Integrating a documentation/help engine with Omnis desktop app

[Chris Hughes]

Hello Mayada, and others of course.

I years ago first implemented my Fast Track Estimating System and also wrote
a manual from scratch, very few users used it.
 
We then laid the manual out in screen orientated order this was to help, as
estimators a very impatient, the wanted a manual that showed the page
(picture) then decipher the information they wanted, and allow them to go
straight to the subject required.

Then I started adding windows onto the system. This might be interesting
part, I added for every object on the window a help comment within the
Library, this was for all push buttons, menus, list fields etc. 

To make it work we had a push button on the screen with a "?" mark, the user
simple turned on the help button,  this in lieu of help being constantly on,
and would eliminate the annoying flashing. 

The user simply run the mouse over the object and up comes the help text.

This was found to be successful instead the reading manuals.
However usurers at last resort will read a manuals.

The process for us to produce an manual was changed to when a window was
created, we go straight in after and we and add the tool tips. 

My then office assistants would go to the library file, open the window and
do right click on the help button, this would the capture the tool text tips
and place in the clipboard, this then of course was pasted into word
processing document for the manual to be expanded.

This process saved us a lot of time and also acted as quality control,
making sure every object was covered.
The only thing I could not figure out, was to capture the image of the
object this would save time stealing the graphics from screen prints.

We later published on the web the manuals in PDF form all though today they
look a little sad, however they server their purpose.

This is my simple solution, hope it may help someone.


Code for button.

On evClick
Switch $root.$prefs.$showwindowtips
Case kFalse
Calculate $root.$prefs.$showwindowtips as kTrue
Calculate $cobj.$iconid as 1063
Case kTrue
Calculate $root.$prefs.$showwindowtips as kFalse
Calculate $cobj.$iconid as 1528
End Switch
;  
;  
On evRMouseDown
Do $cwind.$objs.$makelist(con($ref.$name,'  ',$ref.$text,'
',$ref.$tooltip)) Returns LvList
Do LvList.$redefine(LvCom)
Do LvList.$line.$assign(1)
Repeat
Calculate LvText as con(LvText,chr(10),$root.LvList(1,LvList.$line))
Do LvList.$line.$assign(LvList.$line+1)
Until LvList.$line>LvList.$linecount
Copy to clipboard LvText


Chris Hughes

Copious Data Pty Ltd (Trading as Atad Data)
3 Springwell Avenue
Springwood QLD 4127
Phone No:- 07 3208 6347
Mobile No:- 0409 263 349
Email:- ataddata at bigpond.net.au
Web Site:- http://ataddata.com.au



-----Original Message-----
From: omnisdev-en [mailto:omnisdev-en-bounces at lists.omnis-dev.com] On Behalf
Of malkishtini at gmail.com
Sent: Friday, 11 November 2022 12:04 PM
To: OmnisDev List - English
Subject: Integrating a documentation/help engine with Omnis desktop app

Hi $listers,

We are looking for a reliable/easy to use/edit documentation engine to
integrate with our Omnis desktop app in Studio 10.22.
We are thinking to add a help support to each window in the system that
users can easily access and edit.

Any suggestions/thoughts about a tool or an engine (free or with a
reasonable cost) that we can install on a centralized server on the cloud? 
I appreciate all your ideas and feedbacks.

Thank you,
Mayada Al-Kishtini
 

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