A Help Authoring Tool or HAT is a software program used by technical writer

Technical writer

A technical writer is a professional writer who designs, creates, and maintains technical documentation...

s to create online help

Online help

Online help is topic-oriented, procedural or reference information delivered through computer software. It is a form of user assistance. Most online help is designed to give assistance in the use of a software application or operating system, but can also be used to present information on a broad...

 systems.

Functions

The basic functions of Help Authoring Tools can be divided into the following categories:

File input

HATs obtain their source text either by importing it from a file produced by another program, or by allowing the author to create the text within the tool by using an editor. File formats that can be imported vary from HAT to HAT, though they can include such formats as ASCII

ASCII

The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...

, HTML

HTML

HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....

 , OpenOffice Writer and Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...

, and compiled Help formats such as Microsoft WinHelp and Microsoft Compressed HTML Help

Microsoft Compressed HTML Help

Microsoft Compiled HTML Help is a Microsoft proprietary online help format. It was introduced as the successor to Microsoft WinHelp with the release of Windows 98, and is still supported in Windows 7.-History:...

.

Help output

The output from a HAT can be either a compiled Help file in a format such as WinHelp

WinHelp

Microsoft WinHelp is a proprietary format for online help files that can be displayed by the Microsoft Help browser winhelp.exe or winhlp32.exe. The file format is based on Rich Text Format . It remained a popular Help platform from Windows 3.0 platform through Windows XP...

 (*.HLP) or Microsoft Compiled HTML Help (*.CHM), or noncompiled file formats such as Adobe PDF, XML

XML

Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....

, HTML

HTML

HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....

 or JavaHelp

JavaHelp

JavaHelp refers to both an application and a format for online help files that can be displayed by the JavaHelp browser. It is written in Java, and is mainly used in Java applications...

.

Auxiliary functions

Some HATs provide extra functions such as:

• Automatic or assisted Index
  Index (publishing)
  An index is a list of words or phrases and associated pointers to where useful material relating to that heading can be found in a document...
  
   generation
• Automatic Table of Contents
  Table of contents
  A table of contents, usually headed simply "Contents" and abbreviated informally as TOC, is a list of the parts of a book or document organized in the order in which the parts appear...
  
  
• Spelling checker
• Image editing
• Image hotspot editing
• Import and export of text in XML
  XML
  Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
  
   files, for exchange with computer-assisted translation
  Computer-assisted translation
  Computer-assisted translation, computer-aided translation, or CAT is a form of translation wherein a human translator translates texts using computer software designed to support and facilitate the translation process....
  
   programs

Common Help Authoring Tools

Some common HATs include:

• Adobe RoboHelp
• Author-it
• Doc-To-Help
• FAR HTML
• HelpIQ
• Help & Manual
  Help & Manual
  Help & Manual is a Windows-based help authoring tool published by EC Software, a company based in Austria.Like many help authoring tools, Help & Manual allows the writer to create a single source text which it then converts to a number of target formats. In this case, the author creates the source...
  
  
• Help Generator
  Help Generator
  Help Generator is a Windows-based help authoring tool published by AGORA Software BV, a company based in The Netherlands. The Help Generator software consists of a help authoring IDE , a topic page generator which can be used to generate pages from the user interface of any Windows application and...
  
  
• HelpNDoc
  HelpNDoc
  HelpNDoc is a Windows-based help authoring tool published by IBE Software, a company based in France.Like many help authoring tools, HelpNDoc allows the writer to create a single source text which it then converts to a number of target formats such as CHM, PDF, RTF and HTML...
  
  
• HelpServer
• HelpStudio
• MadCap Flare
  MadCap Software
  MadCap Software is an American computer software firm headquartered in La Jolla, California. The firm is best known for producing various help authoring tools...
  
  
• Sandcastle

See full List of help authoring tools

Related software

Technical writers often use content management system

Content management system

A content management system is a system providing a collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment. These procedures can be manual or computer-based...

s and version control systems to manage their work.

See also

• List of help authoring tools
• User assistance
  User Assistance
  User assistance is a general term for guided assistance to a user of a software product. The phrase incorporates all forms of help available to a user. Assistance can also automatically perform procedures or step users through the procedure, depending on the question that the user asked...