guidelines; HTML; Hardware; Job shop scheduling; Writing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Professional Communication Conference, 2000. Proceedings of 2000 Joint IEEE International and 18th Annual Conference on Computer Documentation (IPCC/SIGDOC 2000)

Conference_Location

Cambridge, MA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6431-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IPCC.2000.887302

Filename

887302