Hello,

I am in the process of developing a sales manual for my colleagues, and I'd like some advice from this knowledgable group about what software to create it with.

This manual would consist of a full set of product descriptions for the 90 books we sell. I'd like my colleagues to be able to sort by author, price, product number, and audience each book is targeted toward.

There will also be a section for sales policies, shipping fees and other information.

I want to be able to create this in a no-brainer, run-time style program so that no matter how computer savvy (or not), my colleagues can use it. Finally, it can't be expensive -- which means I can't have to purchase a license for each colleague.

I've considered Treepad Lite (free), which is straightforward, but which does not allow sorting on the differenct categories. If I recall, MyBase does allow you to create a runtime version of the program for creating e-books... does it do the kind of columnization I'd need for the sorting functions? I've also thought about using Brainstorm and then exporting to an HTM file. It wouldn't allow sorting, but I could probably use the namesake feature to create links under various categories... Not ideal but possibly useable.

So does anyone have any thoughts or recommendations? Thank you!

Steve Z.

Have you considered using a web page. A simple frameset: top frame for logo, left frame for navigation and right frame for content. Content is then simply web pages (can use any editor or Word if you want fancy formatting). If you have images, I suggest using MHT files, since you don't need to handle image file storage. Simply drag-drop images to the document.

As to the sortable table, you can use SQLNotes to create the table content and do a HTML Export and select sortable table. There may be other simple ways to create a sortable table. You can also do it youself. See http://www.kryogenix.org/code/browser/sorttable/ for instructions (very simple)

A web page would allow you great flexibility (add links to purchase, etc) and supports all platforms.

Regarding MHT files, they natively only display in IE. FF can view them using the MAF extension: http://maf.mozdev.org/http://maf.mozdev.org/

Pierre, could this be why MHT-view doesn't work for me in SQLNotes? Because FF is my default browser?

I don't think so. Just to be sure:

1- File > New
2- In the Welcome Grid, SQLNotes item, in the HTML pane, click the second toolbar item (New MHT document).
3- Select Convert the current HTML document to MHT
4- Do you not get the same document, but in MHT format, editable by Word?

Yeah, when I follow these steps, I get a blank page (my previous HTML content disappears).
I cannot click or type in the MHT "pane" after converting.
However, when I click the "W" icon, Word launches and it shows my previous HTML content.
But, if I make changes in Word and save the file, then when I go back to SQLNotes, I see in the MHT pane a huge amount of HTML-style tags (multiple pages worth).
Even more confusing, if I now click to select a different item in the grid, the MHT pane does not refresh: I see the same mess of HTML tags regardless what item I select.
So the upshot is: in MHT mode, I can never see or edit my MHT content from within SQLNotes. I can, of course, see and edit the content if I launch word, but that pretty much defeats the purpose of an integrated information manager, no?

A suggestion: why don't you just use the Microsoft Rich Text control? Doesn't that support embedded pictures? If not, ssn't there also a "Superpad" sample app that comes with Visual C++ (or whatever it's now called) that gives you the entire code for Wordpad?

While we're on the topic: my preference would be to have a rich text pane like you have now, but that also served as an OLE client, supporting OLE embedded documents. That way, I could not only drop in a picture, I could also drop in an embedded excel spreadsheet or powerpoint presentation (or any of hundreds of other OLE server-enabled documents). This, to me, would be a final OneNote killer, because even OneNote can't embed a spreadsheet. Just an item for the wishlist.

Are you using 0.9.23.4b (the latest version) ?

I'm on 9.23.0 - I'll download the new one [and sorry to everyone for hijacking the thread]

Pierre Paul Landry wrote:

Regarding MHT files, they natively only display in IE. FF can view them using the MAF
extension: http://maf.mozdev.org/http://maf.mozdev.org/

Pierre (and Dan7000)
I don't think MAF being developed any more. The last version was for FF1.5, although it could be kludged to run on FF2.x. The URL you both seems out of date.

Have you tried using the unMHT extension? http://www.unmht.org/unmht/en_index.html
I've been using it for some time. I don't know if it will solve Dan7000's problems, though.

There are a lot of advantages to using MHT (and a lot of IE users), so don't be too quick to dump it :-).

Derek

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

Hello,

I am in the process of developing a sales manual for my colleagues, and I'd
like some advice from this knowledgable group about what software to create it with.


This manual would consist of a full set of product descriptions for the 90 books we
sell. I'd like my colleagues to be able to sort by author, price, product number, and
audience each book is targeted toward.

There will also be a section for sales
policies, shipping fees and other information.

I want to be able to create this in a
no-brainer, run-time style program so that no matter how computer savvy (or not), my
colleagues can use it. Finally, it can't be expensive -- which means I can't have to
purchase a license for each colleague.

Stephen,

I don't recall your feels on Ultra Recall but it seems well suited to the task at hand. Since you have indicated that you will be developing the database, the free UR Viewer could be employed for distribution.

The Viewer does allow for printing, and allows the user to insert columns in the Child Pane for sorting or these could be defined during development. Also, you could define a number of searches based on your catagories if you wanted to eliminate the need for user interaction.

Additionally, the Tree View of the Data Explorer is easily understood.

@Steve:

Any feedback on the proposed solutions ?

Pierre Paul Landry wrote:

@Steve:

Any feedback on the proposed solutions ?

Pierre,

I haven't had too much time to work on this project in the past few days. I received two suggestions: Yours about using web pages, and Ken's about using UR and the UR reader. (Thank you both very much for your help!) I am going to try your suggestion first because, 1. It is free; and 2. I think it will be easier for my colleagues to use. I'd have to upgrade to the latest UR version, and right now I hope not to do that.

I'm still open to other suggestions!

Thanks, everyone. This is a great group, and I really appreciate all the knowledge that swirls around on this forum, and the way everyone is very helpful.

Steve Z.

Steve:

If you are still looking for suggestions. How about a help file authoring tool? Something like EST - http://www.maxcomponents.net/index.php?id=11&page=0 . You can create either old style help or the newer HTML help formats (as well as a number of other formats including regular HTML, e-book, etc.).

You can do table of contents, an index, and hyperlinking within the document, include illustrations, and all the other fancy stuff help can do.

Your users will already know how to use help and they have all the software they need. And you have the other formats if they would prefer something else.

Seems an ideal way to publish.

Charles Cowan