Online Help Authoring Systems

[Lynda Straus <Lynda_Straus -at- THEMONEYSTORE -dot- COM>]

RE: On-line help authoring tools

I have not heard of either DocuPro or Eastgate Technology in Des Moines,
IA.

I use RoboHelp, and the entire WinHelp Office to produce on-line help for
financial systems. I converted the existing on-line help from manual
WinHelp to RoboHelp about a year ago, and it has been very successful for
us - providing additional features, faster development, and was easy to
learn.

A big reason that I choose RoboHelp is that it is becoming more and more
the standard (yes, there's Doc2Help, ForeHelp, [and many others], and these
are widely used also) and there are writers who are proficient with this
tool that I can contract work to, without having to provide training.

Just before converting to RoboHelp, I had a contractor who used HDK, so we
bought a copy and he was converting my work when he left our employ
abruptly. HDK is a very fine package, but there were no writers in our area
who were familiar, much less proficient, with this tool.

I was under a very tight deadline for my deliverable, so I opted for
skilled writers who could pick up where the contractor left off. We had
numerous problems with HDK, probably because we were unfamiliar with it. I
asked my writers for advice, and did research of my own, then choose
RoboHelp, which has a very supportive help desk, and is a well-documented
product. I completed my project on time (and under budget), and our users
loved the "new" on-line help.

Lynda Straus
lynda_straus -at- themoneystore -dot- com