Adobe and technical writing: partly a rant, but an entirely legitimate question...

[Bob Doyle]

Hi John and Tony,

I expect that integration may be on the future roadmap for Adobe, especially
since the Madcap team (including some of the orginal RoboHelp developers)
are working to make Flare compatible with FrameMaker.

I wrote about the convergence of Help Authoring Tools recently.  Here is an
excerpt and a link.
________________

Two key Help tools are Adobe
RoboHelp<http://www.adobe.com/products/robohelp>and Madcap
Flare <http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products>, which, at a glance, look
like kissing cousins. Upon closer look, they're a bit more like estranged
cousins. A few years ago, Macromedia acquired eHelp, the creators of
RoboHelp through 15 major releases. Then mysteriously, they fired the
developers and froze the product at version RH X5. Most of the original team
has since launched a new company and created Madcap Flare, which in one year
has earned a significant market share of HAT tools, though the aging
RoboHelp is still more widely used, and other mature tools like
DoctoHelp<http://www.doctohelp.com/>and
WebWorks <http://www.webworks.com/> have comparable shares.

Then, a year ago, Adobe acquired Macromedia. Adobe's classic publishing
business group, which includes FrameMaker, a leading single-source
structured authoring tool, packed the old RoboHelp code off to a new
development team in India. In early 2007, they released RoboHelp version 6
(X6 by the old number system), making many RoboHelp users breath a sigh of
relief after nothing new for nearly three years.
http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/ArticleReader.aspx?ArticleID=35804

Cheers,

Bob.

On 6/21/07, John Posada <jposada01 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> >Seriously, I can't even say that the products are poorly integrated,
> because
> >they're evidently not integrated in any way.
> ...
> >What can I, as a senior technical writer, expect Adobe to do to resolve
> what
> >I see as a serious impasse here?
>
> Tony...they never said they were, just like alot of their other products
> are not integrated. I think you were transfering what you would like to see
> to what you thought they would implement. Wanting is not the same as
> happening.
>
> John Posada
> Senior Technical Writer
>
> "They say everyone needs goals. Mine is to live forever.
> So far, so good."
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or
> printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista & 2007
> Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more.
> http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList
>
> True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
> Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
> documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com
>
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-- 
Bob Doyle
Editor In Chief, CMS Review - http://www.cmsreview.com
Former Technology Advisor, CM Pros -
http://www.cmprofessionals.org/membership/cm-profiles/bob-doyle
Contributing Editor, EContent Magazine -
http://www.econtentmag.com/About/AboutAuthor.aspx?AuthorID=155
President and CEO, skyBuilders - http://www.skybuilders.com
77 Huron Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: +1 617-876-5676   Skype:bobdoyle