The Internet today is amazing, and just keeps getting better. Recently, I had the good fortune of crossing paths with Dennis Zhuravlev (a.k.a. Crane) of Samara, one of the largest cities of Russia, and that sits alongside the east bank of the well-known Volga River.

Dennis is an accomplished applied mathematician and computer scientist from Russia who also has become devoted to web-technologies. His company “Indigo Systems” has created a help-authoring tool called “Dr. Explain”. This program is an automated help-authoring tool that can create CHM files (Microsoft Compiled HTML Help), regular HTML Help, Online Manuals as well as printable documentation.

When I chatted with Dennis via Skype the other day, he told me that this program seeks to analyze the structure of your software interface and generate help topic drafts for it automatically. If you are a Web developer, then the HTML parsing capabilities will help you quickly document all significant parts of your Web site as well. It doesn’t matter what technology or tools you used to design your software GUI (Graphical User Interface).

Essentially, the Dr. Explain Help Authoring Tool can create help documentation for any application.

Furthermore this Help Authoring Tool accomplishes the following tasks:

1. Automatically creates annotations for your screen shots based on window or Web form structure.
2. Generates help documentation in different formats from a single source.
3. Easily invoke your help files from any programming language.
4. Professional Help Authoring at an affordable price.

The software costs around $125 (US) but the idea here is that its great features and intrinsic productivity will create a cost-benefit that will “pay for itself” right after your first project. Even if a company hires a Technical Writer for $25 per hour, still, it will take the writer many hours to do what this software can do. Also, there is great support available and the company continuously creates updates to the program, ensuring maximum quality and reliability.

It takes character to product a program like this and be able to take on Microsoft HTML Help!

So, if you are a Technical Writer, check out this fine application. It will at the absolute minimum enhance your work and the depth and clarity of your documentation. To check out Dr. Explain, just click on the right-pane of this blog where there is an advertisement for the product.

Thanks Dennis for a great documentation program, and keep up the great work at Indigo Systems.

All The Best,

Keith