Authoring Tools survey

[KevinDAmery]

The moderators at the HATT list are running a survey for help authors regarding the tools you use. They gave permission to post the link to the survey on other lists, blogs, etc. soooo I'm posting it here

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/65623/tool-survey

[RamonS]

Interesting survey....just wonder why as content "Software application help" is not listed. They put everything else in the list.

[LTinker68]

I don't normally visit the HATT list, so if you remember, Kevin, please post the link to the results when they become available.

[KevinDAmery]

Will do, Lisa.

[Richard Ferrell]

The results will be posted on the http://www.hatmatrix.com in October

[Richard Ferrell]

If you are not a member of the HATT group on Yahoo, you can sign up here.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HATT/

[KevinDAmery]

Interesting survey....just wonder why as content "Software application help" is not listed. They put everything else in the list.

Char asked me to post a response here (she isn't a forum member so she can't post directly). She said "we split the types of content that authors might create from how
it is delivered. "Software application help" mixes them together, which is why it wasn't there. And because we knew there would be omissions, we included "Other"."

In other words, an online help file could contain procedures, reference, conceptual information, or any combination of them.

[RamonS]

Aha, so I guess I mixed up output format with content...and yes, I used the Other option. When I think about procedures, manuals, conceptual information I always have printed output of a few pages length in mind or in case of manuals printed output of many pages. As we all know, print output has other requirements as screen output in form of a help system. Sure, a help system may contain procedures, conceptual information, references, and a whole bunch of other stuff, but that isn't what makes me choose a tool. In the end it is all text and some pictures, but the output format is different. And that output format determines which tool I'd use. So I think asking about what type of content one produces is almost irrelevant when it comes to choosing a tool.

[KevinDAmery]

Well, it did say "Help authoring tools" at the start of the survey - I took it as a given that if you were taking the survey you were producing online help. So I guess they're more interested in what the focus of the help system is.

[RamonS]

So why is then Frame in the list? You cannot use Frame to generate online help. You need some kludges like WebWorks ePublisher or a tool like Flare (which then I wonder why one still needs Frame). I'd also then wonder when the survey is exclusively about online help why does the list of content include "Quick Reference Cards"? Sorry for barking up the wrong tree, but with a survey that confusing what will the results actually tell us?

[LTinker68]

"Help authoring tools" doesn't imply online-only, which is why it was asking what types of output you generated. There were a slew of output options. Another slide was the type of document (help) you output, which is where the user manuals, quick start guides, etc., were listed. They were probably including "software application help" as meaning the user's guide or something.

[KevinDAmery]

As I mentioned in another post, the results are here:

http://hatmatrix.com/2008/10/12/hatt-survey-results/