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Microsoft to Announce New Microsoft Online Help Standard at WinWriters Conference

PHILADELPHIA, PA, February 15, 2001 - This March in the Silicon Valley, you can attend the first public disclosure of Microsoft Help 2.0, the next-generation technology destined to be the online Help standard for Microsoft Windows. The disclosure will take place at the 2001 WinWriters Online Help Conference, the premiere annual event for developers of software user assistance, to be held at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, Calif. on March 5-8, 2001 (http://www.winwriters.com/ohc/index.html).

During the conference, Shane McRoberts, lead program manager for the Microsoft Help 2.0 project, will demonstrate how Microsoft Help 2.0 makes finding information quicker and easier and will lead you through Microsoft Help 2.0's enhanced support for XML, DHTML, and other Web standards. You'll see MS Help 2.0 in action as the integrated Help engine for Visual Studio.NET, and learn about MS Help 2.0 features that make it easier to embed Help in your own applications. Shane will also discuss how Microsoft Help 2.0 coexists with current HTML Help 1.x projects, which will continue to run unchanged.

"We're excited to be unveiling Help 2.0 at the WinWriters Conference," stated Shane McRoberts. "This conference attracts the best and brightest of the user assistance community. We're pleased to be offering these people the first glimpse of our new technology."

In a postconference seminar following the conference, Microsoft HTML Help MVP Cheryl Lockett Zubak will teach a full-day session on Help 2.0, which you can register for separately from the full conference. During this seminar, Cheryl will provide an in-depth, objective analyses of the features and implications of Microsoft's latest Help standard for software user assistance developers. She will consider both practical and strategic issues that include:

• Comparing Microsoft Help 2.0 to HTML Help 1.x and standard HTML-based Help systems: What are its features and benefits? What does it have in common with its predecessors? What's different?
• Understanding the design and features of the Help 2.0 standard viewer
• Converting from existing Microsoft Help standards, such as HTML Help 1.x: Why, when, and how should you do this?
• Creating a project from start to finish with the new Microsoft Help Workshop-from developing a project through implementing context-sensitive Help
• Implementing new features, such as filters, multiple indexes, and new linking capabilities
• Understanding collections, the new mechanism for modular Help systems. Deploying Microsoft Help to users
• Expectations of Help authoring tool support for Microsoft Help

Cheryl Lockett Zubak is president of Work Write, Inc., a consulting and training firm based in suburban Philadelphia, Penna. An accomplished, popular teacher of help design and development, Cheryl is one of the four charter members the MVP (Most Valuable Professional) program for HTML Help, the current Microsoft development environment for creating HTML-based help and online reference information. One of the top-rated speakers of past WinWriters conferences, she was also voted by her peers as "Best Speaker or Instructor" and "All Time, All Around Help Guru" at the 1999 WinWriters Help Authors Choice Awards. Cheryl is the author of several books on online help design, including a forthcoming book on Microsoft Help 2.0, to be published by O'Reilly & Associates.

You can find out more about the WinWriters Online Help Conference or register online for the Microsoft Help 2.0 postconference session on MS Help 2.0 at: http://www.winwriters.com/ohc/index.html. You can register for the postconference seminar separately from the full conference.

For further details, contact Cheryl Lockett Zubak at Work Write, Inc., 128 South Eastview Avenue, Feasterville, PA 19053 USA. Phone: +1 215.357.3453 Fax: +1 215.357.0695 Email: cheri@workwrite.com Website: http://www.workwrite.com

Last updated, February 2001

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