Matt Refghi

As you probably know, I work for a software development company –  and during a routine lunch hour, I  began wondering why our software still shipped with offline help files (CHM), rather than offering the help files online. You see, every now and then, our company discovers that the help files are missing some information; however, we can’t do anything about it until the next release. Sure, we can temporarily alleviate the problem by creating external knowledge base articles, but it doesn’t fix the fact that clients have the same help files, without the new information. This situation brought an interesting question to the table:

Why don’t our products have web-based help?

I came up with numerous advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages:

• Help content can be updated at any time, regardless of product and version.
• Help articles can be easily referenced via URL.
  • Whenever I’m doing support, it often occurs that the solution to the customer’s problem is found in the help system – they either missed it, or they didn’t look. Rather than just tell them to read the help, I usually include the help content as an attachment. I figure it is more convenient for the client, and that improves the support experience. I also make sure to mention that it can be found in the help, and I tell them what to search for. This is all well and good; except that copying help content from a CHM (my company’s typical help format) isn’t perfect. When I paste it into Wordpad, the images are not preserved – so I often have to copy them myself, one by one, to the Wordpad document. This requires manual work on my end, and that’s not ideal. If we had an online help system – I could simply link them to the article, and they’d be a click away. Plus, if that help content needs to be updated, I’m sure they will have access to the latest version. On the other hand, if they were to re-visit the attachment months after I originally provided it, it may be out of date.
  • URLs are lightweight, unlike attachments –  they are easy to share.
• Search engines will see much more related content
  • Not only will the ranking improve, but other message boards and sites may link to the help content, which should also help.
  • Could potentially increase the number of web site visitors
• Better features, potentially. Some widely-used offline help formats are now considered obsolete.
  • Some help files are no longer supported, like WinHelp:

Ever since Windows 3.1, Microsoft included the Windows Help program (WinHlp32.exe) with new releases. WinHlp32.exe is used to view 32-bit Help files that have the .hlp file name extension. Starting with the release of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, Microsoft has decided to no longer include in WinHlp32.exe as a component of the Windows operating system. Microsoft made this decision because WinHlp32.exe has not had a major update for many years, and it does not meet our standards for all new Microsoft programs. Microsoft realizes that this may cause some problems for customers who want to upgrade to Windows Vista or to Windows Server 2008 but still rely on 32-bit .hlp files. Therefore, Microsoft is making WinHlp32.exe available as a download from the Microsoft Download Center.

• • The CHM format is old – it was originally created for Windows 98. Though they updated it through the years, I would not be surprised if Microsoft eventually started discouraging it as well, in favor of the newer Help 2 format (HXS extension).
• Possibility of embedding rich content.
  • A good example would be demo videos. Personally, I usually prefer watching how a feature works, rather than reading about it.

Disadvantages:

• Internet connection required
  • A local copy may be a necessity. Personally, I like a flavor of that idea – start them off with an offline cache, and enhance that with the ability to update the help content on the fly. I really like Vista’s help – they offer that mechanism.
• Both offline and online help systems have be maintained
  • If applicable. see previous point.
• Some users are annoyed when they are thrown to a web help system
  • I’ve felt this personally, and it usually occurs when I am within the context of a Windows application – say, Paint.NET. When I click “Help Topics” in the Help menu,  it launches a browser window. It is definitely not what I would expect to happen when I’m using  a Windows application. I don’t expect to need a browser; therefore, the behavior usually frustrates me. It’s not very quick, either – the browser needs to initialize, and then load the webpage. Not all browsers are very good at loading quickly, so this is normally a pain. Eventually, I get over the initial frustration, and realize that the online help system proves to be pretty good. The funny thing is – I’ll get frustrated all over again if I temporarily forget that the applicaiton will launch a web browser, which is common the first few times.
  • 
• Competitors have access to detailed help content
  • If your product is available for evaluation, then your help files are already out there; however, if it is of limited availability, and security is a concern, then maybe this point is valid.

Wrap-up

All in all, it seems to me that an online-only help system isn’t reliable enough – you have to consider people on the go, using their laptops – and also those you do not have Internet services. I feel like the help system in Windows Vista has it right – you start off with help content that was shipped with the product, and you have the option to tell it to keep the system up-to-date via the web, behind the scenes.

As for the company I work for – our help files are still in CHM format, and we have yet to progress towards an online initiative. After writing this article, I think I’m in a better position to propose taking steps towards a Vista-like help system.

Last year I decided to get drop my land line, and just get by with a cell phone. All was well, until one day where I wasn’t able to find my cell phone. I somehow managed to lose it in my apartment, and since I no longer had a land line, I couldn’t call my own phone to get it ringing. To locate it, I ended up sending an instant message to a friend on MSN, and he called my phone. That worked well enough, but it required someone else to be around.

The next time I lost my phone, again in my apartment –  I couldn’t contact anyone on MSN, so I looked for an alternate solution. I googled around in search of people in similar situations, and I eventually found this site: Where’s My Cell Phone? – you give them your cell phone number, and they call you a few seconds later. Pretty cool – I just hope they aren’t selling our numbers to marketers. Their privacy statement seems to suggest that they do not.

UPDATE (May 6, 2013): Had to remove the links since the site doesn’t exist anymore. There are similar services showing up on Google, but I haven’t tried them.

Last year, I spontaneously adopted a male kitten from a local pet shop. I’d always walked by this pet shop, but was never actively interested in getting a kitten. Having grown up with cats, they weren’t anything new to me – but this particular kitten was different. His fur was blond… I had never seen a cat that color before – the ones I grew up with had been much darker. I was used to black, gray, brown, and mixes based upon those colors. So ultimately, I bought the kitten – and soon realized he was very different from other cats.

First off, he isn’t afraid of water – at all. In fact, he has a weird attraction to it. Whenever I turn on a faucet, he runs right over, and when he can’t see what I’m doing, or can’t maneuver to get a better view, he just looks up at me and meows. The reaction is almost like what you would expect when you open up a can of cat food, except it’s for water. He does have a bowl of water accessible at all times, and the water is changed once a day; yet, it seems he actually prefers water from the sink. After realizing this, I started partially filling up the sink with water before I leave for work – I know for a fact he much prefers drinking from there. My theory is that he thinks it is fresher than the water he gets from his bowl, and that is usually correct. It also turns out that he doesn’t mind being almost completely submerged in water. I found this out when I had to give him a bath  – he just stays still and looks a little confused. After the bath is over, he looks slightly irritated, though… but I can’t blame him.

The next thing I found unusual was his reaction to being transported around. See, on the weekends, my parents usually drop by and bring him over to their place. I realized early on that this was a good idea, seeing as it gives him contact with other cats – and it also helps make up for the fact that he’s an indoor cat. My parents have five cats – three females and two males. To move him around, I had to come up with some unique transportation methods. The default cardboard box idea never worked well – he would just freak out on the drive over. If we let him loose in the car, he’d be very calm, but would explore way too much – too dangerous when we are driving.

The next idea I had was to put him in my jacket,with his head popping out – this worked exceptionally well. He was pinned between my jacket and me, but he could still see what was going on. A new trend began – transporting the cat was as simple as putting him in a jacket, and supporting his weight with one arm.

This approach worked well for a long time; however, he eventually grew larger, and I had to come up with a better way to move him around. I thought about using a bag – but my backpack was pretty expensive, so I didn’t want to use that. Also, if I wore the backpack as it was intended – the cat would be out of my reach. Since he’s an indoor cat, I can’t risk him escaping in-transit. Instead of a backpack, I grabbed a re-usable grocery bag, and tried putting him inside. He didn’t seem to mind. I could walk around, and he’d make like a bag of potatoes – rarely moving – rarely even taking a peek from the opening. After a few field tests, it was proven that the bag idea worked just as well as the jacket. You can even tie the bag shut, and he’d just stay calm.

Another interesting thing about my cat is that he also stays pretty calm when I put him on my shoulder. I’ve actually had a cat before that would stay on my shoulder for many minutes – at times, up to an hour. So, naturally, I began training my cat in the same manner. With that in mind, whenever a delivery person arrives at my door, I always place my cat on my shoulder while I interact with the person. My cat just lays there and watches curiously as I give the guy my credit card and we finish off the payment. As a bonus, it usually amuses the delivery people.

When I first got around to using my copy of Windows Vista regularly, I quickly became annoyed of one particular feature – User Account Control (UAC).

At first, I saw it as an acceptable comprimise for the sake of security… but after a while, it became clear that most the apps I use actually need Administrative access. I found myself forgetting to launch the shortcuts with Administrative privileges, and then I’d have to close the application, and launch it properly by right-clicking and saying “Run as administrator”.

I put up with it until, one day, I was checking out the Properties of a shortcut… when I discovered a checkbox I’d never noticed before. Eventually, I grew so frustrated that I turned the feature off, just to avoid the hassle. For a long time, I went without it – and then we got new machines at work, and we were told to install Vista Business on all of them. Since it was a work machine, I decided to leave UAC enabled, for security’s sake. It wasn’t always pleasant; however, at least I knew my machine was more secure – and so the cost of having to right-click, and select “Run as administrator” was acceptable given that it was within the context of work.

This checkbox, when enabled, made it so the UAC prompt appeared automatically after launching a shortcut, rather than me having to right-click it, and select “Run as administrator”. This feature alone made me realize that UAC isn’t so bad. The real cost of using UAC was having to right-click the shortcut and select “Run as administrator” (for me, anyway).

I could hardly believe that I had missed this feature – but when I asked fellow developer friends of mine, I realized some of them missed the feature as well. This got me wondering… maybe there are others that still don’t know this?

When I was 17, I remember accompanying my father to check out some of the local garage sales. You see, in my hometown (and likely in other towns too), we had yearly garage sale “festivals”. This is what my father jokingly called them – there would always be plenty of people at these things. I would later wonder how effective these people would have been if they had actually used their numbers to support a cause, rather than their own personal desire to acquire material goods, at a bargain; however, on this particular day, I was just looking for cool stuff. On this day, I only bought one item. This item was a 3 foot tall, 3 foot wide – bear. A giant, stuffed bear.

So next thing you know, we’re heading back home – and every now and then, you see people looking at us weird. Picture this… a grown man was driving a car, my father, in fact – but seated next to him – was a giant bear. My idea. We were to pick up my mother, and I figured the bear would look pretty funny sitting in the front passenger seat. Just seeing people’s expressions, and ultimately, my mother’s reaction – made the price of 20$ all worthwhile.

So… let me just confirm what you’ve all been thinking. No. I’m not a regular guy – I’m a fan of weird and quirky things, especially if it ultimately will make me laugh. If others laugh, that’s just icing on the cake.

For example, I started working as a software developer, full-time, in February 2006. After about 4 months, I decided to spice up my desk a little bit. It was just so regular, so dull. It all started with a couple stress balls – you know, those squeezable, colorful balls with printed smiley faces on them? Something you’d see over at Google. Now, my buying these balls had nothing to do with stress – I didn’t need to take out my anger on small, smiling faces – I didn’t need to crush them to feel better. I just always appreciated the “Google culture”, to an extent. A few months later, I had enough stress balls to fill the majority of my desk’s filing drawer. My desk was packed with them, and I made sure to buy some for my co-workers. It reached a point where people were buying me stress balls of all sorts, to further my collection. Some of the weirder ones I was given were ones intended for use on Halloween. I’m talking balls meant to look like eyes, skulls, or worse.

At this point in time, since I moved to another office, most of my desk toys have been retired to my drawers, rather than remaining on my desk. I kept some around, though. They are true to my sense of humor, and my playful nature. Even so, these days, some of my co-workers will randomly find an foreign stress ball grinning at them when they arrive in the morning. I’ll just randomly do that… it makes people laugh, and laughter is a great thing. For now… I feel I’ve mastered the toy desk – my next goal is to master the plant desk – my new office has windows. I want to make myself a little jungle. Want to talk to me? Bring a machete. Unfortunately, I have yet to buy plants for work. This is mainly because I usually buy big, leafy plants – and I’m currently not too enthusiastic about exposing them this weather (during transport).

I’ve got other similar, smaller experiments going on in my apartment. First, I currently have a fake skull in one of my kitchen cupboards. If it detects motion, its eyes start to glow, and it talks. You can also turn off the motion detect, and have it only turn on manually. It usually says something really corny, and then it laughs all evil-like. It was meant to be used as a typical Halloween prop. My original idea was to keep it in the cupboard, and when people were over, act like nothing was strange about it. One time, after having it on motion detect for a while, I went to get a bowl, and I momentarily forgot it was there. It startled me – I jumped, had a good laugh, and turned off the motion detect. I have yet to get any more good laughs out of the skull, but I’ll think of something eventually.

My second apartment experiment involves my medicine cabinet. It goes something like this: when someone uses your bathroom, they technically have full access to your cabinet. You can’t really stop them – they’re using the bathroom – they have privacy. If you have any embarrassing diseases, conditions, etc – your medication and ointments – they are usually here. I’ve heard of a study that claims most people will, in fact, snoop in your medicine cabinet. Knowing this, I began to think about how I could exploit it. I thought: what if I were to put some really strange stuff in there? A rubber ducky. Binoculars. You know, just something completely out of place, or overwhelmingly embarrassing (by intention). I have yet to do anything for this one, but I have more ideas in mind.

This post was initially published on March 15, 2008.