In this series of articles I will explain a alternative method of handling user documentation for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 code.
In E Foqus we use this for our ISV product Foqus Finance, but it can be used for any NAV solution, ranging from a small customer modification to huge ISV solutions (as Foqus Finance)
We have tried to solved a series of challenges with documentation:
First challenge: Documentation is dead the minute you’re finish writing it. Code changes, customers want it work differently, change requests keeps popping up. And the documentation (if any) stays at the initial level
Second challenge: Documentation is kept in documents (Word/PDF) sitting on local drives, attached to email, stored on file shares, often in multiple versions without any clear version strategy.
Third challenge: Customer want F1 help, and this has historical been an nightmare to create with NAV – from compiling CHM files with 3rd party tools to distribute files to clients.
Fourth challenge: New formats comes along all the time, creating an ebook with the help would be a very modern thing to do.
Read on for our solution to all this:
Step 1 – Organizing the input text
Step 2 – Getting structure into our documentation
Step 3 – Graphical Layout
Step 4 – Updating the Help Server Table Of Content (ToC.XML)
Step 5 – Editing and storing help text with NAV Code
Step 6 – Running the whole thing
Download the current version of the help toolkit:
Further development:
Step 7 – Producing automated screenshots from NAV
