Help system with hypertext

Hewlett-Packard Journal, June, 1991 by Mark M. Smith

HP's Lake Stevens Instrument Division (LSID) has included online help systems in its new analyzers for the past six years. All of these systems--including the HP 3588A's--are designed primarily as online key references: when the user presses a hardkey or a softkey, the analyzer displays a description of the key's function. However the HP 3588A's help system also includes two new features that meet the needs of a wider variety of users:

* An index of help topics

* Hypertext links between related topics

How It Works

The user enables the HP 3588A's online help system by pressing the Help hardkey and exits by pressing 0. While help is enabled, most of the analyzer's screen is dedicated to displaying help text, the rest of the screen continues to display softkey labels.

The analyzer provides some functions that allow the user to move around in the help system. Most of these functions are assigned to hardkeys on the numeric keypad. A legend at the bottom of the screen shows these assignments so the user doesn't have to remember them. The page is changed by pressing 9 or 6. The index (see Fig. 1) is displayed by pressing 1. Hypertext links are navigated by turning the knob and pressing 4 or 7.

Hypertext Navigation

On a given screen full of help text, there may be several special words (or phrases) that are linked to related topics. The linked words are all underlined to distinguish them from the surrounding text (see Fig. 2). To select and display the topic that's linked to one of these words, the user turns the knob until the desired word is highlighted and then presses 4. After reading the contents of the new topic, the user can return to the previous topic by pressing 7.

The method used to display a linked topic is also used to display topics listed in the index. After pressing 1 to display the index, the user can turn the knob to highlight one of the listed topics and press 4 to display the contents of that topic.

Index Access

In previous LSID help systems, a user could only access a key's description by enabling help and then pressing the key. These designs assumed that the user had already navigated the menu structure and was pondering the use of a particular key. They worked well enough for experienced users and for new users who like to locate functions by poking around on front-panel keys. They worked less well for other users.

The index provides a more systematic way for new or infrequent users to locate information about an analyzer function--including the name of the key that controls the function and the location of that key in the menu structure.

For example, to find out how to turn off the display graticule, a user can enter the help system, display the index, and then look for an appropriate keyword, like "graticule." In this case, the user would find the entry "Graticule On/Off softkey." When the entry is selected, the analyzer displays text describing the key. The text also contains a key path, which indicates the location of the key in the menu structure.

Related Topics

In a complex product like a spectrum analyzer, one key's function is often closely related to another key's function. A user needs to understand such relationships to use the analyzer most effectively. Hypertext links make it easy to explore relationships by allowing a user to move directly between related topics.

For example, the help text that describes the External Trigger softkey points out that the analyzer must be armed before it can be triggered. In this text, the word "armed" is linked to the ropic "Arm Auto/Man softkey," which describes arming. The user can move directly to the topic on arming by selecting the word "armed."

Non-Key Topics

Since the HP 3588A help system allows access to topics via the index and links, it is possible to include topics that are not bound to a particular hardkey or softkey. We have taken advantage of this new freedom to create independent topics that define commonly used terms. Any time we use one of these terms in the help text, we link the term to its definition. Defining terms in independent topics has two advantages:

* Users who don't know what a term means--typically novice users--can simply select the term and display the topic that defines it. This allows all readers to have a common understanding of the terms used in help topics.

* Users who alreast know what means--typically expert users--don't need to read its definition each time the term is used. This reduces the information clutter presented to these users, making it easier for them to find the information that they really need.

As a side benefit the approach allows the help-text writer to define a term only once. This reduces both writing time and the storage space required in the analyzer for online help.

Mark M. Smith Learning Products Developer Lake Stevens Instrument Division