Today Alpha Software announced that its Alpha Five Version 10.5 development platform is the first application to integrate a desktop help system with a context-sensitive wiki. The system, dubbed Alphapedia, is now Alpha Software’s central resource for all Alpha Five documentation. Alphapedia is continuously updated by Alpha Software staff and independent developers, ensuring users get the most current and helpful support information available.

Getting help from the Alphapedia wiki couldn’t be easier. When a user is working in Alpha Five on their desktop, laptop, or netbook, they simply select the relevant text or component that they have a question about, and press F1. But instead of the old Windows help system firing up on their desktop, they are whisked to the precise Alphapedia entry online and get the information they need. Better still, if they are an expert user, they can log in to Alphapedia and edit or expand the information contained in any entry.

“Bringing a cloud-based wiki together with a desktop help system is a true industry milestone, and we’re proud to be the organization that brought this innovation to the market,” says Richard Rabins, Co-Chairman of Alpha Software. “We were the first company to ship Codeless Ajax, which lets people develop high-performance, interactive Ajax database applications without any programming. We were the first to ship portable SQL, which lets developers code once and database anywhere. And now we’re the first to recognize the power and importance of wikis as a support mechanism, and to integrate that with a desktop application’s help system. I’m sure many other companies will follow this model. And I hope they do, because wikis have obvious benefits for improving help systems and helping users.”

Alpha Five developers everywhere are welcomed to sign in to the Alphapedia wiki and share their domain expertise with their fellow Alpha developers worldwide. A free 30-day trial of Alpha Five Version 10.5 with Codeless Ajax can be downloaded at Alpha Software’s website. The Alpha Software help wiki is located at http://wiki.alphasoftware.com/HomePage.

ABOUT ALPHA SOFTWARE:
Since 1982, Alpha Software has been providing developers with award-winning tools that make it easy to build business applications. Today over 1 million developers and tens of millions of users rely on Alpha Software’s Alpha Five. The company is privately held, and based in Burlington, Mass. Alpha Software can be found on the Web at http://www.alphasoftware.com. The company’s blog is located at http://blog.alphasoftware.com

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