Common Desktop Environment: Help System Author's and Programmer's Guide

Example

Suppose you want to create a hierarchy to match this simple outline:

Tutorial for New Users
       Module 1: Getting Started
       Module 2: Creating Your First Report 
      Module 3: Printing the Report
       Module 4: Saving Your Work and Quitting 
 Task Reference 
      Starting and Stopping 
           To Start the Program 
           To Quit the Program
       Creating Reports 
           To Create a Detailed Report
            To Create a Summary Report
  Concepts for Advanced Users
       Using Report Hot Links 
      Sharing Reports within a Workgroup  Reference
       Command Summary 
      Report Attributes Summary

Then the general outline of your help volume would look like this. (The body of each topic and IDs for the topics are not shown.)

<hometopic>  Welcome to Report Master
   <chapter>  Tutorial for New Users
     <s1>  Module 1: Getting Started
     <s1>  Module 2: Creating Your First Report
     <s1>  Module 3: Printing the Report
     <s1>  Module 4: Saving Your Work and Quitting
   <chapter>  Task Reference
     <s1>  Starting and Stopping
       <s2>  To Start the Program
       <s2>  To Quit the Program
     <s1>  Creating Reports
       <s2>  To Create a Detailed report
       <s2>  To Create a Summary report
   <chapter>  Concepts for Advanced Users
     <s1>  Using Report Hot Links
     <s1>  Sharing Reports within a Workgroup
   <chapter>  Reference
     <s1>  Command Summary
     <s1>  Report Attributes Summary

Indentation is used here to make it easier to see the structure of the help volume. You do not have to indent your files.

See Also