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I have realized, through the discussion, where the problem has been.
>From the early discussion, it was difficult to tell that you were
speaking of help documents *on the vendor's server" and not some
reporting element buried in a help file installed on the user's
computer...which is also a type of "server."
That is an entirely different situation, and I am sorry I did not
understand what you were saying.
In my defense, there are indeed applications that contain tiny
"servers" of their own--that is what they use to "phone home" with
information. It is what is used by some ostensibly legitimate
purposes, but it is also what is used by too much of the malware out
there.
A help file hosted by the vendor collecting such information you speak
of would be fine with me.
Whether I would buy a product that relies completely upon such a
Web-hosted help file or not is a different question. I do have a
preference for at least the basics located locally.
Again, I apologize for misunderstanding. Apparently, many others did
likewise. Had it been a little more clear to start with, the entire
imbroglio could likely have been avoided.
Why one would need a product from MadCap isn't clear to me, though,
since this kind of stat gathering is so common with many tools already
out there.
David
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Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices. http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
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