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Subject:RE: Is Robohelp still being frozen by Macromedia? From:"Char James-Tanny" <charjt -at- helpstuff -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 4 Aug 2005 08:43:46 -0400
>http://www.helpstuff.com and http://www.knopf.com list some
> other help tools. I mean, thought it sort of kick-started the
> genre, RoboHelp did not exist in a vacuuum, there were other
> tools, several were even
> *better,* though RoboHelp enjoyed a loyal following.
>
> Consider, ePublisher Pro (WebWorks Publisher), Author-It,
> FAR, Doc-To-Help, and others.
> Flare is now, what, beta? Madcap is a brand new company. At
> some point, it seems they'll have a version 1 product. You
> can wait for Flare because RoboHelp isn't going to stop
> working at noon today.
Nope :-) In fact, there's no way of knowing exactly when RoboHelp will no
longer be a viable tool. There's a number of factors: what output you
produce, what changes are made with Vista/Vista Help/IE 7, the phase of the
moon ;-), etc.
> Certainly, Flare has captured the imagination and seems to
> have a dedicated and skilled set of folks behind it. But, you
> don't have to wait for Flare, mature help-authoring tools are
> already out there.
And, really, you shouldn't be selecting a tool because of its marketing. You
should select a tool because it lets you develop online
documentation/Help/whatever the way you want, it provides features that you
like, and it provides the output you need.
Flare could be "the new industry standard in Help authoring." Or not. At
this point, no one can say...Flare is in the first phase (of several) of
Beta 1, and anyone beta testing is under NDA. Within the next six months,
Mike Hamilton will have visited several STC meetings and spoken at different
conferences, which means that folks will be able to see what Flare can do.
The information will be available...it's just not available yet.
But the fact that the information will be there doesn't mean that Flare is
the best choice for you. As T.W. Smith says, mature Help authoring tools are
available now for consideration. Take your time, analyze the tools,
determine what you want to be able to do, and find the tool that best meets
your needs.
Char James-Tanny ~ JTF Associates, Inc. ~ http://www.helpstuff.com
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STC Online Information SIG: Online Help Lead
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