Single-sourcing tool for Word documents: WWP's WordHelp 

by Linda G. Gallagher

WebWorks Publisher WordHelp (WordHelp) is a new tool from Quadralay, the makers of WebWorks Publisher Professional (WWP). If you've used WWP with your FrameMaker books, WordHelp will look very familiar to you. 

WordHelp works with Word 2000 and 2002 and lets you create any of the following online help formats:

• WinHelp 4.0 (.hlp)-The Windows help format introduced with Windows 95 and that is still used by many products today.
• MS HTML Help (.chm)-The HTML-based, Windows help format introduced with Windows 98.
• JavaHelp-The help format from Sun that is designed for use with Java applications.

WebWorks Help 3.0-Quadralay's own cross-browser, cross-platform, HTML-based help format that features a navigation pane with four tabs as shown below.

One of the strengths of WordHelp (and WWP) is its ability to save all of your project settings as a template. Once you create a project and customize the styles the way you want them, you can save the project as a template that you can reuse for other Word documents that use the same styles.

Setting up your Word documents to work with WordHelp

If you want to convert one or more Word documents using WordHelp, here are few things to keep in mind:

• You must have Word 2000 or 2002 installed on your computer, and you must be using Windows 98 or later.
• You should use different styles for your headings, body text, numbered steps, bulleted lists, and other formats. A document that is all styled in Normal is not going to work well.
• All cross references and hyperlinks must be valid.
• All graphics that contain more than one object, for example, a screen shot and callouts, must be in a single picture object (right-click the screen shot, select Edit Picture, and add callouts).

Creating your WordHelp project

Once you have your Word document set up, you are ready to convert it to help. I suggest that you set up your WordHelp conversion project early on and convert the document periodically during the development cycle. It's much easier to troubleshoot any issues with a small project as it progresses than it is with a large one at the end.

Here are the basic steps to create your WordHelp project:

1. Start WordHelp.
2. Select a template to use.

3. Give your project a name and tell WordHelp where to save it.
4. Add your Word file.

You can add more than one file.

5. Map your paragraph and character styles from your Word document to WordHelp's styles.

WordHelp comes with several basic styles for headings, body text, table text, bulleted and numbered lists, and indented text. You can customize the styles and add styles to meet your needs.

6. Convert.

WordHelp takes your content and converts it to the help format you selected in step 2. It will automatically convert the following:

• Cross references and hyperlinks to properly format hypertext links
• Graphics to an online format (generally .gif or .jpg)
• Headings to a table of contents appropriate for the help format

Your initial conversion will likely not give you the final results you want, but it will give you a first look at the online output. You will probably need to customize some styles and create new ones to get the results you want.

Customizing styles

WordHelp's graphical user interface (GUI) makes customizing styles easy. It still helps to know HTML, but you don't have to hand code the styles for your Cascading Style Sheet (.css). You can just make selections from the Style Designer and have WordHelp generate the .css file for you.

You can create a variety of styles including paragraph, character, graphic, table, and more to ensure that your output has the look you want.

The screen shot below shows the Paragraph tab, Basic subtab of the Style Designer, where you set most of your paragraph formatting options. Other subtabs let you control the fonts, whether the style starts a new topic, and the indention level.

If you create new styles, you have to be sure to map your Word style to the new WordHelp style. If you name the WordHelp style exactly the same as the Word style (case counts), WordHelp will automatically map the style for you.

You can also customize your tables and the overall page layouts to include text or graphics as headers or footers of each HTML page. 

Extending Word's capabilities to include "conditional text"

WordHelp also extends Word's capabilities to include a function that works like conditional text. WordHelp calls this media types. If you are familiar with FrameMaker's conditional text function, it work a lot like that. 

If you've never used conditional text, WordHelp's media types let you set up one or more media types and associate a highlight color with each one. You can then select text and assign a media type to it. 

For example, if you have installation instructions in your Word document, you probably don't want to include them in your online help. By the time someone can access the online help, they've already installed the product. You can create a media type called PrintOnly and assign it a color. Then select the Installation section and apply the PrintOnly media type to it. Word uses the highlight color to highlight that text.

When you are ready to generate your online help, you hide the PrintOnly media type, so that text does not display in the file. Using media types, you can generate different versions of your content and include only the suitable text in each version.

Some final thoughts

WordHelp is a powerful tool for converting your Word documents to online help. Admittedly, Word is not my favorite tool for creating documentation. If you're forced to use it, as I know many of us are, WordHelp gives you a way to reasonably single-source your print and online outputs.


Linda G. Gallagher of TechCom Plus is an independent technical communicator who has been single-sourcing print and online documentation for nine years. She has used all of the major print and help development tools for a variety of software and hardware projects. She is a certified trainer and reseller of WebWorks Publisher products. You can reach her at 303-450-9076, lindag@techcomplus.com, or http://www.techcomplus.com.