RE: RoboHelp for FrameMaker

Subject: RE: RoboHelp for FrameMaker
From: "T. Word Smith" <techwordsmith -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 06:29:56 -0800 (PST)

>>But, how real-world is this? If I have FrameMaker
content, I want press, PDF, and online help. If I'm
targeting multiple platforms, I choose one kind of
online help that its the bill for all: WebWorks Help.

>Martha J Davidson mentioned: "In fact, I find myself
in exactly this situation. The first release of our
software uses JavaHelp. However, in a future release,
one version of the product will be integrated with the
Eclipse platform, which uses HTML pages with an XML
TOC in a particular format. To generate this, I plan
to start with the Dynamic HTML template in WWP."

Well, WWP will probably support the kinds of
customizations you need ... does RHFM? I've not tried
to customize it and even my WWP 2003 projects are
pretty out-of-the-box. What you will end up with in
WWP, it sounds like, is a JavaHelp project and a
highly customized DHTML project; it won't be that
bad--they'll share FrameMaker files and creating the
customizations you need in the DHTML really looks to a
separate project, any way. Does RHFM output JavaHelp?
I forget. (Now I gotta fire it up and play some more
... when I have a breather.)

>Brian Jennings noted: "For me we have different
versions and configurations of the same product. I may
not need different help formats of the same
documentation, but this feature will allow me to use
conditional text to set up multiple outputs that could
be dramatically different based on the conditional
text (for the different versions of the same product."

You can change the conditional settings within WWP and
without going out to FrameMaker. So, WWP can do this.
Still, for multiple help outputs from one set of FM
source, RHFM has an edge on WWP--though I do still
question how useful this *really* is.

The other reason this may become useful in the
real-world would be if I have a help file and I want
to create a webhelp version for posting to the
website. I honestly haven't used this functionality
yet, but these are some situations I think I may
actually use it.

As you say, you haven't actually done this. And, I
suspect when you do, for efficiency you'll move your
entire output from CHM to WebWorks Help or (more
likely, IMHO), you'll need to create a new FM book and
approach this as a new project--am thinking that what
you need for the Web might not mirror what you need in
online help. I've put WebWorks Help projects on the
Web as Web sites, but these were not projects that
also needed to be online help.

Still, if your content has been in FrameMaker, you
hung on to regular RoboHelp way too long, RHFM was a
good decision that lets you stick with a brand you
like!


=====
T.

"Money makes the world go 'round is an incomplete statement; money is the fuel, and stupidity is the short bus that burns it." (Bill Swallow-02/04)

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard - Read only the mail you want.
http://antispam.yahoo.com/tools




Previous by Author: RE: RoboHelp for FrameMaker
Next by Author: Re: Converting American English to British English
Previous by Thread: RE: RoboHelp for FrameMaker
Next by Thread: Technical Writing in the Career field of Computer Networking


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads