TweetFollow Us on Twitter

Guide Authoring
Volume Number:12
Issue Number:6
Column Tag:Apple Guide

Apple Guide Authoring Tools

Helping you help users help themselves

By John R. Powers, III, guideWorks, LLC

Note: Source code files accompanying article are located on MacTech CD-ROM or source code disks.

In an earlier article (MacTech Magazine 12.1 [January 1996] 67-70), we reviewed three new books about Apple Guide authoring. Now we’ll focus on the tools for Apple Guide authoring. The January article also contains a brief introduction to Apple Guide in case you need to brush up on your guide terminology.

The original Apple Guide authoring tool is Guide Maker. Two new tools have arrived. They are Danny Goodman’s Apple Guide Starter Kit and StepUp Software’s Guide Composer. We’ll examine all three tools in this review. If you are new to guide authoring, the review may help you to decide where to start. If you’re an old hand at it, the review may help you to decide what to use next.

But first, we will give you a quick overview of the Apple Guide authoring process and how these tools fit in.

The Authoring Process

To create a guide, this is what you usually do:

Task analysis. Identify and articulate the tasks that the user must accomplish.

Instructional design. Specify how the guide will support the user’s tasks.

Content writing. Create the words and images to support the instructional design.

Scripting. Mark up the content with Guide Script. This includes identifying topic areas, index terms, the formatting and sequencing of content, context checking, and automation.

Application integration. Add Apple Guide-specific code to the application. This is an optional step.

Testing. Test guides as a part of the application test suite.

Localization. Adapt the guide to serve an international market.

The authoring tools primarily support content writing and scripting. Guide Maker requires that you write your content and do your scripting with a word processor. Guide Maker takes the word-processing documents and compiles them into a guide. The Starter Kit and Guide Composer replace the word processor with WYSIWYG content entry. Scripting is done by the tool. In addition, the new tools use a new, streamlined version of Guide Maker called Guide Maker Lite for seamless compiling. Figure 1 shows how the tools are used for authoring a guide.

Figure 1. Authoring a guide

Guide Script

Underlying the process is Guide Script. It is a mark-up language that identifies Apple Guide elements, controls content layout, and sequences panels. There are about 100 commands in Guide Script. The language is a combination of definitions, content layout, and panel sequencing. It’s like “HTML meets MPW”. If you are uncomfortable with programming, you may have serious difficulty learning Guide Script. Even scripting-savvy technical writers find the learning curve to be frustratingly steep.

Guide Maker

Guide Maker is the original authoring tool developed by Apple for Apple Guide. It’s five tools in one: build guides, test the look-for search, run and diagnose guides, convert WinHelp to Guide Script, and import/export text for localization. We’ll consider only the “build guides” part here.

This is the granddaddy of all the Apple Guide authoring tools. Guide Maker and its leaner, faster offspring, Guide Maker Lite, are the only tools that can compile guides. And they only compile help content marked up with Guide Script. Until Apple releases a public API for reading and writing guides, we must use Guide Maker or Guide Maker Lite for compilation.

Guide Maker produces the most complete set of Apple Guide features. It’s the reference point for any new authoring tool. So if it does everything, why consider something else? There are lots of reasons, but the biggest one is the fact that you are required to know Guide Script.

Guide Maker itself can make the process difficult. Any error in the Guide Script syntax usually stops compilation. You fix the error and then start compilation from the beginning. There is no incremental compilation. If you have a large guide, compilation can go for many minutes before encountering an error and stopping. This iterative process of compiling, encountering errors, fixing errors, and restarting the compilation is frustrating and time-consuming.

Guide Maker requires text files as its input. This introduces problems in managing the Apple Guide elements and visualizing the final output.

In Apple Guide, everything is related to something else. For example, topic areas are related to topics which are related to sequences which are related to panels. This is shown in simplified form in Figure 2.

Figure 2. One example of the relationship of Apple Guide elements

Each of the four elements - topic area, topic, sequence, and panel - is authored separately and linked to another by referencing its name. It’s up to you to come up with meaningful names and keep track of all the elements. In a reasonably large guide, this can involve many hundreds of elements, a difficult management job for any author. Unfortunately, Guide Maker provides no support for managing all the elements.

Visualizing the final output is another difficulty. Using a word processor, you program the sequence of panels in a topic and specify the formats for how the panel content is to be displayed. When the user views the guide, Apple Guide creates a layout by “flowing” the content into the panel according to your formats. The layout process occurs at display time to allow for automatic adjustment of the panel for localized text. German, for example, requires more panel space than English, to accommodate its larger words. Apple Guide handles this text expansion at runtime. However, a word processor may not display the help content in the same form as Apple Guide. As a result, you must visualize what the help content will look like. If you are used to WYSIWYG writing, you may be frustrated.

Listing 1 shows an example of how a panel is written in Guide Script. The resulting Apple Guide panel is shown in Figure 3.

Listing 1: Apple Guide panel written in Guide Script

<Define Panel> "What is it - panel 1"
<Format> "Tag"
<PICT> 2997, RIGHT
<Format> "Body"
The guideWorks Translator creates a WinHelp project from your Apple Guide 
source files, which you can compile into a WinHelp help file using the 
Windows Help Project Editor.
<End Panel>

Figure 3. The Apple Guide panel created by
the Guide Script in Listing 1

The New Class of Authoring Tools

The Starter Kit and Guide Composer solve authoring problems by using an interface that is almost identical to what the Apple Guide user sees. The tools keep track of the panels, topics, etc., and display them in the correct sequence and layout. Finally, the tools isolate you from the Guide Script by creating it for you.

At any point in entering or editing your help content, you can have the tool create the Guide Script, write an intermediate text file, and compile it with Guide Maker Lite. Guide Maker Lite is included with the tool software, and compilation is automatic. The output from Guide Maker Lite is a production guide.

Apple Guide Starter Kit

The Starter Kit begins with an application that lets you select various guide options and preferences. The application then creates and launches another application for authoring your guide. The derived application becomes the authoring tool for your guide. You use it for entering and editing help content. The content is embedded in the application like a HyperCard stack with an application shell. This produces a very large Starter Kit “document” because of all the application overhead. This has no effect on the size of the compiled guide.

You enter topic areas, topics, and index terms in a window that looks very much like the Apple Guide access window (Figure 4). After entering a topic name, you can enter panel content in a panel-like window (Figure 5). Options are available for adding coach marks, prompts, and “Huh?” sequences. You can reuse existing panels or create new panels. The “Full” and “Tag and Body” panel formats are supported.

A book, Danny Goodman’s Apple Guide Starter Kit, accompanies the software and completely documents the tool. It also provides a lot of useful information on how to author guides and how to modify the Guide Script created by the tool.

Figure 4. Starter Kit topic area window

Figure 5. Starter Kit panel editing window

Guide Composer

Guide Composer begins with a Topic Areas window (Figure 6). You enter topic areas, and topics to go with them. A lot of support is provided for indexing and Look-For. Guide Composer can automatically generate an index list from your content if you wish. This is a great way to start an index list. Guide Composer excludes your Ignore words from the index, but you may still need to touch up the index list after automatic generation. If you prefer, topics can be selectively excluded from automatic indexing and have their index terms assigned manually. Index terms are entered in a very different way than Guide Maker and the Starter Kit. In the other tools, you assign a topic to an index term; in Guide Composer, you do the reverse - when you create a topic in the Topic Area window, you can assign an index term to it. Support for Ignore words, invisible index terms, and synonyms is also provided. The only thing not covered is the stemmer exception list.

Figure 6. Guide Composer topic area window

Panel content is entered in a panel-like window (Figure 7). Options are available for adding coach marks, “Huh?” sequences, Apple Scripts, pictures, and sound. Prompts are selected at the topic level rather than on a panel-by-panel basis as in the Starter Kit. The “Full” and “Tag and Body” panel formats are supported.

Figure 7. Guide Composer panel editing window

Guide Composer also lets you modify a “Standard Defines” file that is automatically included in the compilation. This is handy for modifying many of the defaults and adding your own definitions. Another feature allows you to enter Guide Script directly into the panel. This Guide Script is preserved in the Guide Composer document and included when the guide is compiled. (Guide Script can also be entered directly into the Starter Kit panels, but Guide Composer is more explicit about it.)

The manual describes how to use the tool, but not how to design guides. You should also refer to one of the three Apple Guide books if you want to develop good guides.

Making Choices

What are the advantages to using the Starter Kit or Guide Composer? First of all, you write your help content in the context of what the user sees. You can focus on the content without getting distracted by scripting and layout. Second, you don’t need to learn any Guide Script; the tools create the Guide Script for you. Both tools provide a quick start for guide development. You can start writing useful guides in a matter of days rather than weeks.

What do you give up by using the Starter Kit or Guide Composer? This is a trick question. The answer depends on what you want your guide to do. They are best at creating simple guides using a single-list access window. A full access window is possible, but neither tool provides sufficient support for bullet-proof Look-For searching. If you are willing to learn Guide Script, the tools provide a fast start for a more complete guide. It works like this: Use the tools to produce as complete a guide as you can, then switch to the intermediate Guide Script file to complete the project. Once you start modifying the Guide Script, you can’t go back; any changes made in the intermediate file are not retrofitted into the original document. Every time you make a change in the original document, the intermediate file is re-written from scratch and your changes in the intermediate file are lost.

You will probably want to avoid touching the intermediate Guide Script file. Once you do, it requires manually updating the intermediate file every time you make a change with the tool. Or, you can abandon the original tool and use Guide Maker with the intermediate Guide Script file. This approach has the advantages of a quick start with the Starter Kit or Guide Composer and the completeness of Guide Maker.

Features Supported

An important consideration is the Apple Guide features supported by the tools. There are many features that the new class of tools does not handle. For example, one of Apple Guide’s key features, intelligent assistance, requires context-sensitive branching. The new tools don’t support this feature. Their text editors also don’t support text search-and-replace, a major nuisance when you want to make global changes in your guide. You’ll also need a word processor and Guide Maker if you want to use any hot text. Table 1 shows some key Apple Guide features for the tools.

Apple Guide FeatureGuide Starter Guide
MakerKitComposer
Full access windowYYY
Single-list access windowYYY
Presentation startup windowYNN
Guide menu placementAllAll1 available
Topic AreasYYY
IndexYYY
Look-ForYNY
SequencesAll typesBasic linearBasic linear
Context-sensitive branchingYNN
Create topics and panelsYYY
Style text in panelsYNN
FormatsAll2 available2 available
Coach marksAll2 available2 available
“Huh?” sequences and panelsAll“Huh?” One panel
must be topicper “Huh?”
Drag-and-drop editingNYY
Content search-
and-replaceY (word processor)NN
PromptsAll3 available4 available
Panel content other than textAllNonePICT and
Sound
Hot text in panel contentYNN
ButtonsAll“Huh?” only“Huh?”
and Radio
Source docs file size1X1X1,300K + 1X
Documentation provided554-page 295-page 38-page
bookbookmanual
Guide compilationYYY
Look-For testingYNN
Diagnostic supportYNN
WinHelp conversionYNN
Localization supportYNN
MixinsYNN

Table 1. Apple Guide features supported by the authoring tools

Recommendations

If you want to get the quickest possible start in guide development, choose the Starter Kit. It’s well documented and produces very useful guides quickly. Watch out for the limited Look-For search support. Try it out in your guides and see how you like it. You may find that you need to touch up the Guide Script to get the results you want.

If you want a more full-featured guide, use Guide Composer. It has good support for indexing and Look-For. It also supports more objects and prompts in the panel content. Watch out for the limited help menu support. You can only make guides that go into the “Help” menu position. To put it into one of the other four positions, you’ll need to modify the Guide Script.

If you plan to develop a lot of guides, use Guide Maker. It’s still the most complete tool available. It will take you longer to learn it and to produce your first guide, but you will have much more Apple Guide capability available. You may also want to start with one of the new tools and then switch over to Guide Maker as you build more confidence.

Where to get the tools

Guide Maker accompanies the book Apple Guide Complete: Designing and Developing Onscreen Assistance by Apple Developer Press. Software updates of Guide Maker and Guide Maker Lite are available from the Apple and guideWorks Web sites.

The Starter Kit accompanies the book Danny Goodman’s Apple Guide Starter Kit. A demo version of the Starter Kit can be downloaded from the guideWorks Web site. (Both books are reviewed in the January article referred to above.)

Guide Composer is published by StepUp Software (214-360-9301). A demo version of Guide Composer can be downloaded from the StepUp or guideWorks Web site.

stepup@onramp.net

http://rampages.onramp.net/~stepup/

The guideWorks Web site has lots of information about Apple Guide and Guide Maker. It also has demo versions of the Starter Kit and Guide Composer for downloading.

http://www.guideworks.com

 

Community Search:
MacTech Search:

Software Updates via MacUpdate

coconutBattery 3.9.14 - Displays info ab...
With coconutBattery you're always aware of your current battery health. It shows you live information about your battery such as how often it was charged and how is the current maximum capacity in... Read more
Keynote 13.2 - Apple's presentation...
Easily create gorgeous presentations with the all-new Keynote, featuring powerful yet easy-to-use tools and dazzling effects that will make you a very hard act to follow. The Theme Chooser lets you... Read more
Apple Pages 13.2 - Apple's word pro...
Apple Pages is a powerful word processor that gives you everything you need to create documents that look beautiful. And read beautifully. It lets you work seamlessly between Mac and iOS devices, and... Read more
Numbers 13.2 - Apple's spreadsheet...
With Apple Numbers, sophisticated spreadsheets are just the start. The whole sheet is your canvas. Just add dramatic interactive charts, tables, and images that paint a revealing picture of your data... Read more
Ableton Live 11.3.11 - Record music usin...
Ableton Live lets you create and record music on your Mac. Use digital instruments, pre-recorded sounds, and sampled loops to arrange, produce, and perform your music like never before. Ableton Live... Read more
Affinity Photo 2.2.0 - Digital editing f...
Affinity Photo - redefines the boundaries for professional photo editing software for the Mac. With a meticulous focus on workflow it offers sophisticated tools for enhancing, editing and retouching... Read more
SpamSieve 3.0 - Robust spam filter for m...
SpamSieve is a robust spam filter for major email clients that uses powerful Bayesian spam filtering. SpamSieve understands what your spam looks like in order to block it all, but also learns what... Read more
WhatsApp 2.2338.12 - Desktop client for...
WhatsApp is the desktop client for WhatsApp Messenger, a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS. WhatsApp Messenger is available for... Read more
Fantastical 3.8.2 - Create calendar even...
Fantastical is the Mac calendar you'll actually enjoy using. Creating an event with Fantastical is quick, easy, and fun: Open Fantastical with a single click or keystroke Type in your event details... Read more
iShowU Instant 1.4.14 - Full-featured sc...
iShowU Instant gives you real-time screen recording like you've never seen before! It is the fastest, most feature-filled real-time screen capture tool from shinywhitebox yet. All of the features you... Read more

Latest Forum Discussions

See All

The iPhone 15 Episode – The TouchArcade...
After a 3 week hiatus The TouchArcade Show returns with another action-packed episode! Well, maybe not so much “action-packed" as it is “packed with talk about the iPhone 15 Pro". Eli, being in a time zone 3 hours ahead of me, as well as being smart... | Read more »
TouchArcade Game of the Week: ‘DERE Veng...
Developer Appsir Games have been putting out genre-defying titles on mobile (and other platforms) for a number of years now, and this week marks the release of their magnum opus DERE Vengeance which has been many years in the making. In fact, if the... | Read more »
SwitchArcade Round-Up: Reviews Featuring...
Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for September 22nd, 2023. I’ve had a good night’s sleep, and though my body aches down to the last bit of sinew and meat, I’m at least thinking straight again. We’ve got a lot to look at... | Read more »
TGS 2023: Level-5 Celebrates 25 Years Wi...
Back when I first started covering the Tokyo Game Show for TouchArcade, prolific RPG producer Level-5 could always be counted on for a fairly big booth with a blend of mobile and console games on offer. At recent shows, the company’s presence has... | Read more »
TGS 2023: ‘Final Fantasy’ & ‘Dragon...
Square Enix usually has one of the bigger, more attention-grabbing booths at the Tokyo Game Show, and this year was no different in that sense. The line-ups to play pretty much anything there were among the lengthiest of the show, and there were... | Read more »
Valve Says To Not Expect a Faster Steam...
With the big 20% off discount for the Steam Deck available to celebrate Steam’s 20th anniversary, Valve had a good presence at TGS 2023 with interviews and more. | Read more »
‘Honkai Impact 3rd Part 2’ Revealed at T...
At TGS 2023, HoYoverse had a big presence with new trailers for the usual suspects, but I didn’t expect a big announcement for Honkai Impact 3rd (Free). | Read more »
‘Junkworld’ Is Out Now As This Week’s Ne...
Epic post-apocalyptic tower-defense experience Junkworld () from Ironhide Games is out now on Apple Arcade worldwide. We’ve been covering it for a while now, and even through its soft launches before, but it has returned as an Apple Arcade... | Read more »
Motorsport legends NASCAR announce an up...
NASCAR often gets a bad reputation outside of America, but there is a certain charm to it with its close side-by-side action and its focus on pure speed, but it never managed to really massively break out internationally. Now, there's a chance... | Read more »
Skullgirls Mobile Version 6.0 Update Rel...
I’ve been covering Marie’s upcoming release from Hidden Variable in Skullgirls Mobile (Free) for a while now across the announcement, gameplay | Read more »

Price Scanner via MacPrices.net

New low price: 13″ M2 MacBook Pro for $1049,...
Amazon has the Space Gray 13″ MacBook Pro with an Apple M2 CPU and 256GB of storage in stock and on sale today for $250 off MSRP. Their price is the lowest we’ve seen for this configuration from any... Read more
Apple AirPods 2 with USB-C now in stock and o...
Amazon has Apple’s 2023 AirPods Pro with USB-C now in stock and on sale for $199.99 including free shipping. Their price is $50 off MSRP, and it’s currently the lowest price available for new AirPods... Read more
New low prices: Apple’s 15″ M2 MacBook Airs w...
Amazon has 15″ MacBook Airs with M2 CPUs and 512GB of storage in stock and on sale for $1249 shipped. That’s $250 off Apple’s MSRP, and it’s the lowest price available for these M2-powered MacBook... Read more
New low price: Clearance 16″ Apple MacBook Pr...
B&H Photo has clearance 16″ M1 Max MacBook Pros, 10-core CPU/32-core GPU/1TB SSD/Space Gray or Silver, in stock today for $2399 including free 1-2 day delivery to most US addresses. Their price... Read more
Switch to Red Pocket Mobile and get a new iPh...
Red Pocket Mobile has new Apple iPhone 15 and 15 Pro models on sale for $300 off MSRP when you switch and open up a new line of service. Red Pocket Mobile is a nationwide service using all the major... Read more
Apple continues to offer a $350 discount on 2...
Apple has Studio Display models available in their Certified Refurbished store for up to $350 off MSRP. Each display comes with Apple’s one-year warranty, with new glass and a case, and ships free.... Read more
Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pros with M2 Pro CPUs...
Amazon is offering a $250 discount on new Apple 16-inch M2 Pro MacBook Pros for a limited time. Their prices are currently the lowest available for these models from any Apple retailer: – 16″ MacBook... Read more
Closeout Sale: Apple Watch Ultra with Green A...
Adorama haș the Apple Watch Ultra with a Green Alpine Loop on clearance sale for $699 including free shipping. Their price is $100 off original MSRP, and it’s the lowest price we’ve seen for an Apple... Read more
Use this promo code at Verizon to take $150 o...
Verizon is offering a $150 discount on cellular-capable Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 models for a limited time. Use code WATCH150 at checkout to take advantage of this offer. The fine print: “Up... Read more
New low price: Apple’s 10th generation iPads...
B&H Photo has the 10th generation 64GB WiFi iPad (Blue and Silver colors) in stock and on sale for $379 for a limited time. B&H’s price is $70 off Apple’s MSRP, and it’s the lowest price... Read more

Jobs Board

Optometrist- *Apple* Valley, CA- Target Opt...
Optometrist- Apple Valley, CA- Target Optical Date: Sep 23, 2023 Brand: Target Optical Location: Apple Valley, CA, US, 92308 **Requisition ID:** 796045 At Target Read more
Senior *Apple* iOS CNO Developer (Onsite) -...
…Offense and Defense Experts (CODEX) is in need of smart, motivated and self-driven Apple iOS CNO Developers to join our team to solve real-time cyber challenges. Read more
*Apple* Systems Administrator - JAMF - Activ...
…**Public Trust/Other Required:** None **Job Family:** Systems Administration **Skills:** Apple Platforms,Computer Servers,Jamf Pro **Experience:** 3 + years of Read more
Child Care Teacher - Glenda Drive/ *Apple* V...
Child Care Teacher - Glenda Drive/ Apple ValleyTeacher Share by Email Share on LinkedIn Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Apply Read more
Machine Operator 4 - *Apple* 2nd Shift - Bon...
Machine Operator 4 - Apple 2nd ShiftApply now " Apply now + Start apply with LinkedIn + Apply Now Start + Please wait Date:Sep 22, 2023 Location: Swedesboro, NJ, US, Read more
All contents are Copyright 1984-2011 by Xplain Corporation. All rights reserved. Theme designed by Icreon.