This post continues my comments on the results of my experiments using RoboHelp Packager for AIR on a WebHelp project.

General Bugs

Having Back and Forward buttons is great. However, in Classic Help, they didn’t always seem to follow my navigation path. I don’t use browse sequences (and I turned that feature off anyway in the AIR generation dialog), so I don’t think I’m misunderstanding the purpose of the buttons.

The Classic Help TOC seems a little buggy when the Favorites pane is open. Everything worked except when I had a bunch of books open and had to scroll to get to the last book. When I scrolled, I got behavior like the selected book or another book automatically closing, or the TOC would jump so I couldn’t see where the selected topic was. (If I scrolled back up, the auto-closing book would open up again.)

Where I had Captivate demos in a topic, a huge space was inserted before each Captivate demo about the size of the demo itself. The demos work fine, but that big space is an irritant.

Search, Index, Glossary

The Search (with word stemming), index, and glossary work as expected. I like the index and glossary better in Classic Help, perhaps because they work similar to the way they work in FlashHelp. However, I like the search in Uni-pane better because the search results give the user some context for each find. I wonder why the search isn’t set up the same way in the other systems. I’m sure having a narrow pane on the left isn’t as conducive to search results that show context.

In Uni-pane, I would like to be able to change fonts. The TOC headings are in Verdana, which isn’t my favorite, and my help is written in Arial.

Comments

I think the comments concept is on the right track. The comments XML file doesn’t save with an XML extension by default—I think it should. I’d have to tell everyone who wants to comment that they have to add the extension. The XML file also inserts “%20″ for spaces.

The Packager As an Extra Step

Packaging straight from RH as a single source layout would be quicker, and it would probably allow the dialog to remember the last settings used for that particular help project. As is, with the dozens of layouts I’m doing between several projects, I would have to be constantly changing the settings in the dialog. This would get complicated with variations based on languages and roles.

Suggestions / Wish List (Other than Those Already Mentioned)

AIR help doesn’t seem to support multiple languages other than displaying a translated help topic. It ignores the language setting of my output. I suggest a language setting in the AIR dialog.

I need CSH for Web (Java) applications; so far, AIR help supports only C/C++, Flex, and AIR applications. I tried linking from a basic HTML file on my computer to open the .air help file, and I got a dialog asking me to open or save it.

In my experiments, I’ve had to install every different .air file. My understanding was that users would have to install the runtime support once, and accessing every .air file after that would be transparent to the user. Maybe I’m doing something wrong here.

A brief note for anyone trying out the packager: Opening the .air file by double-clicking runs the installation with the option to “Run Now” or “Uninstall.” If you enabled the option to create a desktop shortcut and open it that way, it doesn’t try to reinstall. I found this in the RH Packager forum.

Conclusions

Adobe seems to be following a good line of thinking here with AIR help. But remember, users want simplicity. Having to install each help system as an application is asking too much of everyday users. The other most important things (and biggest wishes) to me right now are the following:

  • CSH for Web/Java apps.
  • Multiple language support.
  • More options for customizing the appearance (colors and graphics, not pane layout).
  • JavaScript support.
  • Running the packager as a single source layout out of RoboHelp.

For the time being, the packager and AIR help aren’t robust enough for my deliverables. Thanks to Adobe for releasing beta versions of the packager and letting help authors give feedback. I’ll be keeping an eye on what Adobe does with the packager.

Related entries (auto-generated):

RoboHelp Packager for AIR Critique, Part 1

Time for Online Help to Get a New Wardrobe

Deleting a Topic from RoboHelp and Subversion

How I’m Juggling Conditional Build Tags and Localization in RoboHelp

Changing a Topic File Name in RoboHelp and Subversion