Bjorn's HELP-maker
Author, publish and manage help systems
- a Google Docs extension -
Sorry, this app has been decommissioned.
Author, publish and track online help systems and online manuals.
Combine sets of documents into multi-topic searchable (search powered by Google!) online help systems.
Use Google Docs to author your help systems, then publish to your own Google Drive as public HTML files. Readers access the help via the mobile-friendly Bjorn's HELP-viewer web app. The HELP-viewer is by default using the easy-to-read LEXEND font..
Converts Google Docs to nice and clean HTML that easily can be reformatted using CSS.
Use advanced features such as conditional text and index.
Apply stylesheets to all topics, making sure that for example all headings look the same.
Break larger documents into smaller topics.
Quickly reuse content by using and managing your library of small snippet documents.
Convert footnotes in each document to sidenotes.
Variables
Include text that frequently changes and appears often in your documents as variables.
Variables are also useful for providing information that is updated automatically, such as the current date or time.
They furthermore enable "single sourcing" - using the same set of source documents to generate different versions of a help system.
System variables
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
| Date | The date when document is created |
| Date:short | The date when document is created, short format |
| Date:iso | The date when document is created, ISO format |
| Time | The time when document is created |
| Time:short | The time when document is created, short format |
| Time:iso | The time when document is created, ISO format |
| UserEMail | Your email address |
| UserName | Your name |
| UserFirstName | Your first name |
System variables - pages
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
| Title | The title of the page |
| PrevTitle | The title of the previous page |
| NextTitle | The title of the next page |
Conditional text
"Conditional text" is content within source documents that is meant to appear in some renditions of help system, but not other renditions (single sourcing).
For example, a writer can produce Mac and Windows versions of the same manual by marking Mac-specific content as "Mac only" and Windows-specific content as "Windows only." Everything that is not marked for one platform or the other, appears in the manuals for both platforms.
Reader comments and reader ratings
Your end users can both comment on and rate your topics (you can of course turn off this feature).
You will receive an email as soon as a new rating or comment is submitted.
You can choose having comments live automatically or you can decide to manually accept or reject each incoming comment.
Accepting or rejecting comments are easy, either use the Bjorn's HELP-viewer app or accept or reject the comment directly using the email you receive.
Reader analytics and insights
The HELP-viewer gives you access to basic insight into how readers are accessing your help:
- Search phrases NOT finding any topics
- Recently used search phrases
- Popular topics
- Popular search phrases
Embedded mini-quizzes
You can embed simple drag'n'drop quizzes by using simple markup. (short demo video)
The markup is plain text (and not HTML) to support regular text editors such as Google Docs and MSWord.
Here is markup for a three item drag and drop quiz. The task is to drag Item1, Item2, Item3 to the correct target box.
[Drag] Item1=Target1
[Drag] Item2=Target2
[Drag] Item3=Target3
The embedded quiz will look like this when injected into the topic.
[Drag] Item1=Target1
[Drag] Item2=Target2
[Drag] Item3=Target3
Here is another example with a simple Harry Potter quiz:
[Instruction] Match first names with surnames:
[Drag] Barty=Crouch
[Drag] Fleur=Delacour
[Drag] Albus=Dumbledore
[Drag] Seamus=Finnigan
[Drag] Bellatrix=Lestrange
[Drag] Minerva=McGonagall
[Instruction] Match first names with surnames:
[Drag] Barty=Crouch
[Drag] Fleur=Delacour
[Drag] Albus=Dumbledore
[Drag] Seamus=Finnigan
[Drag] Bellatrix=Lestrange
[Drag] Minerva=McGonagall
More
Check out this short YouTube video.
Support
Note - if you have installed the add-on and the add-on submenu only contains the 'Help' option - PLEASE RELOAD THE DOCUMENT - and the other options will appear.
Please report bugs here or reach out 2 me with questions @ support@backlund.org.
Follow me at Instagram @bjornsplayground and check out more videos at my YouTube channel.
You can view our privacy policy here.
