Overview
This Quick Start Guide will walk you through the process of creating a Website Reference document using TechWriter. Before starting the walk through, you will need to have TechWriter installed on your computer and have the URL of the website available. Once these prerequisites are taken care of, you are ready to begin the process which consists of the following steps:
- Start TechWriter
- Create a New Project
- Add a Website to the Project
- Select the Website Items to Document
- Annotate the Website
- Specify Option Settings
- Choose an Output Format
- Save the Project
- Build the Documentation
1. Start TechWriter
Start TechWriter using the Windows Start Menu by selecting Start > All Programs > Adivo TechWriter 2009 > TechWriter for Websites.
2. Create a New Project
Click on the New Project button on the Main Toolbar. This will start a new TechWriter Websites project.
3. Add a Website to the Project
To add a website to your project select the Websites tab as shown below:
From the Websites tab, select the 'Add' button to start the 'Add new Website Source' wizard.
On the first page of the wizard, specify the location of your website, it's home page and additional starting points along with various page crawling and screenshot options that are available. Click on the 'Next' button to continue. On the next page of the wizard, you will have the opportunity to test and verify your web service. After a successful test, click on the 'Finish' button to complete the process of adding the website to your project.
4. Select the Website Items to Document
You can specify which pages, images, embedded media, style sheets and scripts to include or exclude from your documentation using the Filtering tab shown below:
From the Filter tab, uncheck any items in the 'Item Check List' that you do not want to include.
For more advanced filtering, check the 'Use advanced filtering' check box. This will allow you to specify patterns for including or excluding items. For example, if you want to exclude all pages that start with the letter X click on the 'Add' button, select 'Pages' as the item type, enter X* for the pattern, and select 'Exclude' as the filter type. Once you click Okay, this filter will be added to the list and all pages that start with the letter X should now be unchecked.
5. Annotate the Website
Annotations can be used to add missing descriptions, modify them, or supplement your documentation with additional information. To create your annotations select the Annotations tab as shown below:
Annotations are organized in a table of contents that matches the structure of the documentation being created. At each level of this structure various titles and descriptions can be specified. TechWriter will assign default titles and descriptions using information extracted directly from the website itself. These defaults are displayed within a WYSIWYG editor that appears to the right. Changes to these annotations can be made directly within TechWriter using this editor.
6. Specify Option Settings
TechWriter provides many options that can be used to control the structure and detail of the documentation that is produced. To modify these options select the Options tab as shown below:
7. Choose an Output Format
Before TechWriter can build your documentation you will need to select an output format using the Output tab as shown below:
8. Save the Project
After you have finished preparing your project, save your project by clicking on the Save Project button on the Main Toolbar. The first time you save your project you will be prompted to choose the file that you want to save your project to.
9. Build the Documentation
Now that you have completed preparing your project, click on the Build button on the Main Toolbar.
Once TechWriter finishes building the documentation, it will automatically attempt to display the results. For the PDF output format, TechWriter will run the Adobe Acrobat Reader to display the document. If you do not have the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer it can be downloaded for free from http://www.adobe.com/.
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