Chapter 9. Using Third-Party Help-Authoring Tools

Using an HTML document-authoring tool facilitates the creation of HelpSets. Such third-party tools automate many of the JavaHelp development tasks that would otherwise be tedious and time-consuming. To help you make decisions about using third-party authoring tools, this chapter covers the following topics:

  • How JavaHelp relates to third-party tools

  • How third-party tools work

How JavaHelp Relates to Third-Party Tools

Most third-party help-authoring tools enable you to achieve the cherished goal of “write once, run anywhere.” That is, with a single authoring effort, you can create an online help system to be deployed as JavaHelp, WinHelp, or HTML Help.

A good third-party tool attempts to hide the administrative details of JavaHelp. It may even appear that you don’t need to understand the workings of the help system, as detailed in the preceding chapters. But a good understanding of JavaHelp aids to diagnose the problems and limitations in the authoring environment. It enables you to go “behind the scenes” to correct or work around such situations. And if you ever need to abandon the third-party tool, you can continue maintaining the help system using the techniques discussed in this book.

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