roundtrip documentation and help (Framemaker/Robohelp - chicken or egg?

[Ben Hechter]

Hi All,

Competent in Framemaker but new to Robohelp, with the following question:

If you had to design roundtrip documentation and help (Framemaker/Robohelp) for a constantly evolving product, would you:

a) begin in Framemaker and export to Robohelp
b) begin in Robohelp and export to Framemaker
c) prototype in both and iterate as you go

Certainly interested in tools integration war stories from the battlefront, but even more interested in the information design perspective...

...potential benefits of the chunking constraint of starting with help first (to keep the user guide tight), vs. needing to hammer down expanded user guide content into help topics.

Any and all opinions most welcome!

Ben

Ben Hechter
objectives.ca
Vancouver BC