Electronic Reference Library

RoboHelp is used to share knowledge leading to new business opportunities

RoboHelp is a great tool for creating online help systems, but it can also be used to create an electronic reference library. When I first started working at BillingZone, I was asked to participate in writing proposals in response to RFPs (Request for Proposals). BillingZone had replied to several RFPs prior to my joining the team and the nature of the RFPs made their content very similar. This of course, caused the responses to be very similar. It made sense to answer a question in a new RFP by looking up a similar question, and its answer, from a previous RFP. This approach worked, but it was time consuming. The answers existed, but they were scattered over several files and lacked organization. We relied on the memories of the contributing authors to find what we needed.

I hit upon the idea of adding order and structure to the responses from previous RFPs. A database was my first thought, but due to access restrictions placed on geographically remote team members, a shared database wasn't possible. My next thought was to use RoboHelp. RoboHelp offered several advantages:

• I could create a single .CHM file that could be e-mailed to any of the remote team members and placed on their desktops/laptops.
• Original content from Word docs could be easily moved into RoboHelp topics.
• A dynamic table of contents (list of topics) could easily be created and organized.
• RoboHelp offered full-text search across all topics, as well as an index.
• RoboHelp content could be maintained easily.

With the help of the proposal manager, we selected the most relevant questions and answers from previous RFPs and proposals, and organized them into a dozen or so high-level topics. Under these, we created more specific topics when necessary. Each topic contained questions formatted in bold italic text with their corresponding answers directly beneath them and references to the RFPs from which they came. I also added a graphics topic in which logos, charts, diagrams, etc. could be copied and pasted into proposals. This ensured all team members had a single source for all "approved" graphics.

The reference library was a success because of its ease of use, its portability, the time it saved contributing authors, and the ease with which it was maintained.