[ANN] Adobe Announces RoboHelp 6

[Scott Abel]

Received this in my inbox. It certainly ends the "RoboHelp is dead"  
discussion and will cause competitors to find a new sales strategy as  
they can no longer rely on the "RoboHelp replacement" message.

Cheers,

Scott Abel
TheContentWrangler.com


Adobe Releases Major Upgrade to RoboHelp

Adobe RoboHelp 6 Eases Creation, Management and Publishing of  
Intuitive Software Help Systems and Knowledge Bases

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Jan. 16, 2007 — Adobe Systems Incorporated  
(Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe® RoboHelp® 6, a complete,  
flexible and user-friendly system to create, manage and publish  
software help systems, knowledge bases and documentation for desktop  
and Web-based applications. As a key element of Adobe's technical  
communications product line-up, which includes Adobe FrameMaker®,  
Adobe Captivate(TM) and Adobe Acrobat®, RoboHelp 6 provides all the  
desktop functionality that authors need to create advanced Help  
content, including table of contents, index, glossary, graphics,  
special effects and context-sensitive Help. Adobe RoboHelp Server 6,  
also introduced today, provides powerful server features that ensure  
the delivery of up-to-date online content, with real-time tracking of  
how end-users engage with the help system that provides valuable  
feedback to Help publishers.

"Adobe RoboHelp 6 is a major release and a key milestone in the  
product's 15-year history,” said Don Walker, senior director of  
product marketing and business development at Adobe. "RoboHelp 6  
strongly reinforces Adobe's commitment to the technical  
communications market, giving authors what they need to easily  
develop, manage and maintain intuitive software help systems and  
knowledge bases.”

"RoboHelp has consistently led the market for the past decade,  
providing superior usability and productivity," said Ron Linyard,  
President and CEO of Unwired Software and former VP of Engineering  
for eHelp. "The software is compatible with a host of formats and  
leverages the benefits of other Adobe products to give users a richer  
experience than other tools provide.”

With this release, Adobe has consolidated the Adobe RoboHelp product  
family into two simple and powerful choices — Adobe RoboHelp 6 for  
authoring and Adobe RoboHelp 6 Server for the delivery of online  
content. Users of RoboHelp 6 also benefit from the integration of  
Adobe Captivate 2 for improved workflow and more engaging content  
with simulations and demonstrations. In addition, users can automate  
the building of their help at a predetermined time using command line  
compilation. Conditional Table of Contents (TOC) allows for greater  
control and customization of table of contents. With User Defined  
Variables, changes can be made just once, but seen everywhere in  
Help. Updated Adobe RoboSource Control provides an unique source  
document and version control system for Windows and Web development  
for both individual users and collaborative teams. Adobe PDF creation  
generates support for hyperlinks & bookmarks and enables accessible  
PDFs. Built-in RoboScreenCapture means users don't need to invest in  
a separate application to create and edit screen shots.

RoboHelp Server 6 extends and supports the capabilities of Adobe  
RoboHelp 6 to provide a complete online Help and Knowledge Base  
solution. Authors can easily deploy and manage up-to-date online  
content, control and monitor the use of Web-based Help systems in  
real time through a new web-based remote interface, and develop Help  
systems for use with the Microsoft .NET Framework. Also, RoboHelp  
Server 6 includes FlashHelp Pro, a server-based version of FlashHelp  
and provides connectivity with Oracle and SQL databases, formerly  
sold separately in the RoboEngine Connectivity Pack.

Adobe RoboHelp 6 gives users more choices to create and publish  
content. Users can import a variety of content created in Microsoft  
Word, Adobe FrameMaker, Adobe PDF, XML and other help projects and  
then publish the content in popular help formats including FlashHelp,  
WebHelp, HTML help, WinHelp, HTML, JavaHelp, OracleHelp for Java and  
even printed documentation output in Adobe PDF and Microsoft Word.  
The customization of content is made easier with conditional text and  
new features like TOC and user defined variables.

Pricing and Availability

RoboHelp 6 and RoboHelp 6 Server are available for purchase today for  
Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Support for Windows Vista will be added  
in 2007. The estimated street price for Adobe RoboHelp 6 is US$999  
and US$1999 for Adobe RoboHelp 6 Server. Previous users of RoboHelp  
and RoboInfo can upgrade to Adobe RoboHelp 6 and RoboHelp Server 6  
for an estimated street price of US$499 and US$999, respectively.  
Volume discounts and government and education licensing are also  
available to eligible customers. To learn more about Adobe RoboHelp 6  
and Adobe RoboHelp Server 6, please visit www.adobe.com/go/robohelp.  
For more information, customers in North America can call  
1.800.326.2124.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information  
– anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information,  
visit www.adobe.com.

###

© 2007 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. All rights  
reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, Captivate, FrameMaker and  
RoboHelp are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe  
Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All  
other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


Scott Abel
The Content Wrangler, Inc.
6178 Crittenden Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46220 USA
+1 317-466-1840
skype: abelsp
email: abelsp at netdirect.net
web: www.thecontentwrangler.com

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