Guidelines for writing HTML help

Authors:
Lissy Abraham;Susanna Dyer;Stella Hackell
Affiliations:
Apple Computer, Cupertino, CA;Apple Computer, Cupertino, CA;Apple Computer, Cupertino, CA
Venue:
IPCC/SIGDOC '00 Proceedings of IEEE professional communication society international professional communication conference and Proceedings of the 18th annual ACM international conference on Computer documentation: technology & teamwork
Year:
2000

Citing 1
Cited 3

The Nurnberg funnel: designing minimalist instruction for practical computer skill

The Nurnberg funnel: designing minimalist instruction for practical computer skill

Designing communication: considering the dynamics of the discipline

SIGDOC '06 Proceedings of the 24th annual ACM international conference on Design of communication
Designing help topics for use with text-to-speech

SIGDOC '06 Proceedings of the 24th annual ACM international conference on Design of communication
An online help framework for web applications

SIGDOC '07 Proceedings of the 25th annual ACM international conference on Design of communication

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

This paper provides guidelines for writing HTML help content for end users of Apple hardware and software products. The guidelines were developed by the editors in Apple Computer's Instructional Products (IP) group to respond to the problems that arose as documentation shifted from print books to HTML help. Initially, writers struggled to "retrofit" their print content for the onscreen environment. However, the differences in how users interact with print and onscreen help demanded not just a small revision, but a major rethinking of the instructional content. Looking to minimalist principles for guidance, we created these guidelines to help writers develop content that supported the goal of Apple's HTML help: to help users get tasks done without slowing them down or getting in their way.