Good toolkit for creating program help

[Ross]

Hi. I need to add help to an application. I'd like the standard table
of contents plus the ability to search by keywords.

I can easily, if not too quickly, write something from scratch. But
are there any built in libraries or other shortcuts that people would
recommend which would allow me to easily create integrated program
help?

 

[lewbloch]

Hi. I need to add help to an application. I'd like the standard table
of contents plus the ability to search by keywords.

I can easily, if not too quickly, write something from scratch. But
are there any built in libraries or other shortcuts that people would
recommend which would allow me to easily create integrated program
help?

Would JavaHelp suit?
<http://javahelp.java.net/>

 

[Warren Tang]

Would JavaHelp suit?
<http://javahelp.java.net/>

Is there any library to built a *local* help (not online)?

 

[Ross]

Is there any library to built a *local* help (not online)?

I'd also prefer to use an offline solution.

I'm going to give this a trial. http://www.pdfhelp.org/

 

[markspace]

I'd also prefer to use an offline solution.

I'm 90% sure that when Java Help says "online solution" they mean the
help is provided electronically with the program. It doesn't mean you
are required to browse the web.

The traditional use of "offline" with regard to help is a book or
printed manual. This is 1960/1970's terminology, but it's still with us
nevertheless.

 

[lewbloch]

Is there any library to built a *local* help (not online)?

Yes, there's JavaHelp.
http://javahelp.java.net/
«The JavaHelp system is a Java Platform, Standard Edition ("Java SE")
optional package.»
as a cursory reading of the first page of the site reveals.

 

[Jim Janney]

I'm 90% sure that when Java Help says "online solution" they mean the
help is provided electronically with the program. It doesn't mean you
are required to browse the web.

The traditional use of "offline" with regard to help is a book or
printed manual. This is 1960/1970's terminology, but it's still with
us nevertheless.

Javahelp uses HTML, but the help pages don't have to be on the web. You
can bundle them with your program and keep them on the local file
system.

I used Javahelp a couple of years back and ended up very frustrated,
because it wasn't a good fit for what I wanted to do. If I had it to do
over again I would just start from scratch. My advice would be to try
it, but not to waste too much time fighting with it if it isn't what you
need.

 

[Ross]

I didn't get on well with PdfHelp. My sample application just sat
there not bringing up the window I expected while my processor was
working hard at something. JavaHelp is more heavy duty than I needed.
I just built my own History browser, based around a JTree and a
JEditorPane, with one XML file to organise a number of HTML help
pages. Still have to write the help contents, but at least it's fairly
simple. I still have to write a keyword search function, but that
shouldn't be too difficult. Especially since my help should be small
enough that I can search live, rather than having to precompute an
index.

 

[Roedy Green]

Hi. I need to add help to an application. I'd like the standard table
of contents plus the ability to search by keywords.

see http://mindprod.com/jgloss/help.html

 

[Ross]

seehttp://mindprod.com/jgloss/help.html

Hi. The Java glossary is a very useful resource in general. But, I'm
not sure how the entry on "help" is relevant to the current question.

 

[RedGrittyBrick]

Hi. The Java glossary is a very useful resource in general. But, I'm
not sure how the entry on "help" is relevant to the current question.

As readers may or may not know, Roedy often just scans questions for
keywords and then answers without attempting to understand the question.

As I recall his rationale is that other people, whose own questions
involve some of the same keywords, may encounter his answer when
searching the newsgroup archive, and some of them may therefore find the
answer useful even when the OP might not.

See past postings for prior critique of this approach.

 

[Paul Cager]

As readers may or may not know, Roedy often just scans questions for
keywords and then answers without attempting to understand the question.

As I recall his rationale is that other people, whose own questions
involve some of the same keywords, may encounter his answer when
searching the newsgroup archive, and some of them may therefore find the
answer useful even when the OP might not.

See past postings for prior critique of this approach.

I think in this case Roedy just meant:

http://mindprod.com/jgloss/javahelp.html

although that section doesn't contain much beyond a pointer the
JavaHelp site.