With Desktop Support Factory (DSF) by Usability Sciences Corp you can easily add a rich set of "extrinsic" performance support features to an existing windows program or even a new program. DSF is like Windows Help, but with DSF it is easier to create a project and DSF can give a user access to a wider variety of information media and programs.

A DSF application is based on a simple book metaphor. It has a table of contents, subject index, chapter and pages. You can access a DSF page from the Table of Contents (see screen shot). You can launch the Table of Contents from an icon in the Windows 95 Icon Tray or from a button embedded in the applications title bar.

A DSF page can

1. be a QuickCard topic,
2. display a specified Windows Help topic,
3. run a Lotus ScreenCam movie,
4. start your Internet browser and load a specified webpage
5. launch a windows application and open a specified file.
6. open a specified file with its associated application.

The DSF development environment is itself a study in usability and performance support features. It makes extensive use of wizards and comes with a useful set of tools for creating DSF pages. These tools include

1. the QuickCards editor for creating QuickCard help topics;
2. the Lotus ScreenCam program for creating computer screen movies;
3. a screen capture program that you can use to create bitmap images of screens or parts of screens;
4. programs that enable you to view Microsoft Word, Excel and Power Point files; and
5. a module for creating an installation program to distribute your DSF project.

Creating a DSF project is a relatively simple three step process.

1. Use the included tools and other programs to create your DSF pages.
2. Create a Table of Contents by adding chapter titles and then dragging and dropping pages to each chapter. This drag and drop feature makes it very easy to organize the chapters and pages of your book.
3. Compile and distribution your DSF project.

Assessment

Desktop Factory Support is a very useful tool for integrating various information media into a very accessible and easily understood program. Anyone who can read a book will readily understand how to find and open a DSF page. With the included Lotus ScreenCam program you can not only tell a person how to perform an operation with a computer program, you can create a movie that shows them.