HelpStudio? - Extra info

[Jan Vereecken]

Hi,

To clarify my original question a bit (sorry it was rather general), we 
used to work with Robohelp (until three years ago I believe, it was before 
my time here), but since then we only have documentation in Word (I 
know!). Because our customers are asking for an online help system, and 
also because a lot of information is re-used, we now want to start online 
help again.
My specific questions about Helpstudio are:
- Robohelp wasn't very good at generating Word/PDF files with its Printed 
Documentation feature. I read that HelpStudio produces PDF directly. Is it 
any good? Can the layout be customized? We will still need printed 
documentation, so this is really important for us.
- Another thing is the HTML code. Robohelp's code was very 'muddy', and I 
am wondering if HelpStudio performs better.
- The last important thing that we keep in mind is version and document 
control. We are a team of three constantly taking over each other's 
workload and thus sharing all the files. For the moment we use Word with 
SVN (Subversion, which is open-source). Is there any document control 
system in HelpStudio for checking in and out single topics?
- I already mentioned content re-use. A lot of text parts in our 
functional guide is being re-used in other guides, and also in the release 
notes and release news. So I was wondering if HelpStudio has any features 
that support this.

Of course, if anybody has another HAT that would fit our needs, feel free 
to tell me! We already checked out Author IT, but our IT manager has some 
issues with that (can't remember which though). Robohelp may be alive a 
little bit, but we don't want to invest in it.  and lastly WebWorks 
Publisher is also not an option, because we want to get rid of Word as 
base content editor.

PS Please also reply to me directly at jan.vereecken at sofico.be, as I am on 
digest.

Thanks in advance,


Jan Vereecken
Training and Documentation
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