Authoring - Previewing the result

Once all or part of the authoring work in a project is performed you can verify your work. You can run through the objects of the project and re-read and correct things. You can also use the Workbench's 'Preview' function. This function saves all your work and displays the content in your web browser. Then you see the content as people would see it when they access it over the Internet. So, what the authors see with the preview function is what the users will get.

You can use the preview function on each folder or topic by popping up the menu on the node in the Workbench tree. If you are working in a multilingual environment (or with the trial version) then you can choose to preview in one of the supported languages. Of course the content should be available in or translated to that language which is not the case at this point.

Previewing

To continue with the example, popup the menu of ‘Project: Animals information’ and select ‘Preview > English’. If you have changed objects in this project folder then the ‘Save’ window will popup automatically to save all your changes in the folder you want to preview along with its dependants.

Saving objects in the Workbench

Most of the time your work is saved behind your back. Every now end then ‘Save’ window will popup prior to the execution of another function. Also when you close the Workbench window, all your work will be saved. You can also invoke the save manually on the popup menu of each tree node. If the tree node is a folder its dependants will be save as.well

As soon as the save is finished your browser will open the folder in a typical tri-pane window as shown in the figure below.

Content shown in the web browser

You can read through the content by expanding the tree and selecting the topics in the left pane. Each time you select a topic the corresponding information will be shown in the pane on the right. The top panes hold hyperlinks and buttons to navigate and to perform actions such as print, refresh, search, etc. The look and feel of this web page can be customized and tailored to your conveniences. The things you can do on a HelpServer web page is described in Using the HelpServer content on the web.

Authoring

 About HelpServer
 Starting up and logging on
 The basic working principles
 Introducing the Workbench
 Adding a new project
 Creating the content structure with folders
 Adding the content in topics
 Previewing the result
 Changing the object description
 Adding new objects at a specific position in the folder
 Rearranging objects in a folder
 References to content objects
 Using the work modes
 The properties of a content object
 The properties of a reference to a content object
 Copying, cutting, and pasting
 Removing
 Printing
 Publishing
 The object status
 Searching for changed content
 Recovering unsaved changes
 Enabling and disabling a reference in a folder
 Auto selecting a topic in a folder
 Controlling the levels in the folder structure
 Grouping topics in a folder
 Your profile and Workbench preferences
 Using the content in help and documentation systems
 Formatting the content
 Searching and replacing text
 Reusing content with shares
 Navigating with hyperlinks
 Navigating with pointerpaths
 Using bookmarks and jumps
 Duplicating content with clones
 Using tables
 Including media files
 Navigating to web pages
 Using embedded chunks
 Including html code
 Navigating with menus
 Using snippets
 Spelling checking
 Using the view mode
 Creating an index
 Creating a FAQ
 Creating a glossary
 Team authoring
 Working with projects
 Setting up structured authoring
 Generating file based output
 Creating printed output
 Importing files and folders
 Loading files in the project gallery
 Converting legacy content
 Including legacy content in real time
 Transferring objects between installations
 Smartcontent
 Notification
 Feedback
 Translating
 Customizing the look and feel
 User accounts
 Security
 Working with templates
 Working with metadata
 Versioning
 Auditing
 Workflow management
 Annotations
 Using event exits
 Appendix A: The URL parameters
 Appendix B: The object indicators
 Appendix C: Play Javascript