RE: RoboHelp or Flare?

["Cardimon, Craig" <ccardimon -at- M-S-G -dot- com>]

Chris,

Flare is reviewed as a direct competitor and replacement for RH. RH in
its heyday was pretty impressive. It is less impressive now. I was
trying to do something in RH and tried to access the online help to
figure out how to do it.

Well, the online help went away. I got dumped into the general Adobe
forums. Help was no help at all.

Also, I like tutorials that give you pointers and show you how to do
things. How do you open a project or open a file. The original RH X5 had
a great little tutorial. I learned everything I needed to know about RH
from that tutorial. I LOVED that tutorial. They took it away in RH6. Or
I couldn't find it. For me, that removed a ton of the utility. RH6
become much more problematic for me at that point.

Sometimes I just forget how something works and I want a refresher. I
want a tutorial just to get my memory going.

I was peeved and thought there had to be a better way. I went online and
read about Flare. I downloaded a trial copy and played around with it.
There is a learning curve, but it has help and tutorials and all that.
Plus, I was getting tired of not being able to email Adobe or get them
on the phone. I had to use third-party forum help. That sucks.

I was ready for a change in authoring tools. Jennifer got in touch with
me and is pleasant to talk with. I like that. I had gotten busy with
other things and didn't have time to devote to Flare. After I finished
with the other tasks, we got back in touch and stayed there.

Flare has ex-RoboHelpers on their Team and I like that, too. They are
based in California. They have not outsourced development to India.

That's the how and why I switched. That plus a T-shirt from MadCap.
Grin.

-- Craig
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Vickery [mailto:cvickery -at- arenasolutions -dot- com] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 12:41 PM
To: Cardimon, Craig; Techwr-l
Cc: Jennifer Morse (MadCap)
Subject: RE: RoboHelp or Flare?

Hi Craig

I'm facing a similar decision myself, and I was curious what tipped the
balance in Flare's favor for you. My feeling is that Adobe's RH support
feels uncertain for future development. I also think Flare may be more
likely to offer full DITA import functionality, and multi-byte character
recognition. Any insight?

thanks!

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+cvickery=arenasolutions -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+cvickery=arenasolutions -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com]
On Behalf Of Cardimon, Craig
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 8:02 AM
To: Techwr-l
Cc: Jennifer Morse (MadCap)
Subject: RE: RoboHelp or Flare?

I posted this query back on 26 December 2007:

>>>>> 

I'm gonna open 'er wide up on this one. I'm evaluating a test version of
Madcap Flare based on what I have read about it.

Based on what you all know, those of you who have use one or both and
have since settled on a product, which would you recommend?

I am currently using Adobe RoboHelp 6.

We post help online, but we also use lots of printed documentation, too.

<<<<< 

We have gone with MadCap Flare. I have lots of learning to do, but I
feel good about this decision. 

 

I initiated this evaluation on my own and recommended we buy Flare. My
manager then authorized the purchase of the whole MadPak Authoring
Suite. 

 

When I told my manager I was evaluating Flare as a possible replacement
for RoboHelp, he agreed with my reasoning and asked that I keep him
informed. He visited the MadCap site himself, looked around, and liked
what he saw. He may have downloaded his own trial copy, but I can't say
for sure.

 

We both like the fact that Flare has ex-RoboHelpers on the team and
looks after their own. MadCap has a family feeling I like. That sort of
thing is rare these days.

 

-- Craig


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Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
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