Online Help + generation tools

daans

Hi,

I'm doing some research on online help in Nav. I have downloaded the "Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2 Help Toolkit" and I'm trying to complete the "Creating and Building a New Help Topic" walkthrough.

Everything goes according to plan, except my .hh file is empty:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="hh.xsl"?>
<Events>
</Events>

From what I understand, Nav needs this file to map my help project to the F1-key.

The help file (*.chm) is however generated without any problem.

This is log file Nav Help Builder generates:

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Help Builder 12/06/2012, 17:13:24

------------------------------------------------------------
Processing steps
------------------------------------------------------------

[17:13:24]:	Main log file has been created
[17:13:24]:	Configuration files have been successfully read
[17:13:25]:	Object file has been successfully read
[17:13:25]:	Detected system language settings: Dutch (Belgium)
[17:13:25]:	WARNING: Warning: System language settings (Dutch (Belgium)) are different than projects settings (English (United States)). Project may be compiled incorrectly.
[17:13:25]:	Help Builder has finished processing at 12/06/2012 17:13:25

------------------------------------------------------------
Summary 
------------------------------------------------------------

Processing time: 
1 projects were successfully processed
0 projects were not processed
0 files not found errors
0 lookup errors

Processed projects: 

Project name    Lookup errors    Files not found
------------------------------------------------------------
addin_a			0		0

and this is the log.txt located in the "Processed"-folder:

Help Builder 12/06/2012, 17:13:25

Processed project: addin_a

What am I exactly doing wrong?

P.S. I've attached a screenshot of Nav Help Builder in case someone wants so check my settings.

daans

I was also wondering af there are any decent alternatives for the Microsoft Dynamics Nav Toolkit. It does involve quite a lot of manual labour.

I found a tool called MergeTool. This tool includes a module for the creation of online help, but it currently doesn't offer support for pages. (although I was told it reuses the help for forms on pages - that's a problem because our product doesn't have pages anymore).

While surfing the web I stumbled upon Naveon ProHelp, I don't know exactly how this product works but I have sent Naveon a request for more information.

Do you guys have knowledge of any other tools to assist in the creation of an online help?

alekp

Hi daans,
The .hh file can be empty if your help project does not contain any topics that document NAV objects (so topics specific for tables, fields, pages or reports).
If you want a topic to be included in .hh file and work with F1 help, the topic has to be formatted according NAV guidelines. It needs to have an object token in its title (it HTML in <title> markup). Sth like this:

<title>($ T_18 Customer table $)</title>

or for field on table:

<title>($ T_18_2 Name field $)</title>

Similar tokens can be created for pages or reports - you can refer to NAV Help Guide for syntax.