What is NetHelp?

NetHelp is Doc-To-Help's Web-based format. It renders in a browser and is cross-platform compliant. When you build NetHelp using Doc-To-Help, Doc-To-Help takes your content, does everything that it would normally do for you (create a table of contents, create an Index, catalog everything for Search), and also compiles all of the content and project elements into the NetHelp interface.One of the things we'll be covering in this post is how that interface helps your users find the information they're looking for

Advantages of a Web-based Format:

The biggest advantage of a Web-based format is that it's on the Web. While this may sound obvious, it doesn't discount the fact that putting your content online makes it easier to share and update.

All of ComponentOne's documentation is on one central repository on our knowledgebase. This gives all of our users one place to look if they have a question from the Help. NetHelp also creates unique links for each individual topic in the Help, so it's easier to send someone right where they want to go. (And, as we'll find out, there's a feature in NetHelp that makes it even easier).

Additionally, you can set up your Doc-To-Help project so that your content is published directly to the web server when you build. Once you have everything set up, there's no need to transfer files or configure anything, you just build in Doc-To-Help and your content is automatically updated online.

Most Useful Features in NetHelp:

There are other aspects of NetHelp that make it great, but these features highlight how easy to use and accessible the NetHelp format makes your content.

I used screen shots from the documentation hosted on our web server to show how ComponentOne is implementing and using everything discussed in this post.

Accessibility and Compliance:

When Doc-To-Help creates NetHelp for you, it creates it as XHTML content. This XHTML content conforms to the latest Web standards and is compatible with XML parsers. It will render in any browser without loss of functionality.

Doc-To-Help also gives you quick and easy ways to make your NetHelp content 508 compliant. This is a handy tool for anyone writing materials for the government, or anyone that needs to make their content accessible to users with disabilities.