New member?

[Geoff Hart]

Mike Schmidt wrote: <<Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Mike Schmidt, a 
tech writer (the only one, actually) at Weather Central, Inc. in 
Madison, WI.>>

Welcome to the fray! (To the frayed and 'fraid? To the fried? <g>)

<<I've recently been commanded to abandon all the tools I've been using 
for years (and know intimately) in favor of the Adobe Suite. I've also 
been commanded to  "establish a timeline and list of resources that 
would be needed" to do this.>>

The first question to ask in such situations is the following: "What 
problems are we trying to solve through this change?" If the person 
proposing the change can point to specific problems, you can at least 
spend some time researching whether they're real or only perceived, and 
whether you can solve them.

If they're real problems and not easy or even feasible to solve, the 
next question to ask is whether CS solves those problems. If so, 
perhaps you're stuck with this situation; you may even come to 
appreciate the situation. If not, the person commanding the change may 
have difficulty making a strong case for the change. (Of course, 
tyrants don't really have to make a case, do they?)

My biggest concern would be replacing RoboHelp. I don't much keep up 
with help technology these days (I'm Content Boy(R), not Tool Boy(R) 
<g>), but I do use Adobe CS, and don't see any good help-development 
tools to match RoboHeck. On the other hand, you can create text in any 
software and pour it into RoboHeck for conversion into help, so it may 
not be an either/or issue.

<<In short, is there anyone out there that's had to convert a sizeable 
amount of their own material to a completely new format?>>

Yup. Did it several years ago to move from AmiPro to Word on the PC at 
work. Did it again at home a few years later to move all my WordPerfect 
files to Word when they abandoned development of WP for the Mac. It's 
painful, but with a little automation (mostly macros for conversions 
that didn't work well), it went smoothly.

<<I am totally at home with the programs I've been using for, in some 
cases, my entire career, and I'm not thrilled about dumping it. I'm 
sure Adobe stuff is great, but it's the learning curve and tons of busy 
work I'm not terribly happy about.>>

Unfortunately, we all tend to get complacent about the software we use, 
and forget that it's just a tool. I fought the move to Word right to 
the bitter end, was over-ruled, and ended up liking Word just fine once 
I adjusted to its many weirdnesses. You may too.

<<At any rate, I expect I'll need some training and lots of time to 
convert existing material, without even thinking of the  constant 
stream of new material being created.>>

Make sure you emphasize this aspect of the process. Don't oversell the 
difficulty, but do make sure to give yourself a safe margin to cope 
with learning curve and the additional workload.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --
Geoff Hart   ghart at videotron.ca
(try geoffhart at mac.com if you don't get a reply)
www.geoff-hart.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -