Re: Framemaker, Word and Robohelp

["Chuck Martin" <twriter -at- sonic -dot- net>]

"Eichelberger, Mark C. -AFTECH" <EichelbergerM -at- AFTECH -dot- com> wrote in message
news:86716 -at- techwr-l -dot-  -dot-  -dot- 
> We are currently using Word 2000 to create source documents which are then
> converted to Adobe PDF format for distribution to clients via CD-ROM.  In
> addition, we use RoboHelp Office 2000 to create WinHelp files from the
Word
> documents for use in our company's Windows based software application.
>
> Due to the many problems we have working with lengthy Word documents, we
are
> considering a proposal to upper management that we move to Framemaker.
> Everything I have read so far from articles, peers and newsgroup postings
> indicates that Framemaker is better suited to the creation of long,
complex
> manuals with TOCs, indexes, hyperlinks, etc. (which pretty much describes
> our documentation).  However, I am concerned that we may not be able to
use
> RoboHelp 2000 to generate our Window Help files from the Framemaker files
as
> we currently do with our Word documents.  Does anyone know if this is
> possible with RoboHelp 2000?  My fear is that I may have to convince the
> management to purchase both Framemaker and another help authoring tool.
If
> so, I can probably forget about writing that proposal...
>
Problems? With Word? No! I am shocked! Shocked, I say!

The simple answer: No

RoboHELP works with Word. Period.

Now RoboHTML now works, allegedly, with HTML autoring tools other than Word
and its own, but Ive not tried it, and its method for converting from HTML
to print has an interface that is mired in the old Help authoring days of
maybe a hlaf dozen Word documents in a Help project. That is to say, the UI
for doing this process in even a medium sized project is essentially
useless. And the output is no great shakes either.

There are those who swear by FrameMaker and WebWorks Publisher. I've never
been in an environment where that combination was used, but I've done some
testing. If you think FrameMaker has a steep learning curve.....

However, if that ends up being the road taken, you might also think about
what would happen if your programmers had a need for a specialized tool to
get their job done right. Plently of programmers use lots of third-party
add-ons to their prograamming envoronment, add-ons that can reach in to the
hundreds or thousands of dollars. If a programmer says "I need M tool to get
N output done right," and you say "I need X tool to get Y output done
right," are those requests treated with equal weight?


A final note: while FrameMaker is great for those long documents, it isn't
the be-all-end-all, and has its issues of its own, inlcuding crashes (at my
last position it was a frequent occurrance on the Mac I used there, as well
as across the department), an obtuse interface, and less-than-useful
documentation--especially the online Help.

--
"[Programmers] cannot successfully be asked to design for users
because...inevitably, they will make judgments based on the
difficulty of coding and not on the user's real needs."
        - Alan Cooper
        "About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design"

Chuck Martin
twriter "at" sonic "dot" net      www.writeforyou.com



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