roundtrip documentation and help (Framemaker/Robohelp - chickenor egg?

[Linda G. Gallagher]

Hmm, I gather that the integration isn't quite that smooth between RH and FM
in the Tech Comm Suite. Admittedly, I have only tried it once, but I believe
that it is still a .mif import that you have to repeat if you make changes
to the FM content. Given that, it might not quite be the full-blown single
sourcing toolset you want. It may get there some day, but not yet.

I continue to use FM and WebWorks ePublisher Pro (WWeP) for most projects.
They work together very well and always have. I create content in FM and use
WWeP to convert to various flavors of help.

Mif2Go is another possibility. It uses your FM content to convert to various
flavors of help, too. While I use the tool for some help conversion, I find
the .ini file interface not as friendly as I'd ideally like.

Flare purports to do the same thing, but I gave up on it some time ago, as
neither their support nor I could get it to work (with content that works
fine with WWeP and Mif2Go).


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Linda G. Gallagher
TechCom Plus, LLC
lindag at techcomplus dot com
www.techcomplus.com
303-450-9076 or 800-500-3144
User guides, online help, FrameMaker and
WebWorks ePublisher templates
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



-----Original Message-----
From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Rene Stephenson
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 9:32 AM
To: bhechter at objectives.ca; framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Re: roundtrip documentation and help (Framemaker/Robohelp -
chickenor egg?

I would:
d) Buy the current Adobe Technical Communicator Suite, just a $900 upgrade
with ANY previous license for FM or RH.

..because the new RH and FM8 work together seamlessly. As I understand it,
you don't have to roundtrip stuff back and forth through MIF anymore. You
just set up your RH template, point it to the FM source, make all your edits
in FM, and as the content evolves in FM, so does your Help output. Just
regenerate the RH project as needed.

;-)

 Rene L. Stephenson



----- Original Message ----
From: Ben Hechter <bhechter at yahoo.com>
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 11:07:17 AM
Subject: Re: roundtrip documentation and help (Framemaker/Robohelp - chicken
or egg?

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
_______________________________________________


You are currently subscribed to Framers as rinnie1 at yahoo.com.

Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com.

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com
or visit
http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/rinnie1%40yahoo.com

Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit
http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
_______________________________________________


You are currently subscribed to Framers as lindag at techcomplus.com.

Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com.

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com
or visit
http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/lindag%40techcomplus.com

Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit
http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.