Michelangelo. The Creation of Adam (1508-1512)




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Course Overview

Online Helps & Help-Authoring Tools (ETWR 2374) is a workshop-style course in which you study the evolution and function of online helps; critique existing online helps; learn structuring principles and navigation tools common in online helps; create online helps using several leading online help-authoring tools such as RoboHELP, Flare, Help & Manual, and AuthorIT; and write your own online helps for a software product. This course is still a writing course: you'll focus on audiences, organization, content, transitions, format, and good writing in general throughout.


See the Course Calendar for a calendar-style view of semester due dates.

Semester/year Fall 2006
Instructor David A. McMurrey
Class meetings NRG 4209—TTh: 5:40-6:55pm (and online)
Office Northridge 4225
Office hours TTh 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., and by apptmt. (Always call before driving all the way out to Northridge Campus.)
Phone 512-223-4804
E-mail hcexres@io.com

Week of August 28

Getting organized. During the first week of classes, please review the schedule, policies, objectives, and requirements for this course. Fill out an online questionnaire and write a brief get-acquainted memo that will be posted on our course website so we can all get know each other!

In-class activities: Fill out the questionnaire—due Aug. 29
In/out-of-class projects: Write the personal memo—due Aug. 29
See the personal memos

Background on online helps. We'll review a bit of the history of online helps, how people created helps back in the dark ages and what advancements help-authoring tools have provided.

Readings: Exploring online help
Online helps: overview and structure

Structuring helps & the content of helps. Get some background on hypertext, the essential navigation tools that make hypertext usable, appropriate and inappropriate content for helps, and the concept of task-oriented information.

Help-authoring software tutorials. In class, we'll start learning essential tasks that you must know to create online help and write about those tasks using a help-authoring tool.

In-class activities: Discuss helps background—Aug. 29, 31
Discuss helps structure—Aug. 29, 31
Help startup: self-tutorial—Aug. 31
Help startup: quick-ref—Aug. 31
Help editing: week 1 edit—Aug. 31

Week of September 4

Help-authoring software tutorials. We'll continue learning essential tasks that you must know to create online help and write about those tasks using a help-authoring tool.

In-class activities: Help topics & links: self-tutorial—Sept. 5, 7
Help topics & links: quick-ref—Sept. 5, 7

Help popups: self-tutorial—Sept. 5, 7
Help popups: quick-ref—Sept. 5, 7

Help TOCs: self-tutorial—Sept. 5, 7
Help TOCs: quick-ref—Sept. 5, 7
Help editing: week 2 edit—Sept. 5, 7

Week of September 11

Help modeling project. Create a set of helps based on an existing, compiled set of helps.

In/out-of-class projects: Get started on your Help modeling project—due Sept. 19

Help-authoring software tutorials. In class, we'll explore essential tasks that you must know to create online help and write about those tasks using a help-authoring tool.

In-class activities: Help browse sequences: self-tutorial—Sept. 12, 14
Help browse sequences: quick-ref—Sept. 12, 14

Help indexes: self-tutorial—Sept. 12, 14
Help indexes: quick-ref—Sept. 12, 14

Miscellaneous help tasks: self-tutorial—Sept. 12, 14
Miscellaneous help tasks: quick-ref—Sept. 12, 14
Help editing: week 3 edit—Sept. 12, 14

Readings in documentation. Read about theory, process, and format related to documentation.

Readings: Helpful 1 (project planning): Helpful 1 Quiz—Sept. 14
Helpful 2 (audiences and tasks): Helpful 2 Quiz—Sept. 14

Week of September 18

Helps modeling project. Don't forget—this is is due this week!

In/out-of-class projects: Get started on your Help modeling project—due Sept. 19

Critique of online helps 1. Analyze and evaluate a spectrum of online help systems based on principles you've encountered so far in this course as well as based on your ideas about readability, comprehension, audience needs, and document design .

In/out-of-class projects: Evaluate these help files—due Sept. 19
See a summary of the evaluations (Fix blanks counted as zero.)

Help-authoring software tutorials. In class, we'll explore essential tasks that you must know to create online help and write about those tasks using a help-authoring tool.

In-class activities: Help formatting: self-tutorial—Sept. 19, 21

Help graphics: self-tutorial—Sept. 19, 21

Help CSS styles: self-tutorial—Sept. 19, 21
Help CSS styles: quick-ref—Sept. 19, 21
Help editing: week 4 edit—Sept. 19, 21

Readings in documentation. Read about theory, process, and format related to documentation.

Readings: Helpful 3 (specifications): Helpful 3 Quiz—Sept. 21
Helpful 4 (prototyping): Helpful 4 Quiz—Sept. 21

Help formatting project 1. Design and create your own helps using unformatted text.

In/out-of-class projects: Get started on help formatting project 1—due Oct. 3

Week of September 25

Readings in documentation. Read about theory, process, and format related to documentation.

Readings: Helpful 5 (common problems): Helpful 5 Quiz—Sept. 28
Helpful 6 (TOCs and indexes): Helpful 6 Quiz—Sept. 28

Week of October 2

Help formatting project 1. Don't forget—this is is due this week!

In/out-of-class projects: Help formatting project 1—due Oct. 3

Readings in documentation. Read about theory, process, and format related to documentation.

Readings: Helpful 7 (navigation): Helpful 7 Quiz—Oct. 5
Helpful 8 (audience needs): Helpful 8 Quiz—Oct. 5

Week of October 9

Helps editing. In class, we will fix problem in a help project. (This is still a writing course.)

In/out-of-class projects: Help project for editing: help edit.

Helps formatting project 2. Design and create another set of helps using unformatted text.

In/out-of-class projects: Get started on your help formatting project 2—due Oct. 24

Readings in documentation. Read about theory, process, and format related to documentation.

Readings: Helpful 9 (linking): Helpful 9 Quiz—Oct. 12
Helpful 10 (editing): Helpful 10 Quiz—Oct. 12

Week of October 16

Help-authoring software tutorials. In class, we'll explore essential tasks that you must know to create online help and write about those tasks using a help-authoring tool.

In-class activities: Context-sensitive helps: self-tutorial—Oct. 17
Context-sensitive helps: quick-ref—Oct. 17

Copying, renaming, importing helps: self-tutorial—Oct. 17
Copying, renaming, importing helps: quick-ref—Oct. 17
Help editing: week 8 edit—Oct. 17
In/out-of-class projects: Get started on your second help formatting project 2—due Oct. 24

Readings in documentation. Read about theory, process, and format related to documentation.

Readings: Helpful 11 (usability): Helpful 11 Quiz—Oct. 19

Week of October 23

Help formatting project 2. Don't forget—this is is due this week!

In/out-of-class projects: Help formatting project 2—due Oct. 24

Other help-authoring applications. Let's look at MadCap Flare this week, or next.

In/out-of-class projects: Download and install MadCap Flare—due Oct. 24, 26
Watch the tutorials—due Oct. 24, 26

Basic page design. Study some of the standard specifications for headings, lists, notices, cross-references, tables, highlighting, simple typography and layout issues, and other. Explore what is common or standard, focusing particularly on page design concepts for written instructions and rhetorical strategies for writing effective instructions.

In/out-of-class projects: Read about page design
Take the page design quiz—due Oct. 26

Converting to and from helps. Learn some esential skills for converting helps to and from other applications such as MS Word, Adobe FrameMaker, and web pages.

In-class activities: Converting to and from RoboHelp: self-tutorial—Oct. 24
Converting to and from RoboHelp: quick-ref—Oct. 24
Help editing: week 9 edit—Oct. 24

Week of October 30

Essential indexing skills. Study some basic strategies for creating indexes.

In/out-of-class projects: Read about indexing
Take the indexing quiz—due Nov. 2

Help editing. This one needs working over in terms of its structure and navigation.

In/out-of-class projects: Download, unzip, import, and edit this help project—due Nov. 2

Other help-authoring tools. For the next few weeks, we'll explore other leading help-authoring tools, perhaps with some professional help developers as guests.

In/out-of-class projects: Other help-authoring tools: self-tutorial—Oct. 31, Nov. 2
Other help-authoring tools: quick-ref—Oct. 31, Nov. 2
Help editing: week 10 edit—Oct. 31, Nov. 2

Week of November 6

Other help-authoring tools. Let's continue exploring other leading help-authoring tools, perhaps with some professional help developers as guests.

In/out-of-class projects: Other help-authoring tools: self-tutorial—Nov. 7, Nov. 9
Other help-authoring tools: quick-ref—Nov. 7, Nov. 9
Help editing: week 11 edit—Nov. 7, Nov. 9

Week of November 13

Online helps: final project. Start planning, designing, and developing your final helps project for a software (or hardware) product of your choosing.

In/out-of-class projects: Get started on your final help project—first draft due Dec. 5, final draft due Dec. 14
Get started on your help-project prototype—due Nov. 23

Final-project announce. Plan your final help project and post details about that project.

In/out-of-class projects: Set up your project page:
Solo project page set-up—due Nov. 7
Team project page set-up—due Nov. 7

If you are working as a team, post details about your team on your team project page—due Nov. 7
Whether you are working solo or with a team, post descriptive details about your project and its design on your project page—due Nov. 7

Week of November 20

Other help-authoring tools. Let's continue exploring other leading help-authoring tools. November 21, Mary Connor, information developer at Advanced Solutions International, will take us on a tour of AuthorIT!

In/out-of-class projects: Other help-authoring tools: self-tutorial—Nov. 14, Nov. 16
Other help-authoring tools: quick-ref—Nov. 14, Nov. 16

Project template and prototype. Send in your help project prototype (using Lorem Ipsum).

In/out-of-class projects: Send in your help-project prototype—due Nov. 23

Critique of online helps 2. Once again, let's analyze and evaluate a spectrum of online help systems based on principles you've encountered so far in this course as well as based on your ideas about readability, comprehension, audience needs, and document design.

In-class activities: Evaluate these help files—due Nov. 21
See a summary of the evaluations (Fix blanks counted as zero.)

Helps and XML. In class, let's explore how current help-authoring tools use XML.

In-class activities: XML to CHM: self-tutorial—Nov. 21
XML to CHM: quick-ref—Nov. 21
Help editing: week 14 edit—Nov. 21

Week of November 27

Guest presenter. This week, we'll have a guest, Leah Jo Eaton, graduate of this program and experienced technical writer. She will introduce us to Help & Manual, another leading help-authoring tool, plus talk about her career as a technical writing (if she's willing).

In-class activities: Introduction to Help & Manual. Let's try to download and install this before Leah's presentation—Nov. 30

Week of December 4

Online helps: final project—first draft. Complete the first of your final help project. I will review and get it back to you so that you can do one final revision.

In-class activities: None
In/out-of-class projects: Deliver your final help project first draft—due Dec. 5

Week of December 11

Online helps: final project—final draft. Send in the final draft of your final help project!

In-class activities: None
In/out-of-class projects: Deliver your final help project final draft—due Dec. 14





Provided hcexres@io.com.