Re: anyone else generating web help from Confluence?

Subject: Re: anyone else generating web help from Confluence?
From: Mark Giffin <mgiffin -at- earthlink -dot- net>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2015 09:53:05 -0800

On 2/10/2015 3:05 PM, Robert Lauriston wrote:

Do you do use context-sensitive help calls with that? If so, how did
you implement them?

I am very interested in this also.

Mark Giffin
Mark Giffin Consulting, Inc.
http://markgiffin.com/

On Fri, Feb 6, 2015 at 2:39 PM, Richard Hamilton <dick -at- rlhamilton -dot- net> wrote:
We use the K15t plugins, though in a different context. We have authors who write in Confluence, then we export DocBook with the Scroll exporter and generate books and ebooks from the DocBook.

I have found the DocBook exporter to be solid and flexible, and it generates good DocBook. It probably covers all the things you're likely to want in a help system, though we added a bit of supplementary markup that we then convert to DocBook after export (that's for epigraphs, and some details of indexing that go beyond what most folks need). We also do a little bit of post-processing. That's not because of problems with the exporter; rather, Confluence tends to add in weird stuff (like subtle text color changes and inconsistently marked up paragraph breaks) that Scroll can't differentiate from legitimate markup. That leads to some unexpected, though valid, DocBook markup, which we strip out.

Last time I checked, pricing was $200 for a 10 user license.

Hope that helps,
Richard Hamilton
-------
XML Press
XML for Technical Communicators
http://xmlpress.net
hamilton -at- xmlpress -dot- net



On Feb 6, 2015, at 14:16, Mark Giffin <mgiffin -at- earthlink -dot- net> wrote:

Oh, is that how k15t handles webhelp output? With the DocBook toolchain? The DocBook toolchain is pretty solid if you want to work with it. You seem like someone who could bend it to his will, Robert. You could get Bob Stayton's DocBook XSL book, he's the top guy for that. He has a thorough website for that, too.

I recently heard from someone who uses them that the k15t Confluence tech pubs plugins are pretty workable for a tech pubs workflow but I haven't used them. Just using plain Confluence for ordinary technical publications seems overly messy to me. As far as I can see, k15t pretty much owns the market for that.

I can think of a couple more ways you might go to get webhelp out of Confluence, but I think it would require more custom coding. What is the pricing like on the k15t plugins?

Mark Giffin
Mark Giffin Consulting, Inc.
http://markgiffin.com/


On 2/6/2015 1:18 PM, Robert Lauriston wrote:
A year ago I researched options for generating web help from content
in Confluence, and the only really usable solution I found was K15t's
DocBook Exporter plus the free DocBook+WebHelp.

Has anyone found a better solution?


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Doc-To-Help: The Quickest Way to Author and Publish Online Help, Policy & Procedure Guides, eBooks, and more using Microsoft Word | http://bit.ly/doctohelp2015

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References:
anyone else generating web help from Confluence?: From: Robert Lauriston
Re: anyone else generating web help from Confluence?: From: Mark Giffin
Re: anyone else generating web help from Confluence?: From: Richard Hamilton
Re: anyone else generating web help from Confluence?: From: Robert Lauriston

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