Background

Articles on Using Dr.Explain

In this section, we publish articles dedicated to effective work in the Dr.Explain program, as well as useful materials on documentation development, technical writing, and software maintenance.


Development of documentation for devices and industrial equipment: features, tools, special techniques

Digitization is sweeping across many areas of business, and in industries where accuracy is critical, specialized software is no longer necessary. New technologies optimize costs and minimize the likelihood of errors. This is especially true in the production of industrial equipment.

Development of documentation for production automation systems and business processes

Ordinary text instructions cannot fully explain the benefits and reveal the potential of a complex business process automation system. If the user does not understand the advantages of its application, he will consider it unnecessary and useless.

Creating user manuals for accounting software

It is wrong to think that people who have been working with numbers and complex accounting programs all their lives will easily master any software. Software that they can navigate even with their eyes closed has taken them decades to master and initially caused difficulties. How to make the accounting system understandable? What will make the new development the accountant's favorite tool?

Developing user manual for ERP systems: features, tools, special techniques

Sometimes a company implements an ERP system, but without the desired effect. It's all about complexity, which discourages employees. Here are examples of effective user documentation and tools for writing them.

Development of documentation for CAD and BIM systems: peculiarities, tools for its creation and real examples

A CAD and BIM system without user manual is a serious miscalculation. BIM and CAD user manual written in MS Word is a fatal mistake. What tools are industry leaders using to write effective user manuals?

Applying the broken windows theory to technical writing

Broken windows theory is the concept that small irregularities left unattended can lead to more serious problems. In this article, you will learn how to keep your project up to date and avoid project obsolescence.

User-friendly interface in programs for creating user documentation

What is user-friendly interface? How to create it? What are its key features? Examples of a good interface in technical documentation.

How to choose a system for developing user documentation: SaaS or desktop software?

SaaS or desktop software — what is better for writing technical documentation?

How to write a user manual for software or a WEB service: tips, tricks and tools

Designing and writing good documentation is a job that takes a lot of time and effort. But if you successfully cope with the task, you can get loyal and satisfied customers forever.

How to write user documentation for software: best programs and services

Best programms and services for creating user manuals

White Papers: Writing Cost-Effective Documentation for Software Systems

All software, from simple command line utilities to large scale corporate systems, needs documentation. It may be done either in the form of several text strings shown in a console window or in the form of thousands of web pages stored on the company portal in a distributed database. No mater how documentation is done, it must be done.

Why software documentation needs index and how to make it work efficiently

Index is not a brand new thing to people. You can find it in textbooks, encyclopedias, handbooks, manuals. Generally index is an alphabetically sorted list of words with page numbers (or hyperlinks to pages) where they are mentioned. The reason why end-user program documentation demands index is that it can be easily interpreted as ordinary book.

Agile Technical Writing Basics

Unfortunately, nobody wrote instructions for Agile technical writers, so peculiarities of profession need to be studied out.

Software Documentation in Scrum Projects

To do your best as a technical writer in scrum team check out several must-know things below.

Windows Software Help Files Formats

Are you still wondering which help file format to use for your Windows software? The selection depends on your software and on the information that is in your help files. Each help file format has its own unique features that may be useful in certain situations. Generally, I would recommend that you use different help files for different situations.

Error Accessing and Displaying CHM Files: Reasons and Solutions

Some or even all of your CHM files seem to have gotten corrupted. They show a The page cannot be displayed error in the left-hand pane of the CHM viewer. There are several possible reasons why your CHM help files are unreadable.

A Dozen Techniques to Improve Your Software Online Help

There are several main reasons why putting your software manual on-line is necessary. It makes your web-site attractive for search engine crawlers and therefore brings you targeted traffic from Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and other search engines.

The Hidden Power of Online Manual

Even if your manual isn't being helpful to your software users, it may be helpful to you. Publish your help manual online and turn its hidden power into a real benefit for your business.

How to make a context help for a website or a web application with Dr.Explain

Context help is a user manual that is embedded into the web application or a website and provides just in time access to the information about specific page elements

How to Create Help Files for .NET (C#) Windows-Application in Dr.Explain

This article is devoted to creation of help file in CHM format and its further integration into the .NET application. Code samples are included.

How to Create Help Files for Visual Basic (VBA.NET) Windows-Application in Dr.Explain

This article is devoted to creation of help file in CHM format and its further integration into the Visual Basic (VBA.NET) application. Code samples are included.

How to Create Help Files for MS Excel (VBA) Windows-Application in Dr.Explain

This article is devoted to creation of help file in CHM format and its further integration into the Microsoft Excel workbook. Code samples are included.

How to Create Help File for MS Access (VBA) Windows-Application in Dr.Explain

This instruction describes the process of creation of Help file for Microsoft Access in Dr.Explain and its subsequent integration into the forms of data base

How to Create Help File for Delphi Windows-Application in Dr.Explain

The article describes how to create a context sensitive help file in Dr.Explain software and to use it in a Delphi project. Code samples are included.

16 Reasons Why Only Your Users Do Not Read User Documentation

In the ten years that we’ve been developing Dr.Explain, a leading-edge tool for creating help files, we saw hundreds of our customers' projects. Our technical support team mostly receives user documentation for software products with requests to help implement some tricks.

Dr.Explain: A professional tool for creating mobile-friendly end user documentation

Dr.Explain allows you to create a user guide or technical documentation in multiple formats based on one project. It takes only a couple of clicks to export the documentation to one of these popular formats: PDF, CHM, Microsoft Word, or online help ready to publish on the Web

How to create and publish online documentation manual on your product web site correctly

An obvious choice of the format for publishing online help is HTML or, to be more exact, DHTML (Dynamic HTML). The documentation will consist of HTML files, image files, and JS (JavaScript) files