Effective, instantly available online help is a requirement for today's interactive applications. Until now, Java application developers have been forced to develop their own help system. That's no longer necessary. With the release of JavaHelp™, there is a complete and standard online help system for the Java™ platform.
Creating Effective JavaHelp covers the main features and options of JavaHelp. It shows how to create a basic JavaHelp system, prepare help topics, and deploy the help system in an application. Written for all levels of Java developers and technical writers, the book takes a chapter-by-chapter approach to building concepts. It imparts a complete understanding of how to create usable JavaHelp systems and integrate them into Java applications and applets.
Topics covered include:
Understanding JavaHelp
Creating your first HelpSet
Planning the JavaHelp project
Preparing Help topics
Creating HelpSet data and navigation files
Enhancing the HelpSet
Using the JavaHelp API for advanced presentation options
Deploying the help system to your users
Using third-party help-authoring tools
Chapter 1 Understanding JavaHelp
What Is JavaHelp?
Using JavaHelp for Online Documentation
Understanding the Files in a HelpSet
Following the JavaHelp Process
Installing JavaHelp on Your Computer
Seeing JavaHelp in Action
Deciding How to Present a HelpSet
Deciding How to Install a HelpSet
Encapsulating HelpSet Files
Finding More Information on JavaHelp
Chapter 2 Creating Your First HelpSet
Creating the HelpSet’s Directory Structure
Creating HelpSet Data and Navigation Files
Creating Help Topic Files
Checking Your Work
Testing the Finished HelpSet
Chapter 3 Planning the JavaHelp Project
General Planning Tasks
Planning Tasks Specific to JavaHelp
Chapter 4 Preparing Help Topics
Planning Your Help Topics
Creating Help Topics and Applying Appropriate HTML Tags
Writing Effective and Meaningful Help Topics
Using Preexisting HTML Topic Files
Chapter 5 Creating HelpSet Data and Navigation Files
Understanding XML
Creating the HelpSet File
Assigning Map IDs to Help Topics
Specifying the Navigation Components
Chapter 6 Enhancing the HelpSet
Creating Pop-up and Secondary Windows
Customizing the Navigation Facility
Merging HelpSets
Chapter 7 Using the JavaHelp API for Advanced Presentation Options
Kevin Lewis holds a master's degree in technical and professional writing from Northeastern University in Boston. He has worked extensively with many online help systems and was one of the first help authors to work with JavaHelp. He offers training services in several online help technologies. Kevin has published articles on message-box design and on version-control systems for technical documents.
Mary Anne Weeks Mayo was the production editor and copyeditor for Creating Effective JavaHelp. Nicole Arigo and Jane Ellin performed quality control reviews. Emily Quill proofread the book. Anna Snow provided production support. Ellen Troutman-Zaig wrote the index.
Hanna Dyer designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The image of the flashlight was photographed by Kevin Thomas and manipulated in Adobe Photoshop by Michael Snow. The cover layout was produced by Emma Colby using QuarkXPress 4.1, the Bodoni Black font from URW Software, and BT Bodoni Bold Italic from Bitstream. The inside layout was designed by Alicia Cech and David Futato.
Text was produced in FrameMaker 5.5.6 using a template implemented by Mike Sierra. The heading font is Bodoni BT; the text font is New Baskerville. The illustrations that appear in the book were created in Macromedia Freehand 8 and Adobe Photoshop 5 by Robert Romano and Rhon Porter.
Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects.
Comments about O'Reilly Media Creating Effective JavaHelp:
This is an excellent book.
The author has done a great job providing instructions A-Z.
In a few short chapters the book takes you thru the whole process, starting with creating your help topics, integrating with Java applications, and finishing with deployment instructions. The book also provides a concise, to-the-point reference section.
Very easy reading, yet extremely effective and instructional.
I strongly recommend this book to any developers considering JavaHelp for their
applications.
3/5/2001
5.0
Creating Effective JavaHelp Review
By Jodi Burt
from Undisclosed
Comments about O'Reilly Media Creating Effective JavaHelp:
This is such a good book; clear, short and to the point! My developers wished that we would have found this book when we were at the start of our first big Java project-they estimate that they could have saved about 2 or 3 production weeks.
I would also like to pay a compliment to the Sun tech support staff. We had been using RoboHelp as the editor for our JavaHelp and were having some serious problems (which were related to RoboHelp, not JavaHelp) RoboHelp's support people were not able to support their own product. The Sun people not only resolved our issue, but offered several work-arounds for other possible issues that they had seen develop...so very helpful, polite, and they went that extra bit for a customer.
...kinda' like human versions of your great book!
Jodi Burt
Lead Senior Technical Writer
1/9/2001
5.0
Creating Effective JavaHelp Review
By Mike Foster
from Undisclosed
Comments about O'Reilly Media Creating Effective JavaHelp:
Easy to understand, excellent examples, essential information
After having worked on a JavaHelp (JH) project over a year ago when JH
was still very young (1.0 was just about to be released), and having to
wade through the JH User's Guide and JH Specification then for information,
I found this book very good for bringing myself back up-to-speed for
resuming the project after a year layoff. I wished I would've had it when I
initially began the project a year ago.
This book is very easy to read, contains excellent examples, and has the
the proper level of information to get help writers started on the right foot
with JH so they are productive quickly. It is written for the help writer but
includes just enough detail for helping developers that the help writer may
have to work with in order to implement a JH system. Overall, a very good
book that I am recommending to other writers assigned JH projects.
