[Framers] Slightly OT: Standalone Robohelp 2017?

[Robert Lauriston]

I don't believe the source format has changed significantly since RH7.
You can get 30-day trials of RoboHelp and Flare to verify that they
can read it.

Flare was superior to RH9 in every way except FrameMaker integration.
I don't think the balance of power has changed much since. If they're
buying something new I'd say switch to Flare.

By Adobe/ePub do you mean FrameMaker + ePublisher Pro? That's a very
powerful combination but I've never gotten the sense that it has much
market share. Migrating from RoboHelp to FrameMaker would be a lot
more work than just opening the existing project in RH2017 or
importing it into Flare. You'd need to publish the RoboHelp project to
Word, import that into FrameMaker, and clean up the formatting.

On Fri, Apr 6, 2018 at 8:39 AM,  <tammyvb at spectrumwritingllc.com> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
>
>
> I have a new client who is currently developing .chm help using RH 7. They
> want to go to HTML5 and get w/ the times. I have several questions about
> this:
>
>
>
> 1.      Can projects that were .chms in RH7 somehow be brought in to RH 2017
> to be updated?
> 2.      Is standalone Robohelp still as viable for producing OLH as it was
> in the early 00s?
> 3.      Is file compare possible in RH 2017? I know it once was in older
> versions but now?
>
>
>
> I personally am pushing for either Flare or Adobe/ePub (and even less so
> Adobe FM to RH output either with the built-in function in Adobe fM 12+, or
> FM to integrated RH).
>
>
>
> Right now, the current writer is the RDS in the whole process where she
> produces the OLH files, takes screen shots of the files that need editing,
> manually marks up the files w/ stickies for her editors, and then
> incorporates these edits, and then passes off the edited material again
> marked up manually to her counterpart in Japan and they both produce their
> OLH based on the edited/approved material and then pass of the .chms to the
> developers to incorporate in to the Software project and then finally
> release the SW. Yep . . .take a breath.
>
>
>
> At a minimum, I want to be able to somehow get the old .chm projects in to a
> new tool so that I don't have to retype everything and I want to be able to
> have a way to visually mark where files have changed for both the SMEs and
> my Japanese counterpart. (Yes, I want to suggest just going w/ a translation
> company, but that is not an option as that would basically put the Japanese
> author out of work and that would be an uncool thing to suggest as a new
> consultant.)
>
>
>
> For soooooooooooooooo many reasons, I am pushing Flare or Adobe/ePub (my
> first choice), but as is my client's prerogative, they want to investigate
> standalone RH 2017 first and go from there.
>
>
>
> I am just really open to opinions, suggestions, comments, etc. about
> standalone RH vs. another tool, keeping in mind all the issues that I want
> to solve - not being the RDS in the project (with HTML5 the SW can go out
> even before the OLH is done), the ability to provide hard-copy for edits (as
> in a PDF to my SMEs and NOT sticky notes attached to screen grabs), the
> ability to compare files (as w/ change bars in FM which can be carried over
> in to the PDFs for editing), having a truly controllable development
> interface (as in Flare's almost WYSIWYG or Adobe FM's true WYSIWYG to ePub
> approach). . .
>
>
>
> I know standalone RH >>USED<< to own the market, but from what I have seen
> over these past 5 years or more is not nearly as much - either Flare or
> Adobe/ePub. The number of inquiries/recommendations I have seen for RH have
> just plummeted.