The current structure of the help seems reasonable. There are details to resolve that I mention in comments on this issue. But we are using the helpNdoc software, and I have upgraded to version 5.
This can be downloaded free of charge, but if you compile with it then you get publicity for them on each page. So I have bought a single copy and can produce successive versions.
Each dialogue has a help button, and so do the sub-dialogues. I think if there is no special sub-dialogue help, then it goes to the help on the main dialogue - we should check that.
We need to consider both our main audience - namely inexperienced R-Instat users - and also cater for those who want to learn more about the R that is behind the dialogue. So:
a) Currently the dialogue just has text. As we are now close to final dialogues for the July release, I suggest we also capture screen shots of each dialogue, which is also in the help.
b) This is a screen shot with data, and I suggest the default data is a set that comes with the package that corresponds to the R command for that dialogue.
c) if not, then we have a few datasets we can use routinely, e.g. our survey, and Dodoma come to mind. What should we use for corruption?
d) I suggest the screen shots could all be collected into a Powerpoint slide show. This could have a separate slide for each dialogue and might be roughly in the order of the existing dialogues. It is easy in Powerpoint to add boxes with further explanations. Then the whole thing can be transferred to the help. Perhaps there should be a separate ppt file for each menu?
3) At the bottom of the dialogue help there is a link to the R package for the command that is called by the dialogue - or directly to the command in that package.
4) there is also a place for datasets. So far only the old Instat ones and they are not so interesting.
5) Some dialogues will have videos associated. It would be good if this could be indicated somehow on the help button for that dialogue. Perhaps some sort of click could then go straight to the video?
6) We should also link to CAST to provide statistical help where appropriate. We should easily be able to have a cast link in the main help - that would go to the start of CAST. What I am not so clear about is whether it will be easy/possible to jump into particular pages in the latest versions of CAST.
The current structure of the help seems reasonable. There are details to resolve that I mention in comments on this issue. But we are using the helpNdoc software, and I have upgraded to version 5.
This can be downloaded free of charge, but if you compile with it then you get publicity for them on each page. So I have bought a single copy and can produce successive versions.
5) Some dialogues will have videos associated. It would be good if this could be indicated somehow on the help button for that dialogue. Perhaps some sort of click could then go straight to the video? 6) We should also link to CAST to provide statistical help where appropriate. We should easily be able to have a cast link in the main help - that would go to the start of CAST. What I am not so clear about is whether it will be easy/possible to jump into particular pages in the latest versions of CAST.