[Phpwm] Web application documentation - write once / output multiple formats

Ian Munday ian.munday at illumen.co.uk
Fri May 29 09:15:58 UTC 2009


Slightly off-topic perhaps, but I'm wondering how people provide /  
deliver document for their applications?

Historically, I've manually created HTML pages that I bring together  
with a simple table of contents (TOC) and which then load in a pop-up  
window.  I can link to specific pages from within my application to  
make it 'context-sensitive'.  A real requirement going forward is to  
improve the way help documentation is delivered in HTML (i.e. make it  
searchable), and also to provide multiple formats.  I also want a  
write-once, but output in multiple formats solution.  (Longer term I'm  
also thinking multiple languages - clearly each language will need to  
be written.)

The formats that have been identified as most useful / relevant to the  
type of applications I'm involved in are:

   *  HTML - searchable and with a tree-like TOC - a good example is http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Lightroom/1.0/help.html?content=WSF3A57C22-0CDF-4401-9C10-2D0B3B7C7E40.html
   *  PDF
   *  CHM

Has anyone found a good solution to this problem?

Regards,

Ian



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