Telephone Seminar Recap: introducing Windows "Longhorn" user assistance system

by Christy Simard, Student Awards Manager

If you work in the Windows world, you've probably heard of Longhorn, codename for the new Microsoft operating system due out in 2005. If you work in the Windows world and you write online help, you've probably wondered about Longhorn Help, the expected replacement for Windows HTML Help. What will it look like? How will it work? Where does it fit in the user experience?

At the November telephone seminar that are chapter sponsored, local writers and managers listened as Char James-Tanny shared her knowledge and experience with this fledgling help system…actually, make that a fledgling "user assistance system".

Char's Disclaimer

The seminar started with a disclaimer: Longhorn is still under development. So is Longhorn Help. This means things can and will change. Beta release of Longhorn Help is expected some time in the first half of 2005, but timing and details are subject to change!

Highlights from the User's Perspective

Longhorn Help will provide an "Assistance Escalation Path". This path will start with a well-designed user interface, move out from the UI and into the Help pane, then out of the Help pane and into the user community. The last stop will be Microsoft product support. The idea is that users will never encounter a dead end when they seek assistance.

The look of Longhorn Help is a little bit "traditional WinHelp", a little bit "Office 2003". You'll see one main pane of task-based help and navigation, with a secondary window for conceptual topics. You'll see the basic functions you'd expect: table of contents, index, full text search, and history. You'll also notice that Longhorn Help will look exactly the same, regardless of the application that installed it. For example, the formatting of Excel's help will match the formatting of the help that came with your new video card software.

New features will integrate application and system state information directly into the help, presumably providing more precise and accurate information. Variables and conditions are the key mechanisms here, referred to as "reusable content" and "conditional content" respectively. "Active Content Wizards" will even present the "Do it" option, where the software executes the help steps at the user's command—the elusive "one-click solution".

Interesting Implementation Details

When I attended this seminar, my biggest question was, "can I install Longhorn Help on a single server then deliver help to client computers?" The answer is…no. With Longhorn Help, you must install your help system on every single computer that will deliver your help. If you serve up help for thin-client, browser-based software, Longhorn Help is of no use to you.

Longhorn Help is fully structured; you will write it in MAML, which is a Microsoft markup language built on XML. As an author, you will work with a fixed set of topic types, each with a strict set of hierarchical elements, all of which will be formatted by a stylesheet maintained and published by Microsoft (this may change!).

Before your cringe sets in, be aware that there are gains to make. Your MAML will be transformed at run time into online help, RTF for printing, or into XAML, another Microsoft markup language that will permit software applications to share data. Longhorn Help promises a complete, single-source solution that extends single sourcing to include the interface between help and application software.

In addition to your structured content (which is compiled but not compressed), when you install your help system, you will install a "TaskData" file. This file will contain a breadth of information about your help system, like the words to show in an index, the relationships between tasks in your system, and the categories into which those tasks are grouped. This TaskData file and the metadata it contains should facilitate richer information webs. The task data for all Longhorn applications will be collected and managed within a single database, promising global search, navigation, and categorization.

Moving Forward

Breathe easy. Longhorn will include the WinHelp and HTML Help engines. They won't undergo any further development or bug fixes, but they'll be there, and they'll support legacy help systems.

Secondly, if you think Longhorn Help has a part to play in your future, Char says to get familiar with XML and structured authoring. Now! The sooner the better.

Finally, if you want to keep up on the latest Longhorn Help developments, check the MSHelpWiki at http://mshelpwiki.com.

About Christy Simard

Christy manages a team of information developers in Kitchener-Waterloo, where she supports traditional writing jobs, user interface design work, and marketing writing assignments. Her expertise combines an educational background in technical writing with eight years of industry experience.

Christy became a member of the STC in 1998; this is her third year as a volunteer on council.