Help Authoring Tool

I would like to add a comprehensive help feature to the application I'm creating. Ideally, I would like a "mini website" which the user would access via a link from the navigation bar. If it's possible, I'd like to program the link to be context sensitive (i.e. pull up help for the given page, but once the user is in the help website, he/she can use a search tool or jump to the Table Of Contents or Index).
Is there a help authoring tool (e.g. Adobe's Robohelp or something similar) that works particularly well with APEX? Is there something built into APEX that I haven't found yet? (note: I'm new to APEX programming). Any advice on any of the tools would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Rob

APEX includes built-in features to develop a help system for your application.
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17556_01/doc/user.40/e15517/app_comp.htm#CHDCDBFB

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Help Authoring Tool Options & Enhancements

I have been using RoboHelp x5 since 2005. For this year's
budget meeting I have to provide options/cost comparison on other
tools that are available. One thing that is of crucial importance
is that my background is not in computer/technical (no can do code,
scripting, etc), which is why RoboHelp was chosen in the first
place.
1) Can anyone offer an "addon products" to use with RoboHelp
(i.e. to enhance search function, etc)
2) Can anyone offer any advice (pros and/or cons) about any
of the following Help Author Tools?
• AuthorIT
• Doc-To-Help
• chm2web
• FAR
• Help & Manual
• Help Generator
• HelpConsole 2008
• HelpNDoc
• HelpServer
• HelpStudio
• HelpTron
• HyperText Studio
• Macrobject Word-2-CHM
• Macrobject Word-2-Web
• MadCap Flare
• Mif2Go
• WinCHM
Any assistance will be MUCH appreciated!
Cindi

Hi, Cindi,
If you're an experienced RoboHelp user and happy with the
output that you're getting with it then I would question the
benefit of switching to another help authoring tool. This may be
necessary in some circumstances —- for example, if you need
to output your help content in a format that RoboHelp does not
support, such as Microsoft Help 2.0 -— but for the most part
the time and effort required to learn the new tool and convert your
existing content for use with it will outweigh the benefits of
switching to it.
Here are a few notes on the tools you listed.
> chm2web
> Help Generator
> HelpConsole 2008
> HelpNDoc
> HelpServer
> HelpTron
> Macrobject Word-2-CHM
> Macrobject Word-2-Web
> WinCHM
I see little or no mention of these tools in any of the
Help-related forums that I frequent. This isn't necessarily a bad
thing, of course, but I believe it indicates that few professional
help authors are using them. I'd expect the cheaper of these tools
to provide few or no editing facilities, and in some cases they may
be designed to perform a single, very specific function, such as
compiling a set of existing HTML files into a .chm file.
> FAR
This is an excellent tool for performing search-and-replace
operations across a set of HTML files and compiling them into a
.chm file or Help 2.0 file. It provides no facilities for creating
and maintaining your topic content, however, so you should really
only view it as a potentially useful add-on to RoboHelp.
> Mif2Go
This is like WebWorks Publisher (not on your list): an
application that takes source content authored with Adobe
FrameMaker and converts it into a number of different help formats.
If you've already authored a lot of content with RoboHelp then
moving it into FrameMaker and setting up the Mif2Go or WebWorks
templates appropriately could be a big undertaking.
> HyperText Studio
This was up-and-coming five or ten years ago but, for
whatever reason, it seems to have dropped completely from view
(though I'm aware that it is still for sale).
> HelpStudio
This is a quite heavy-duty application that appears to be
more popular with software developers than with full-time help
authors. A "lite" version is now being given away with Visual
Studio.
> AuthorIT
> Doc-To-Help
> Help & Manual
> MadCap Flare
These are all significant players. I've used AuthorIT only
and, while it's certainly a powerful tool, the learning curve is
quite steep.
You can read detailed reviews of many of these applications
at the Writers UA site (
http://www.writersua.com).
Pete

RoboHelp vs. SharePoint as Help Authoring Tool

Hello All,
I'm currently looking at RoboHelp to replace our old help
guides. Right now our guides are accessed though a 2 frame page
with an asp driven TOC on the left. The TOC just links to some html
pages that display in the right fram and others that are just
downloads of word, excel and PDF docs.
We will be purchasing Microsoft SharePoint next year and it
has been suggested to use that as our help authoring tool. I don't
know much about RoboHelp (other than I've been using the demo for a
couple days and love it's ease of use) and SharePoint and was
wondering if anyone out there has used both as a help authoring
tool and what your experiences were.
Are they pretty much similar, does anyone use them in
conjunction, any pros and cons to each?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to our community, mschallmo
I'm not a Sharepoint user and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn
Express last night, so I can't claim to be one.
I think you are comparing Spiders to Hedgehogs here. RoboHelp
is a Help Authoring Tool (HAT). Sharepoint is a product that might
display what RoboHelp created, but will not facilitate actually
creating the content you would later display as RoboHelp will.
Unless someone more experienced with Sharepoint steps up to
refute this, my understanding is that you would need
Both RoboHelp
AND Sharepoint. RoboHelp to author the content and
Sharepoint to present it to your users.
Cheers... Rick

Help authoring tools with SharePoint

Long time ago I used to use Help Authoring tools such as RoboHelp and ForeHelp. These were for Visual Basic applications. Wondering what would be a good help authoring tool for SharePoint 2010 applications that can help users understand SharePoint
features? Thanks so much.
Mayank

Try Component One’s Doc-To-Help (D2H)
http://blog.accusoft.com/2013/february/top-4-help-tools-that-integrate-with-sharepoint
http://blog.infotech.com/advisory/sharepoint-and-help-authoring/

Is there an HTML help authoring tool for LV?

Ideally one tool fits all, LabView, C# and MSVC++.
I know RoboHelp is a good tool for non-LV languages, does any one know other good tools? Thanks

The standard Common User Access (CUA) states that the key F1 will open help. Unfortunatly you cannot associate this key with a help file and topic as you can in other development systems.
On windows systems the behaviour seem to be common with what I have tested with MS Outlook, MS Internet explorer, LV and my favourite Help authouring tool (HAT). All open the default topic of the help file.
On IBMs AS /400, now iSeries, F1 will open a window which depends on the field where the cursor is. On GUI system this is related to the control who has the key focus. If the cursor is outside any field a help window explaining the current screen will be opened.
LV allows you to simulate this using the event structure. Make a event case for "Key up". Look into help for scan codes and how the keys are mapped to the values in this case. This event exists for the VI and for each control/indicator. If you have detected a F1 key you can open the help file with the corresponding topic.
The other way of context sensitiv help is Shift-F1. This works different in different applications. MS Outlook will open a popup window depending on the part where the mouse cursor is. MS IE will open the default topic of the help. My HAT will change the cursor and when you click somewhere you get a corresponding popup window. LV will ignore this key. The best way LV has for that is the "Tip" or "Tip Strip".
I think that NI will not make a new property to VIs and controls containing help file information and to associate the F1 key with that properties because you can connect F1 to a control using Key Navigation. This is another method of providing help. Place a control outside the visible aera and connect it with F1 using key navigation. This way you can open a help file with a topic with the context sensitivity of the window.
Another thing I have to comment is that why will you use HTML files instead of HTML based help (Win98, this is the same help LV uses)? If you have a medium sized application you will have to be careful to deploy a lot of files (more than 30 I would expect, 1 for ech topic and two or three for the frame, navigation and table of contents). You have to take into concern various browsers (4 Versions of MS IE, some versions of Netscape, some versions of Opera) with various versions of JavaScript if you will use a dynamic table of contents. And you will loose such things like Search and Favourites. Win98-Help looks always the same because there is only one viewer installed with every Windows and there are no third party products doing some things different. The only answer I would really accept is you are not on a windows platform.
Waldemar
Waldemar
Using 7.1.1, 8.5.1, 8.6.1, 2009 on XP and RT
Don't forget to give Kudos to good answers and/or questions

Need help authorizing tool with root privileges

So i've read apples docs on AuthorizationServices many times but they're examples leave a lot out (or maybe im just overlooking things) Can anyone provide a simple example of how to give an application root privileges, im trying to create a cleaning tool that removes caches etc.

You can't really "give an application root privileges". You can execute a tool with root privileges. I use the following:
#import "Authorization.h"
#import <Security/Authorization.h>
#import <Security/AuthorizationTags.h>
@implementation Authorization
// Constructor.
- (id) init
self = [super init];
if(self)
AuthorizationFlags flags = kAuthorizationFlagDefaults;
OSStatus status =
AuthorizationCreate(
0, kAuthorizationEmptyEnvironment, flags, & myAuthorizationRef);
if(status != errAuthorizationSuccess)
@throw
[NSException
exceptionWithName: @"AuthorizationCreateFailure"
reason: [NSString stringWithFormat: @"Error code: %d", status]
userInfo: nil];
return self;
// Destructor.
- (void) dealloc
if(myAuthorizationRef)
AuthorizationFree(myAuthorizationRef, kAuthorizationFlagDefaults);
[super dealloc];
// Execute a privileged task.
// Returns YES if the task executed successfully, NO otherwise.
- (BOOL) run: (NSString *) executable
withArguments: (NSArray *) arguments
output: (NSString **) output
AuthorizationItem items = { kAuthorizationRightExecute, 0, 0, 0 };
AuthorizationRights rights = { 1, & items };
AuthorizationFlags flags =
kAuthorizationFlagDefaults
| kAuthorizationFlagInteractionAllowed
| kAuthorizationFlagPreAuthorize
| kAuthorizationFlagExtendRights;
OSStatus status = AuthorizationCopyRights(
myAuthorizationRef, & rights, 0, flags, 0);
if(status != errAuthorizationSuccess)
@throw
[NSException
exceptionWithName: @"AuthorizationCopyRightsFailure"
reason: [NSString stringWithFormat: @"Error code: %d", status]
userInfo: nil];
char ** args = (char **)malloc([arguments count] + 1);
int index = 0;
for(NSString * argument in arguments)
args[index++] = (char *)[argument UTF8String];
args[index] = 0;
FILE * pipe = 0;
flags = kAuthorizationFlagDefaults;
status =
AuthorizationExecuteWithPrivileges(
myAuthorizationRef,
[executable UTF8String],
flags,
args,
& pipe);
free(args);
if(output)
NSMutableString * results = [NSMutableString new];
char buf[128];
while(true)
int bytesRead = read (fileno(pipe), buf, sizeof(buf) - 1);
if(bytesRead < 1)
break;
buf[bytesRead] = 0;
[results appendString: [NSString stringWithUTF8String: buf]];
[results autorelease];
*output = results;
return status == errAuthorizationSuccess;
// Execute a privileged task.
// Returns YES if the task executed successfully, NO otherwise.
+ (BOOL) execute: (NSString *) executable
withArguments: (NSArray *) arguments
output: (NSString **) output
Authorization * authorization = [Authorization new];
BOOL result =
[authorization run: executable withArguments: arguments output: output];
[authorization release];
return result;
@end

I am an MBA student , doing a research project on e-learning authoring tools, would like to find out no. of licences sold/active to date for adobe captivate. how many get sold every year. any pointers/help is appreciated. cheers.

I am an MBA student , doing a research project on e-learning authoring tools, would like to find out no. of licences sold/active to date for adobe captivate. how many get sold every year. any pointers/help is appreciated. cheers.

I doubt you'll get an answer in a user forum, sorry. This forum is meant for users to help other users when they have problems that have to be solved. You should contact Adobe itself.

Inconsistency between catalog authoring tool & Search engine

Hi,
We are on CCM2.0 and SRM5.0 with catalog deployment in the same client as SRM.
In our implementation we are using master catalog and product catalog. We have very recently deleted around 65 items from our product catalog which is mapped to mater catalog and hence those 65 items are not found anymore in master catalog in CAT (Catalog authoring tool).
This master catalog when published, we expect that these 65 products should not be available for end users.
But end users can still see the deleted items through CSE (Catalog search engine). Thus there is data inconsistency between CAT & CSE.
Has anyone faced similar issue before if yes can you please share the same with us.
Edited by: Manoj Surve on Mar 24, 2009 7:05 AM

Run TCODE SE38 program /CCM/CLEANUP_MAPPING to look for errors/orphaned records in test mode.
If you want to clear out orphaned records uncheck the Test Mode but:
Warning: This program can slow down a production system as it clears out the memory buffers for user catalog searches and these have to be built up again by the users doing searches. This can be hours to days depending upon the size of your system and the number of users.
In Dev or UAt no problem.
Hope this helps?
Regards
Allen

Service Manager Authoring Tool 2012 SP1 Missing DLL's

Hello All,
Originally posed this to the MS partner forums and was asked to post here.
I'm hoping someone familiar with the Authoring Tool For service Manager can help me. I'm using the Service Manager Authoring Tool 2012 SP1 found at the link below. I believe this to be the latest available.
Although the splash screen says Service Pack 1 Beta? Hoping the dev forgot to update the splash screen.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36214
I'm trying to create a new custom Service Request form and am getting prompted for some DLL's that seem to be workstation related or at least the Aerolite.dll makes me thing Windows Aero. (Could be wrong)
I've successful created a new Management pack, and I created a new Class that inherits the properties of the Service Request Class. I've added all the properties I need for the new form. All is well no issues there.
The next step is to create a new custom form. I select the create new custom form. Give it a simple name, and select my assembly then the form type. I'm then prompted for several DLL files that are not on my system
and I'm not sure where to find them.
The DLL's are:
Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.UI.ExtendedControls.Aerolite.dll
WPFTToolkit.AeroLite.dll
I can select cancel several times to get ride of the prompt for the DLL's and can customize the from without issues. I don't think this is correct but I have been able to create the form.
Does anyone know where I can find the above DLLs? Am I doing something incorrect here? Is this a bug in the authoring tool? If so is there an updated version I should be using?
I also receive the same prompt for DLLs when attempting to create a custom incident form....
My test environment is running Server 2012 R2 with Service Manager 2012 SP1. Went ahead and tried this using the Service Manager 2012 SP1 Eval VHD and had the same issue...

Hello Gabe,
The following post provides some insight on the Aero DLL's.
Hi Matt,
The Aero dll is only available on Vista so the tool will not find it when running on a different OS (e.g. Server 2008). However, you can safely cancel out of that it does not affect the form.
Regarding moving controls between tabs, unfortunately that's not supported this release.
It sounds like you did everything right, so let us try your MP here and see if we can reproduce the crash you are seeing and investigate it.
Thanks,
Cori
Another post regarding 'Beta' on the splash screen.
Yes, someone forget to change the splash screen :)
Rob Ford scsmnz.net
Cireson www.cireson.com
For a free SCSM 2012 Notify Analyst app click here
Can't post links to the full posts as this is a new account but I am sure you can find the referenced articles here on TechNet with the help of Bing or Google.
Hope this helps.
~Nick

How to Upload Multiple questions IN LSO using Authorizing tool

Hi Friends,
I am very new to the E-learning. As per my knowledge after uploading any content through Authorizing tool in will be uploaded to KM folder.
In my practice I am trying to upload the Multiple questions. I have searched but I am not find So please guide me the below scenario.
We have a requirement that is User need to complete the assesment. In this assesment we have 100 questions with random option. How to upload these 100 question at a time using authorizing tool.
Thanks,
Suresh

Hi Sandesh,
this is simply not supported, not in WebDynpro nor in standard HTML.
A workaround is to upload a ZIP with all files and on server side unpack the ZIP and operate on the single files.
I hope it will help u..
----------------------OR-------------------------
As you know using File upload UI element we can upload only one file at a time. There may be a scenario where user may want to upload any no of files at a time which is not determined at design time. This can be acheived using the ACF UpDownload UI element which requires a security whiltelist to be created
http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-2270
----------------------OR-------------------------
You can use Table UI element.
Regards,
Deepak Singh

New authoring tools available (Sept 1)

The v15 Folio Producer tools are now available here:
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=172&platform=Macintosh
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=172&platform=Windows
If you install these authoring tools, the folios you publish are compatible with the current Adobe Content Viewer available on your iPad, Android, and PlayBook devices. However, if you created a custom viewer app using an earlier set of tools and don't want to submit a new version to the store, you don't need to update your authoring tools.
If you install the newest version of the Adobe Content Viewer on an Android device, you can use the new Preview on Device feature. The updated Android viewer is available here (or you can search for it in Market):
https://market.android.com/details?id=air.com.adobe.contentviewer
The Preview on Device feature is not yet available for the iPad. When using the Preview on Device with the Android viewer, make sure that you have the newest viewer, that you turn on USB Debugging on your device, that you install the required device drivers to transfer files from your computer to your mobile device (Windows only), and that you start Adobe Content Viewer on your attached device when you open the Preview menu in your Folio Builder panel. See Use Preview on Device for details.
The updated version of the Viewer Builder is not yet available. It is scheduled for release next week.
See What's new in this release for details. However, note that the new Viewer Builder features mentioned are not yet available.

Hello Bob, i welcome myself in public forums. I'm quite desperate now. Finaly we are able to use full DPS, so we start to upgrade our tools from Drop 10 to current tools (so i'm on CS 5). Unfortunately even after many tries (http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/916/cpsid_91689.html) i'm still stuck with error of folio builder requesting upgrade.
BTW because of quite non-helping names of .dmg i'm even not sure that i'm downloading REALLY the newest tools, because name is just AdobeDigitalPublishingPatch-All and files on this dmg are from 25th of August. Here is screenshot from installation of this update:
Any idea what to do? And no, reinstall CS 5 is not the answer, it's late evening here and i don't have access to medium and serial number in IT section.
And please can you improve informations about what version belongs to which "Drop" (and which viewer is supported by this version), and can you improve naming of downloads so it's crystal clear what is what?
Thank you.

Authoring Tool - Where are the updated MPs for the Library After Applying Update Roll Ups

All,
Fairly recently, I took a client to SCSM 2012 R2 UR3. Today I dropped by to do some work for them on custom MPs, and when I attempted to open them with the SCSM 2012 R2 Authoring tool, I could not, because the 7.5.3079.148 MPs (UR3 version) are not in the
library. I have searched high and low to locate these MP files to drop them into the library, but I am coming up empty handed. Where are the .MP files? I am aware that we can just directly alter the referenced MP version number in the MP itself, but I want
to know where do we actually find these correctly versioned files for the authoring tool.
Thanks,
Z

Hey Everyone,
I have heard back a few times from MS, but with nothing substantially helpful other than they created a bug for it. Today they called again and said this is listed with a low priority, because not enough people are complaining about it, which has a several-months
time frame for resolution. He asked me to submit Connect Feedback and get people to Upvote it and state that they can reproduce the problem. So, I went out there, found one connect request already submitted (By Thomas Bianco above) and attached to the bug,
and I Upvoted and clicked the Repros link on it. Here is the link below, so please get out there and and Upvote and click the Repros link.
https://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/Feedback/Details/948751
Thanks!
Z

SCSM Authoring Tool verification error when creating a new property

I am needing to add several new fields to an existing customized ServiceRequest Extended Form. Using SCSM I exported the management pack (as a bundle) and then used PowerShell to export to a .xml. Now when I open the class and try
to create a new property I get an error stating:
The management pack could not be verified due to this error:
Verification failed with 1 errors:
Error 1:
Found error in ...servicerequestextendedform.category with message:
The Target attribute value is not valid. Element ....ServiceRequestExtendedForm.Category references a Target element that cannot be found.
I am very new to this. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

you probably want to go back to original sources, rather then exporting from Service Manager, since the export will break any sealing and might cause issues when authoring or resealing.
You'll also need :
a Sealed version of the class extension, since this is going to need to be loaded into the authoring tool before you see the extra properties,
an unsealed copy of the MP that contains the form customization, so you can edit it
the original key used to seal the current customization, so you can seal the upgraded form using the same key so it will upgrade the MP correctly in your production environment.
The specific error you're running into looks like a MP reference error, but it's hard to be sure without seeing the original XML. i'd make sure that you have opened the sealed versions of any other MPs this MP depends upon.

Thursday is the last day to vote for your favorite authoring tool

Hi, folks.
Thursday, January 6 is the last day to vote for your favorite authoring tool!
WritersUA is inviting help authors to participate in it's annual tool survey.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/tools_survey
It's not long, just a page. I'd encourage everyone to participate.
The results of this annual survey will be available before or during the annual WritersUA conference slated for March 13-16, 2011 in Long Beach, California.
Hope to see everyone there!
john
John Daigle
Adobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate Instructor
Evergreen, Colorado
www.showmethedemo.com

Call "EchoSign's built-in authoring tool" from my website

Hello. Could you please tell me if I am able to use "EchoSign’s built-in authoring tool" outside of EchoSign website? I mean maybe there are some API methods with help of which I will be able to add such fields(as when using "EchoSign’s built-in authoring tool") to a document without need to sign in EchoSign website and upload a document to it? Thanks.

Hello!
This is the flow….
1.      Open up my app
2.      Click on a button to send SOAP request to EchoSign to send document interactively
3.      Received URL to launch EchoSign and EchoSign app is displayed
4.      When I’m done and click on Send on EchoSign page, the page stays there. To get rid of EchoSign page, I have to close the window and manually bring up my app again
Would like for EchoSign to automatically close after “Send” is successful, and my app shows up again in place of EchoSign.
Thanks,
Rachel

Help Authoring Tool

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