I am writing a manual/guide for our intranet using LaTeX.
I am wondering if there are classes developed for this purpose? A search returns results that are manuals about using LaTeX.
Spefically I want to make use of "hint" boxes and the like (Floating boxes in a guide that have a short hint or some such thing). I find the way these stand out from the rest of the text really draws in the readers attention.
Perhaps there is a better — read less complex — way of going about this using the standard book or article class?
Best Answer
Do consider Texinfo, as endorsed by Karl Berry for this task. The Latex-based compilation route is pretty bare bones, but it allows you to produce custom html, and supporting hint boxes in the html is not too difficult.
pandocis a serviceable Latex to Texinfo converter.A Latex example, the source of Oetiker's Not so short introduction to LaTeX2e is available: he uses the normal book class, together with a custom style, and supports some graphically offset hints, although I think not really what you are after. See lshort.tex and lshort.sty.
Context was designed with producing educational books in mind, and is good for putting together documents with boxed content for emphasis, and allows some use of interactive PDFs and XML-based publishing. The introductory text, Context: An Excursion, showcases this.