Online Help

Some pens are mightier than others.

Online & Inline Help Systems

Standalone & context-sensitive online help ⌖ Online reference materials ⌖ Wikis ⌖ Embedded dialog-level & field-level help ⌖ Tooltips ⌖ Application context hooks ⌖ Script prompts

This page provides links to some samples of my online help system work.

These online help samples are also available in a single ZIP download (13.5MB).

Please take a look at my other samples

These samples are not a comprehensive catalog of my work. For additional samples, or for additional information about the samples provided here, please contact me.

Important notes about these samples
  • To ensure cross-platform compatibility, I only include screenshots and PDFs for most of these samples. My goal is enable readers of these pages to view content from help systems in, say, proprietary WinHelp (*.hlp) and Microsoft Compiled HTML Help (*.chm) formats without needing to download viewers for those formats.
  • To minimize sample sizes, I only include a few pages from each sample help system. If you are feeling masochistic and really want to see a complete online help system with hundreds of topics, please reach out to me, and I will be glad to comply.
  • It is not very useful to present context-specific inline help and tooltips outside of their host applications. Instead, I provide these kinds of samples in the Screen Captures gallery.

Samples

Control>Center context-sensitive help map

Context-senstive help topic map file

  • I wrote this topic map file for the context-sensitve help system for the Ab Initio Control>Center product.
  • Each entry in the map file contains a key:value pair for a help topic and its corresponding entry point in the product code, followed by a comment string explaining the purpose of the entry.
  • This map file and the help topics for the product were written in XML format, and the product code entry points correspond to Java classes.
  • The purpose of the sample is demonstrate one way I have worked with product developers to implement a context-sensitive online help system.
  • Note that this sample file has a .txt extension for security purposes.

>> View Control>Center context-sensitive help map file (20K text file)

2014

PeerDirect Replication Engine

Sample screens from PeerDirect Replication Engine Guide and Reference

  • I developed, wrote, and illustrated this Microsoft Compiled HTML Help system system for the Replication Engine from PeerDirect Corporation.
  • I include the following samples here:
    • PeerDirect Replication Engine Guide and Reference start page
    • PeerDirect Replication Engine Overview
    • Customizing Event Handling — Overview
    • Work Sets in the Sample Database
    • Fragments in the Sample Database
    • Microsoft SQL Server topic from Supported Databases
    • PDEPostSessionInsert API topic

>> View PeerDirect Replication Engine Guide and Reference start page (1.8MB PNG)
>> View PeerDirect Replication Engine Overview (514K PNG)
>> View Customizing Event Handling — Overview (243K PDF)
>> View Work Sets in the Sample Database (316K PDF)
>> View Fragments in the Sample Database (240K PDF)
>> View Microsoft SQL Server (264K PDF)
>> View PDEPostSessionInsert (205K PDF)

2003

Solaris Management Console SDK

Solaris Management Console SDK Programming Guide

  • I designed, wrote, and illustrated this SDK programming guide for the Solaris Management Console product from Sun Microsystems.
  • I generated this sample PDF from the original HTML format.

>> View Solaris Management Console SDK Programming Guide (1.3MB PDF)

2002

Thomson ESG Alert

Sample screens from Thomson ESG Alert online help

  • I developed, wrote, and illustrated this WinHelp system for the Thomson ESG Alert product from Thomson Financial.
  • I include the following samples here:
    • Welcome to Thomson ESG Alert start page
    • Procedure for Creating a Settlement Model
    • Glossary entry for asset backed security
    • Snippet of the How To index page
    • Snippet of the Alert Glossary index page

>> View Welcome to Thomson ESG Alert (390K PNG)
>> View Creating a Settlement Model (43K PDF)
>> View asset back security (344K PNG)
>> View How To index (732K PNG)
>> View Alert Glossary index (371K PNG)

1998

Gemsoft Emerald

Sample screens from Gemsoft Emerald online help

  • I developed, wrote, and illustrated this WinHelp system for the Emerald product from Gemsoft Corporation.
  • I include the following samples here:
    • Emerald Help Index start page
    • Snippet of the Emerald Dialog Boxes page with popup
    • Procedure for Creating a Composite Document
    • Procedure for Creating a Form Template
    • Procedure for Using the Annotation Tool Palette

>> View Emerald Help Index (498K PNG)
>> View Emerald Dialog Boxes (539K PNG)
>> View Creating a Composite Document (1.7MB PNG)
>> View Creating a Form Template (249K PDF)
>> View Using the Annotation Tool Palette (37K PDF)

1995

Attitash SlingShot

Sample screens from Attitash SlingShot online help

  • I developed, wrote, and illustrated this WinHelp system for the SlingShot product from Attritash Software.
  • I include the following samples here:
    • Snippet of the Alphabetical List of Topics
    • Snippet of the How To index
    • Snippet of the Button Bar topic
    • Snippet of the OnDeck Bar topic
    • Snippet of the procedure for How to Create New Program Group with popup

>> View Alphabetical List of Topics (538K PNG)
>> View How To index (638K PNG)
>> View Button Bar (1.1MB PNG)
>> View OnDeck Bar (1.5MB PNG)
>> View How to Create a New Program Group (1.1MB PNG)

1992