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Dr Explain - A Good Prescription for Documenting Software
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If you are like me, creating software is often the most enjoyable thing
about being an independent software vendor. However, two less
enjoyable parts of the business also happen to be very important:
1) marketing and 2) software documentation. Dr. Explain
makes the creation of documentation easier - and almost enjoyable.
While most of the applications available for creating end user
documentation provide a means of capturing screen shots, you still need
to document those screen shots. Many times you will have to
create callouts to highlight a part of a screen shot. It can
almost be like taking screen shots of your screen shots if you have a
lot of controls on a particular window. This process of
identifying parts of a screen so that you can more easily document a
screen is where Dr. Explain shines.
When you have started a project with Dr. Explain and you get ready to
capture a window you choose the option "Add a Window" and you get a
screen like below that has a "Finder Tool:"
You click and drag the finder tool to the open window you want to
document and then click the Document It button. You are then
returned to your open project and will see numbered bullet images created
for the controls on your window. These buttons are hyperlinks
which you document in your project. It may be that you have
controls that you don't need or want to document - just select and
delete them. You can also add controls manually. Notice in
the screen below the numbered buttons. These were all created
automatically. I selected each control and renamed them to
correspond with the item I am, well, explaining. Notice number 7
has Edit field. This is a default. Underneath the screen
and bullets there is a "Title" box where you can enter a new title for
any selected bullet. Also, notice the window with the TO
DO: Insert the description text here. This is where you
write the information about each control finder found on the
window. It really is easy.
Now one of the neat things about Dr. Explain is the way you can switch
from Design view to HTML Preview. This let's you get a look at
the project from the end user perspective as you design it.
However, if you try to click on one of the bullets while in preview
mode you get a window telling you to use the Navigation tree.
You actually have to export your project before these bullet hyperlinks
become active. Then you will see the result of your hard work
(Ok, it's easy, almost fun).
I guess I might also mention that you can't save a file when you are in
preview mode, you have to switch back to Design view to save your
project.
Below is a screen shot of this documented window, clicking on a button
hyperlink will take your reader to the linked text description for that
control. At the far right, not displayed, is a Top link to return
the viewer to the window with the bullets and controls they were
reading about.
The choices for exporting your project include .html - perfect for
putting end user documentation on your web site, .chm for including
with your application, and .rtf (rich text format) which may be just
what you need for printed documentation. One of the only reasons
you might need to use a differe program for creating your end user help
documentation is Dr. Explain does not include the option to export to
old fashioned .hlp files - the standard help file format used for
context sensitve help used by many applications.
Dr. Explain is worthy of your
investigation for (at least) two reasons: 1) it is very
affordably priced and 2) it is very easy (fun?) to use. If you
haven't already discovered Dr. Explain then I strongly recommend you check it out. Tell the Doctor I sent you! :-)
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