In these "lessons," you'll either teach yourself or follow along in class how to do specific tasks in an online-help authoring tool, such as RoboHelp, HTML Help, AuthorIT, or Doc-To-Help.

However we go about it, your task will be to learn the help-authoring procedures well enough not to need notes to perform them again. To help in that process, you'll write quick-reference-style notes — at first, in any software application you wish, but then in a help-authoring tool, once you've learned one well enough.

Writing these quick-reference "cheat" notes should help you learn the procedures better, help if you forget a procedure in the future, and give us a chance to practice writing in this medium.

Learning the Procedures

In this lesson, learn how to do the following:

1. Start the help-authoring tool and Choose HTML Help.
2. Start a project, giving it a formal display name, and a file and folder name.
3. Enter plenty of text in several paragraphs in the initial topic.
4. Position your cursor on various lines of text, and apply the existing styles that come with RoboHelp: specifically, Heading 3, Glossary text, and Expanding text. (Notice that you must select the text in order to apply character styles.)
5. To start your own style sheet, click on the Style Sheet icon. Give it a name, for example, your initials. (To make creating your customized style sheet easier, copy styles from the default style sheet.)
6. Confirm that this style sheet has been created; look in the folder containing your project files for the .css file with your initials, or however you named the file.
7. Create several customized styles:
   • Make Heading 1 blue, Comic Sans
   • Make Heading 2 blue, Comic Sans, 16pt
   • Make Normal indent 0.25 inch on both left and right margins. (Watch out! RoboHelp prefers points.)
8. Give these style distinct names, for example, using your initials: dmzheading1.
9. Spend a few moments making sure these new styles you've created work, and save the project.
10. Now, create a new topic and enter some text into it. Look for your customized styles. They aren't there! You have to associate your customized style with each new topic you create (although you can highlight all your topics in Topics view, right click, select Properties, then Appearance, and select your customized style sheet).
11. Shut down RoboHelp, open it back up again, and start a new project.
12. Challenge! Find a way to import the style sheet you created previously. RoboHelp is silent on how to do this.
13. Once you've brought in your previously created style sheet, make sure it works: apply your styles to some text in the next project.
14. Compile the simple project as a .chm file, and view it (through the help-authoring tool).
15. Find the .chm file on the computer, and double-click it to ensure that it runs.

Writing about the Procedures

Here are the guidelines for writing about the procedures for this lesson:

• Write the quick-reference notes for this lesson in the help-authoring tool you are using.
• Write these quick-reference notes "for real": include warnings about potential problems that can you trip up.
• Otherwise, you are not obliged to add a lot of explanatory detail. In "guide" information, you see lots of explanation, definitions, screen shots, and alternative methods. That's not needed or expected here.
• Just use simple lead-ins, numbered and bulleted lists. For notes, use paragraphs introduced by a bolded label such as "Caution:" or "Impotant!" or "Attention."
• Practice good clear economical writing style. Use imperatives (commands) and second-person ("you"); avoid passive-voice and telegraphic writing styles.
• Use subheadings for the subsections of these quick-reference notes.

Revising

Your instructor will review these quick-reference notes rapidly, requesting revisions if necessary and recording an "ok" in the gradebook when no revisions are needed.