After you've developed a project idea and optionally assembled a team, but before you write the help system, create a project prototype.

About the Prototype

Use chapter 4 and appendix E of Is the Help Helpful?: How to Create Online Help That Meets Your Users' Needs for guidelines on creating a help prototype.

The prototype available with that book may also be helpful. (You must open helpset.htm in Internet Explorer and allow blocked content.)

However, the prototype you develop for this course should have these features:

• It should be a compiled .chm file (or whatever the extension of the compiled file is for the help-authoring tool you use).
• It should contain a TOC, an index, and as many topics as necessary to show all of the formatting characteristics your help project will have.
• Use the Latin text in Lorem ipsum for the text of the prototype.
• Develop a customized style sheet for each paragraph and character style your project will need. Include these in the prototype.

Compile your help prototype, compress the entire project folder, and send it e-mail attachment to your instructor.

Name this final help project using your first and last-name initial, _prototype, and the archive extension (usually .zip): for example, davidm_prototype.zip. If this is confusing, contact your instructor.

Note: To be safe, keep a safe copy of this and all other assignments. Expect to receive confirmation from your instructor that your e-mail attachments have been received. If you don't receive e-mail confirmation in 3 or 4 days, get in touch with your instructor.