<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/" xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" type="topic" id="tech-help" xml:lang="oc">

  <info>

    <link type="guide" xref="tech" group="help"/>

    <revision pkgversion="3.0" date="2011-04-05" status="final"/>

    <credit type="author copyright">

      <name>Shaun McCance</name>

      <email its:translate="no">shaunm@gnome.org</email>

      <years>2011–2012</years>

    </credit>

    <include xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="cc-by-sa-3-0.xml"/>

    <desc>Topic-oriented online help system</desc>

  </info>

<title>Help</title>

Users sometimes need a little help, even with the best-designed

applications. GNOME provides a built-in topic-oriented help system

that uses the <link href="http://projectmallard.org/">Mallard</link>

markup language. Pioneered by GNOME developers, Mallard is an agile

and dynamic language that helps you write and revise quickly.  Its

topic-oriented design means your users can find the answers they

need without sifting through a manual. With its unique linking and

organization system, Mallard is the only language designed to handle

plugin and vendor help in one coherent document.

When you do need linear manuals, GNOME also supports the

industry-standard <link href="http://docbook.org/">DocBook</link>

format.

<list style="compact">

  <item>
<link href="http://projectmallard.org/about/learn/tenminutes.html">Ten Minute Mallard Tour</link>
</item>

  <item>
<link href="http://projectmallard.org/">The Mallard web site</link>
</item>

  <item>
<link href="http://docbook.org/">The DocBook web site</link>
</item>

</list>

</page>