Single-Sourcing and Salesforce

[Robyn Chittister <rchittister -at- vlocity -dot- com>]

Hello,

I'm 1 of 1-1/2 technical writers at a start up that creates cloud apps for
Salesforce. We are currently using Salesforce Knowledge to create and
deliver our documentation. Knowledge is possibly the worst documentation
tool I have ever used. We've been looking at various single-sourcing
solutions, and we're down to MadCap Flare and FrameMaker.

I've never used Flare. We had a pitch meeting with MadCap, and it seems
like Flare does everything we want it to do. The only thing that we weren't
sure about is how Flare might deliver a format that can be integrated into
a Salesforce app. Even the engineer and sales consultant didn't know. I
know that Salesforce uses Flare to create their developer documentation,
but that's separate from what appears in their actual product.

Meanwhile, I'm a FrameMaker user from way back - I started with FM+SGML 5.5
in 1999. I developed templates and tools for FM+SGML and FM+XML from
1999-2005. I've used FM 12 in an unstructured environment, and am happy to
see the improvements. I'm not sure how many improvements there have been in
the structured environment, however. I've tried to contact Adobe, and have
gotten a human being to say he'll give my questions to a solutions
specialist to answer. Knowing Adobe, I'm not going to hold my breath.

My questions are:

   - Is anyone here writing doc for Salesforce or Salesforce apps? If so,
   what tools do you use?
   - Is there a good comparison of the most recent versions of Flare v. FM?
   The only ones I've been able to find are from several years ago.
   - Is anyone here using FM+XML (either v12 or 2015) who could answer some
   specific questions I have about it?
   - If you use Flare, how do you handle the review process? Our reviewers
   will not have the MadCap software to comment on docs, so we're concerned
   about how to manage comments and the like.

We're a Mac house, so I can't just download the trial versions. We
understand that we will need to get me set up with a VM and Windows to use
the software we choose.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

~Robyn

-- 


*Robyn Chittister  |  Senior Technical Writer*

E: rchittister -at- vlocity -dot- com  |  P: 925.695.5710 |  W: www.vlocity.com
<http://www.vlocity.com/>
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