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Mike Schmidt wrote: <<Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Mike Schmidt, a
tech writer (the only one, actually) at Weather Central, Inc. in
Madison, WI.>>
Welcome to the fray! (To the frayed and 'fraid? To the fried? <g>)
<<I've recently been commanded to abandon all the tools I've been using
for years (and know intimately) in favor of the Adobe Suite. I've also
been commanded to "establish a timeline and list of resources that
would be needed" to do this.>>
The first question to ask in such situations is the following: "What
problems are we trying to solve through this change?" If the person
proposing the change can point to specific problems, you can at least
spend some time researching whether they're real or only perceived, and
whether you can solve them.
If they're real problems and not easy or even feasible to solve, the
next question to ask is whether CS solves those problems. If so,
perhaps you're stuck with this situation; you may even come to
appreciate the situation. If not, the person commanding the change may
have difficulty making a strong case for the change. (Of course,
tyrants don't really have to make a case, do they?)
My biggest concern would be replacing RoboHelp. I don't much keep up
with help technology these days (I'm Content Boy(R), not Tool Boy(R)
<g>), but I do use Adobe CS, and don't see any good help-development
tools to match RoboHeck. On the other hand, you can create text in any
software and pour it into RoboHeck for conversion into help, so it may
not be an either/or issue.
<<In short, is there anyone out there that's had to convert a sizeable
amount of their own material to a completely new format?>>
Yup. Did it several years ago to move from AmiPro to Word on the PC at
work. Did it again at home a few years later to move all my WordPerfect
files to Word when they abandoned development of WP for the Mac. It's
painful, but with a little automation (mostly macros for conversions
that didn't work well), it went smoothly.
<<I am totally at home with the programs I've been using for, in some
cases, my entire career, and I'm not thrilled about dumping it. I'm
sure Adobe stuff is great, but it's the learning curve and tons of busy
work I'm not terribly happy about.>>
Unfortunately, we all tend to get complacent about the software we use,
and forget that it's just a tool. I fought the move to Word right to
the bitter end, was over-ruled, and ended up liking Word just fine once
I adjusted to its many weirdnesses. You may too.
<<At any rate, I expect I'll need some training and lots of time to
convert existing material, without even thinking of the constant
stream of new material being created.>>
Make sure you emphasize this aspect of the process. Don't oversell the
difficulty, but do make sure to give yourself a safe margin to cope
with learning curve and the additional workload.
WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word features support for every major Help
format plus PDF, HTML and more. Flexible, precise, and efficient content
delivery. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
Doc-To-Help includes a one-click RoboHelp project converter. It's that easy. Watch the demo at http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList
