RE: Adobe's New RoboHelp 6 - Rob Houser's Review in WritersUA

["Dan Beall" <DanBeall -at- componentone -dot- com>]

******* I work for ComponentOne (Doc-To-Help) *********

I just wanted Ladonna (and anybody else who shares her opinion) to know
that we are unveiling a brand new interface at WritersUA that will
drastically reduce the learning curve. You will get that same power
wrapped in a much improved and updated interface. So.. stay tuned! 

Dan Beall
Product Manager, Doc-To-Help 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+danbeall=componentone -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+danbeall=componentone -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com]
> On Behalf Of Ladonna Weeks
> Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2007 2:18 PM
> To: 'Barbara Vega'; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: RE: Adobe's New RoboHelp 6 - Rob Houser's Review in WritersUA
> 
> I had to stop using RH when I got Office 2003. I was using "RH
> for Word" and 5X wasn't compatible with Word 2003. I still don't
> know if RH6 is and I still don't know if it will run with Vista.
> They seem to be keeping back a lot of information.
> 
> Meanwhile I switched to Doc-to-Help. It's quite powerful but it's
> hard to use. It wouldn't be a problem except that I use it only
> intermittently and each time I get back to it I have to remember
> how to do things.
> 
> I'm still considering going back to RH if I can find out whether
> it will run under Vista and whether it will work with whatever
> the latest version of Word is at the time I am considering the
> change.
> 
> 
> Ladonna Weeks
> ladonna -dot- weeks -at- comtrak -dot- com
> 314-895-7674
> cell: 314-210-1652
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Barbara Vega [mailto:BarbaraV -at- libertyims -dot- com]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 2:00 PM
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Adobe's New RoboHelp 6 - Rob Houser's Review in
> WritersUA
> 
> Hi all
> 
> Rob Houser, a HAT trainer and principal consultant for User
> Assistance Group, Inc. writes a detailed and objective evaluation
> of the new Adobe RoboHelp 6 in the most recent Writers UA
> Newsletter
> http://www.writersua.com/articles/robohelp_6/index.html#intro. I
> have snipped out the last piece which is mostly his "humble
> opinions." It is a good read and informative.
> 
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> 
> 
> One Man's Humble Opinion
> 
> In my opinion, the main challenge for Adobe is to bring new
> vision to a tool that has been great in the past but that does
> not support many of the new directions in the user assistance
> industry. Adobe needs to do more than make RoboHelp better; they
> need to allow technical communicators (and subject-matter experts
> and even the users) to create and manage user assistance in ways
> that aren't already in place today.
> 
> Do You Need To Upgrade?
> 
> If you already have RoboHelp, you may be asking "Do I really need
> to upgrade?" The answer depends on a few questions.
> 
> First, can you benefit from any of the new features available in
> RoboHelp 6? Hopefully, you already know that from reading this
> review.
> 
> Second, do you use conditional build tags, RoboSource Control, or
> RoboHelp Server? If yes, then you may want to consider upgrading
> to take advantage of the enhancements to these features.
> 
> If you don't need any of the new features described in this
> article, then you may want to sit tight and see what happens in
> future releases before you upgrade.
> 
> Ultimately, the decision depends on your specific situation and
> needs.
> 
> About Version Numbers
> 
> What's in a number? Adobe refers to this release as RoboHelp 6
> (not X6).
> By my count, this is the 15th major release of RoboHelp.
> 
> I asked the Adobe team to explain why they went with this
> numbering system and they cited two reasons: (1) Adobe doesn't
> use the X designation in their product names or version numbers,
> and (2) many RoboHelp customers think of 6 as the next natural
> version number.
> 
> 
> 
> <snip>
> 
> One Man's Humble Opinion
> 
> In my opinion, Adobe should have started RoboHelp over at Version
> 1.0 to emphasize that this is their first take on the product. Of
> course, this is a minor point. The real question is this: Is
> RoboHelp 6 a major release deserving a full point increment?
> Maybe.
> 
> As far as features are concerned, I'd say RoboHelp 6 is really
> more of a point release. There are a couple of important
> features, but most of the changes won't drastically enhance what
> you can create using RoboHelp.
> This release is mostly improvements to existing features.
> However, RoboHelp 6 is a significant release because it
> demonstrates that RoboHelp is still alive-and-kicking, at least
> for now, and that's something worth noting.
> 
> Emotional Comments
> 
> Like many of you, I have had my ups and downs with RoboHelp. I've
> enjoyed working with the tool for a long time. (Well, at least
> since they worked out most of the bugs in the first seven
> releases.) I was surprised and disappointed at the complete lack
> of interest demonstrated to our industry by Macromedia. And I
> remain cautiously optimistic that Adobe will invigorate the
> technical communication community with its newly created suite of
> tools (which include RoboHelp, Framemaker, Captivate, and
> Acrobat).
> 
> I must also confess that I am excited to see competition in the
> HAT industry again. Without competition, innovation suffers. I
> hope that all of the HATs are able to carve out a niche for
> themselves and to expand their business, not through massive
> investments in marketing, but through genuine, user-centered
> innovation. We're already into the new century but have yet to
> see the technology that will create the future of user
> assistance.
> 
> <snip>
> 
> Remote Development Team
> 
> It's worth mentioning that the RoboHelp development work is being
> off-shored to India. The bulk of the development team is from
> India and working in India. Adobe has had success with
> applications such as Acrobat being developed in India. The
> development team has maintained a high profile in the help
> community over the past year, attending the conferences and
> interviewing users.
> 
> One Man's Humble Opinion
> 
> In my opinion, the main challenge for Adobe is to bring new
> vision to a tool that has been great in the past but that does
> not support many of the new directions in the user assistance
> industry. Adobe needs to do more than make RoboHelp better; they
> need to allow technical communicators (and subject-matter experts
> and even the users) to create and manage user assistance in ways
> that aren't already in place today.
> 
> 
> <snip>
> 
> Much has been made in the public forums about how little Adobe
> did with RoboHelp in the first release. While I have to agree
> that RoboHelp 6 isn't earth-shattering, I must point out to those
> of you who are new to RoboHelp that the tool itself is not new or
> short on features. RoboHelp is still the most widely used HAT and
> it has several features that make it worth considering.
> 
> Support for source control systems which makes it easier and
> safer to work with multiple authors on the same project and which
> provides you with sequential backups of your changes so you can
> rollback to a previous version of any individual file.
> 
> Option of RoboHelp Server to monitor and track the questions
> users are asking and to allow the help system to search external
> documents (DOC, PPT, XLS, PDF) through the same search engine
> that searches the help topics.
> Availability of FlashHelp to avoid security issues and to
> leverage the power of Flash.
> Ability to upgrade WinHelp projects to an HTML-based help system.
> 
> 
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> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> 
> Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats
> or
> printed documentation. Features include single source authoring, team
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Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or 
printed documentation. Features include single source authoring, team authoring,
Web-based technology, and PDF output. http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

Now shipping: Help &amp; Manual 4 with RoboHelp(r) import! New editor,
full Unicode support. Create help files, web-based help and PDF in up
to 106 languages with Help &amp; Manual: http://www.helpandmanual.com

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