What are some better alternatives to help files?

Programmer Question

Does anyone have any piece of software that actually does a good job of help?
I've seen some good ideas out there but by and large help files do not do "what it says on the tin" i.e. They just aren't "helpful."

Lets face it, help files are so 80s, does anyone read them? As software developers we know people don't read them, so we don't take pride in writing them. This lack of pride means they have become even more worthless and ... we are stuck in an endless cycle of bad help.

Here's a few of good ideas I've seen:

• I like the idea behind visual studio's dynamic help (multiple help
  topics for each context with less
  specific topics appearing further
  down the list)




• Ableton Live shows help in a small window while you are clicking around
  in the software and you keep noticing
  new useful things it says. Also has
  some training videos built in.




• Putting training videos on Youtube

But apart from that it's mainly just tat. (Yes even including clippy!!)

OK that's my rant over, the question is simply this...

-Does anyone out there have any good ideas for how to do help?
-OR Has anyone seen any good examples of better help?

I'm trying to build a new way of doing help for the software we write at my company and I have some ideas but I'm eager to see what people are doing out there that works.

Thanks,
Mike G

Find the answer here