Developing online Help - "It's like Sat-Nav for our software"
Winning clients is only half the battle - We help you keep customers for life
We work with software developers who fear that their users, at times, become stressed and angry with their software. This can lead to a tougher relationship between you and your customer, leading to some who decide to walk away.
"I'm very pleased with the enhancements to the Help System. You created very clear topics for some areas that I find difficult to explain. You also identified a number of 'bugs' with the current version that have now been fixed. This just continues to improve the product."
Bruce McNaughton, CEO, ProcessAssets
Simply contact us by email or telephone. If you can, please state the issues you are interested in fixing. We'll respond by email or phone. If you have a particular project in mind, normally, we'll also send you a short, one-page questionnaire. This helps you and us to understand the issues you face and work on the best solutions for fixing these.
It's such a comfort to work with Cherryleaf and leave the writing to them
What would it mean to you if your product was late to market by a month? How much of your profits would you lose? One of the bottlenecks that stops products from shipping on time is documentation, a problem that Cherryleaf can help you avoid.
Cherryleaf can help you control and minimise your costs by designing and delivering great documentation within an agreed schedule and budget. We understand that you may be facing tight deadlines, so the fast turnaround that we provide and the reliability really can help.
"A note of our sincere thanks for the work which Cherryleaf have delivered to very demanding timescales. Yesterday, we published a very important (word deleted) manual on the Intranet using RoboHelp and this looks to be a great success. Thank you again." (14/4/2004)
UK Government Department
"I had some basic instructions for my new online application, Opportunity Matrix™, but absolutely no idea how to turn them into a proper Help system. Carol at Cherryleaf was able to take my rough notes and turn them into a professional Help file. She worked through the application, suggesting appropriate changes where I was making assumptions that would have left users confused.
Once we were both happy with the file, Carol liaised very effectively with the programmer to make sure that the Help system worked perfectly right from the start.
The information and guidance from Cherryleaf was always top notch, so I always knew exactly where the project was, and what the (quite reasonable) budget needed to be. I shall have no hesitation in using Cherryleaf again, and in recommending them."
Andrew Horder, CEO, Opportunity Matrix™
At Cherryleaf we apply a "user focus" approach to Help development. Thanks to this approach you and your users get Help that really does add value to the products you are supporting.
Cherryleaf can help you control and minimise your costs by designing and delivering great documentation within an agreed schedule and budget. We understand that you may be facing tight deadlines, so the fast turnaround that we provide and the reliability really can help.
Why bother with Online Help? Because 80% of the lifetime cost of software occurs after the sale is made
Did you know, studies have shown that up to 80% of the lifetime cost of software occurs after the sale is made? So how much could you save by having good documentation? What would it mean if we made your customers' lives easier and less stressful through our ability to explain things - giving them answers to questions such as how, what and why?
Cherryleaf's value is in providing clarity and simplicity. Our goal is to enable organisations to explain important information clearly and simply, so that others are as productive and risk free as possible. It makes your customers' lives easier and less stressful, and of course, less stressed customers are more likely to stay customers for longer. We use a five step process to explain specialist knowledge and best practice, in a clear and effective way, to the users that need it. The result - higher productivity and less risk.
If you are planning a Help project, would like some advice, or you'd like to know more about our services then do contact us. If you can, state the issues you are interested in fixing.
We'll respond by email or phone. If you have a particular project in mind, normally, we'll also send you a short, one-page questionnaire. This helps you and us to understand the issues you face and work on the best solutions for fixing these.
15 tips for writing great Help files
We asked the Technical Authors at Cherryleaf for tips on writing Help files. You can get these tips free.
Just fill in your details here:
So why is there so much poor online Help around?
It's because a lot of it is written by people who aren't skilled or trained enough to do it properly. Studies have shown that up to 40% of all information systems developed have online Help written by a non-trained writer, and this shows through in the end product.
Users of systems with Help written by professional technical communicators:
- Use the online Help up to 54% more often.
- Rate the quality of the Help more highly (better at meeting the users' needs by 29%).
- Call the support desk less frequently (by up to 80%).
Adding customised Help to someone else's software
Many organisations want to expand the usefulness of built-in Help and error messages to include information unique to their situation. Cherryleaf can help you create context-sensitive Help without any coding or programming knowledge. Context-sensitive Help can be created by anyone for almost any application - even without access to the application's source code.
Re-use the content elsewhere and spread the cost
Documentation is an fundamental part of a software product's marketing, sales and technical support strategy, so why not use the information developed for the online Help elsewhere - in the technical support, marketing, Web, sales and training departments? If the Help is developed in a single-sourcing tool (an option we offer), you can write your content once, publish it for many uses and realize huge cost savings.
"I've heard only compliments on your professional approach and knowledge of single sourcing. Your presence had very much the positive effect that we had hoped for, and has helped considerably with our change management process."
Documentation Manager
Contact us now for more information.
Our people and processes make users productive
Cherryleaf's staff have many years' experience of working with Help, and can help you get the most from it. They present papers on Help authoring techniques and technology at conferences throughout the world, and our consultants are recognised as leading authorities within the global online Help community (for examples, see our articles). Our methodology for project management enables us to run complex Help development projects within carefully controlled time and budget constraints.
For clients that have a regular requirement for documentation or want to outsource their documentation, we can offer access to an extranet for managing documentation projects. This extranet is focused on:
- Communicating project status,
- Scheduling of new work orders,
- Scheduling tasks and responsibilities, and
- Providing a repository for project files.
Management of documentation projects is like all other types of project management - it's about communication.
We:
- Spend significant amounts of time analysing users and helping them understand your new system.
- Communicate the needs and views of the users back to your developers.
- Contribute to the design of the user interface, assisting with the usability of your system.
The result: You are able to create a system that is more relevant and usable.
Our experience
Our experience includes:
- Web applications
- Banking and financial applications
- Telecoms applications
- Database software
- Children's games
- Embedded Help
- Web-based Help
- Audio Help
Consultancy and training
As part of the handover process at the end of the project, Cherryleaf can provide consultancy and training in the most popular Help authoring software/
Moving to Flare?
We now offer MadCap Flare Migration and Consultancy Services
If you are a FrameMaker user
Cherryleaf offers a range of services for Adobe FrameMaker users including:
- Template consulting
- WebWorks and RoboHelp for FrameMaker Help solutions
- Conversion of legacy documents to FrameMaker
- Conversion from FrameMaker and
- The provision of writers skilled in using FrameMaker.
"There's an initial effort involved in learning the product, customizing templates, and setting up your workflow. You could teach yourself, but some training/consultancy is a good idea, as it's important to get good practice in place from the start. The initial cost pays for itself quickly. We used Cherryleaf to help set this up, and they were excellent. We are now using Webworks with Frame and the results and time saved are impressive."
Message posted to the Society of Technical Communicators' UK Chapter discussion group by Leila Smith, Tertio Telecom.
We offer end-to-end productivity and single-source solutions for users of FrameMaker: preparing your documentation in FrameMaker and then converting automatically for distribution as PDF, HTML, HTML Help, JavaHelp and other online formats.
If you need assistance in making your FrameMaker files work with complementary software (e.g. RoboHelp for FrameMaker or WebWorks) or in creating new templates, our trainers and writers can help. If you prefer to convert the documents yourself, then Cherryleaf offers training, support, implementation and customisation services for FrameMaker, WebWorks and RoboHelp for FrameMaker.
Further information
Contact us if you would like to know more about how we can help you. If you can, please state the issues you are interested in fixing. We'll respond by email or phone.