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Home > Training: HTML-based help: Writing strategies for online help
Writing Strategies for Online Help
Availability: Onsite
Course duration: 2 days
Hands-on: Although computer availability is highly recommended, this course can be completed with or without the use of computers. When computers aren’t available, exercises are completed on paper.
Authoring-tool specific? No
Cost: Contact us for pricing
Companion Course: Indexing Online Information
The how-tos of creating an online help system are actually the easy part. Changing the way you write so that your words work better online is much more difficult. In this workshop, you’ll learn to write topics that are easy to follow online, construct the types of topics in a typical help system, and structure information for online branching. You’ll also learn about more advanced topic construction, integrating words and graphics, rewriting topics for online use, and indexing strategies.
Although these issues we’ve just outlined may sound typical for an online writing class, this course is geared very strongly toward writing excellence. Underlying this course are ideas such as:
- What differentiates good enough from much, much better
- Writing with the assumption that the user is working with the product
- Writing processes that make excellence manageable under real-world deadlines
Our examples will focus on HTML-based help and online information, although we will use some WinHelp, HTML-based help, and web examples. The information in this course applies to writing online documentation as well as onine help.
This is a hands-on course (recommended). In fact, over the course of two days, you’ll practice writing help topics through many in-depth, practical exercises.
Course outline
Part 1. The Goals of Writing Hypertext
- The elements of hypertext design
- The impact of design
- Resolving usability problems
- Increasing the user's ability to visualize
- What does this have to do with writing?
Part 2. What is Online Help?
- What, then, is online help?
- The user's viewpoint
- The author's viewpoint
- A technical viewpoint
- Purposes of online help
- Types of help topics
- Who sets the standards for online help?
- How is online writing different from print?
Part 3. Writing Style Basics
- What does a topic look like?
- Writing reusable "chunks"
- Examples of different types of chunking
- How big are chunks?
- Developing a topic design standard
- Answering user questions
- Using a "top down" design
- Focusing on doing (supported by knowing)
- Developing a topic length standard
- How much information do user's need?
- Writing descriptive topic titles
- Reducing the dependence on order
- Writing for scannability
- Understanding the relationship to software use
Part 4. Choosing a Topic Architecture
- What's a topic architecture
- Multi-topic designs: pros and cons
- More space, more text?
- What about single-topic designs?
- Choosing an architecture
Part 5. Constructing Links
- Types of hypertext links
- Developing "click-through"
- Writing navigational links
- Controlling link depth
- The "three-click" rule
- Developing related topics
- Developing sign-posting
- Avoiding "dead-end" help
Part 6. Writing Procedures
- About procedural topics
- What do users need from procedures?
- Some terminology
- Developing step-by-step topics
- Developing task and workflow topics
- Developing demo topics
- Developing troubleshooting topics
- Developing context-sensitive topics
- Deciding on audience support
- Determining how much to write
- Determining which procedures to document
- Writing topic titles
- Writing context statements
- Providing "escape routes"
- Writing steps
- Tips, notes, cautions, and warnings
Part 7. Writing Reference Topics
- The goals of writing to know
- Some basic terminology
- Developing standard types of reference topics
- What do procedural and reference writing have in common?
- Writing strategies for reference topics
- Providing access to reference topics
- Avoiding the wall of text
- Developing context-sensitive help
Part 8. Editing Online Information
- Transitioning from print to online
- Common writing/editing errors
- Revising the printed page to be used online
- Understanding layering
- Redeveloping content for online use
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