Help samples

"It (the Help) looks great. Terrific work as usual."

Chris Hoffman, Owner, Mystik Media, Dec. 18, 2002

Online Help from Epic Trends gives your customers fast access to accurate information in the following formats:

  • Plain .html pages with full-text search,
  • Microsoft HTML Help (.chm),
  • WinHelp (.hlp),
  • XML.

Becky Lash, the owner, gets to know your product. During this process, she provides feedback on the software interface and usability. As Becky writes, she also inserts graphic information wherever possible as in the following flowcharts created in Microsoft Visio with public domain clipart:

To keep your costs down and provide several different formats for your customers, she can produce Help, HTML pages for web-based Help, Word files, and PDF documents from the same source files. Becky owns, but is not limited to, the following tools:

  • AuthorIT,
  • FAR,
  • Word,
  • HelpandManual,
  • Dreamweaver,
  • Flash,
  • Visio,
  • Captivate.

Becky also has project experience with Framemaker and RoboHelp and can purchase these tools for long-term or repetitive contracts. Epic Trends also works with writers who provide excellent services using these tools on a contract basis.

 

Scroll down this page to see many samples.

Single-source Microsoft HTML Help and .PDF document

Servers Alive!

Woodstone bvba

For this project, Becky Lash, the owner, updated the current Word document and turned it into three different documents from the same source files using AuthorIT and FAR:

  • Help file
  • PDF file
  • Help on a web site, with full-text search, table of contents, and index

Samples:

Online Help as web pages

Microsoft HTML Help (download file: 693 KB)

PDF document (download file: 1.3 MB)

Single-source WinHelp and Printed User's Guide

Intergraph® Corporation

For SmartSketch®, also sold under the name of Intergraph Imagineer Technical (tm), Becky Lash created WinHelp and printed documentation from the same source files with tools, including templates and macros, that she developed.

She also produced the video files embedded in the Help topics to demonstrate features in the software. She created all graphics, with the exception of one drawing.

She used the same tools and many of the same Help topics as the single source files for another product called Solid Edge®, a 3D mechanical modeling product.

This documentation set is a modular Help system and contains several .HLP files.

Samples:

WinHelp and PDF

(download .zip file: 2.7 MB)

All images, Help files, and PDF documents for SmartSketch are proprietary to, and used by permission from, Intergraph® Corporation.

Solid Edge is a registered trademark of Electronic Data Systems Corporation.

 

Microsoft HTML Help and Web Help

Mystik Media

For Blaze Media Pro, Becky Lash redesigned the old Help file, rewrote many parts of it, and updated the topics.

Project:

  • Redesigned and updated online Help for several products, including Blaze Media Pro, AutoImager, Media Wizard, AudioEdit Deluxe, and ActiveInsert.
  • Delivered the Help information in two formats: Microsoft HTML Help and Web pages for the customer's product web site

Samples:

Online Help as web pages

Microsoft HTML Help

(download file: 226 KB)

Microsoft HTML Help

(download file: 313 KB)