Years ago, critics claimed about online help: "I can't find it." "If I can find it, it doesn't tell me what I need."  The failures of help resulted, in part, from the absence of appropriate models or paradigms of online information. Models were borrowed from the paper world. The results we know.
From its initial goal of providing occasional user assistance and guidance, online help has evolved into sophisticated, online information systems and has become a primary resource for training and education.  At this months meeting, David Locke, principal consultant with WordSmith, Ltd., located in Nashua, NH, (www.wordsmith.net) will investigate the design, development and integration of useful and user friendly, online information systems.  He will consider online help systems, demonstrate Blue Sky Software's RoboHelp help authoring tools (www.blue-sky.com), and explore the evolving help authoring formats.
Over the last seven years help evolved slowly, on a platform whose relative stability now seems remarkable. The underlying RTF format changed little, and gradually help authors began to develop models more appropriate

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