Inside Macintosh: Apple Guide Complete / Part 1 - Designing Guide Files

Chapter 3 - Planning Your Help Content

You'll find developing your help system much easier if you plan the content and organization of each guide file before you prepare it with Guide Script. First, include time in your online development schedule to determine your guide file topic areas and topics, to break them into panels and sequences, and to design your help instructions. Then develop your guide file in a hard copy format--for example, a series of flow charts or story boards--that can serve as your road map during the scripting phase. If you create a guide file using the Full Access window, you also need to plan and create Index and Look For content.

This chapter helps you with all of these tasks. It describes the type of content that is best suited for your guide files. It then explains how to derive topic areas and topics from existing reference documentation. Next, it shows how to break these topic areas and topics into panels and sequences using flowcharts. It concludes with information on creating a guide file index and Look For features. This information includes a description of how Apple Guide matches user search phrases to topics using the guide file index, three additional lists of terms, and a process called stemming.

You should read this chapter if you are designing or scripting a guide file.

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Chapter Contents

Determining and Creating Your Guide File Content

Determining Appropriate Content for Your Guide File

Creating Topic Areas and Topics

Using Flowcharts to Design Your Guide File Panels

Helping the User Search

How Apple Guide Stems

How Apple Guide Matches Search Phrases With Topics

Creating a Guide File Index and Associated Lists

Creating a Guide File Index

Invisible Index Terms

Creating an Ignore List

Creating an Exception List

Creating a Synonym List