>I have an application that is finished. Now I have to make a decsion.
>What do I do next?
>
>Do I do an instruction manual, a help file (WINHELP), a help file(HTML), A presentation (Lotus ScreenCam or MS Powerpoint).
>
>Would it be better to have a combination. For example A presentation which could give me the possibility afterwards to make a shorter manual because the presentation would cover the basics while the manual could concentrate on more specifics things like Questions and answers...

I am very cynical about this because of my experiences here. I did a really nice HTML help file and integrated with 2 of my apps. The help was complete with screen shots and illustrations. One of 2 things usually happened. The user ignored the help, or when they did open the help, they tried to click on the illustrations [screen shots] then called me to say my app was not responding so they rebooted their computer.

What I found that worked the best was printed docs so they could look through that while they were in the app. Of course, this totally hacks me off because I hate wasting paper and am a real proponent of putting all info electronic if possible.

Creating docs in ScreenCam or PP might be better since this help source would be separate from your app.