GUI based application help

I started responding to this article about not include screen shots in GUI documentation. Then I went off topic so I'll just post my thoughts.

The problem of managing screen shots in GUI application documentation has dogged me starting 15 years ago - fresh out of college and a new tech writer.

Creating and maintaining documentation that includes screen shots is a nightmare. I'm surprised that GUI API suites haven't created a tool to make images and image regions structured. Pairing that with an authoring application that understood such structure and could apply style rules to the interaction of the master document's layout could help.

Actually, when you think about it, it's crazy that we document on-screen procedures in a separate paper-document or window. I'm sure those of you who write docs for GUI based applications on a daily basis think about this all the time.

An alternative is for help to be delivered as an overlay/layer over the GUI. that would be sweet.

Anyway what I'm saying is we don't have the tools for the most helpful Help/documentation. It's a minus for the user and tech writer. And that's sad considering that GUI based applications have been in widespread use for 20 or so years.

Maybe someone can point me to a well-woven/efficient application+help example. I'm just not aware of any.