News
Adobe releases an update to RoboHelp 7 - February 2007
Adobe has released an update to RoboHelp 7. You can get more details and find out what's up with RoboHelp on the Adobe Technical Communication blog.
Madcap releases Lingo - January 2007
Madcap Software has released Lingo, which is a translation memory system intended to work with Flare to improve the translation process. You can learn more about Lingo on Madcap's site.
Rob publishes RoboHelp 7 Review - December 2007
Read Rob's review of RoboHelp 7 on the WritersUA site.
Rob speaks at TCANZ - November 2007
Rob presented at the bi-annual TCANZ conference in Wellington, New Zealand. His presentations were: Adding Demos to User Assistance, Changing the Way We Think About Documentation, and How will Vista's online help affect the future of user assistance?
Adobe Releases Technical Communication Suite - October 2007
Adobe released a new suite of tools that includes FrameMaker, RoboHelp, Captivate, and Acrobat 3D. This is a strong set of tools and shows that Adobe continues to take the technical communication audience seriously. Learn more about the suite.
Adobe Releases Captivate 3 - July 2007
Adobe has announced the release of Captivate 3. Come back next month for an in-depth review of Captivate 3. In the meantime, some of the noteworthy features include the ability to randomize quiz questions, automated re-recording, and support for Vista and PowerPoint 2007. Check out the cool version comparison on Adobe's site (http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/productinfo/upgrade/#section-2).
Adobe Releases FrameMaker 8 - July 2007
Adobe has announced the release of FrameMaker 8. See what Sarah O'Keefe had to say in her July 23rd blog posting at http://www.scriptorium.com/palimpsest/. Also, check out Framemaker features at the Content Wrangler's site: http://thecontentwrangler.com/article/framemaker_80_announced_today/.
Madcap Software Releases Flare 3.0 - July 2007
Madcap Software is maintaining its mad pace of software development as it provides another major release to Flare. Flare 3.0 adds two major features: the (1) Feedback Server and (2) source control integration.
The Feedback Server is revolutionary for help authoring. It gives you more information about how users are using your help and it involves them in content creation. Wait a minute, you say. Isn't that just the RoboServer? Not quite. Like the RoboServer, the Feedback Server does track search phrases used and report on searches that don't result in any topics found. But the Feedback Server also allows users to rate topics and even provides a way for them to make comments on topics that can be appended to the topics in a blog-like style. Does the idea of involving users in content generation make you nervous? Don't fight the evolution of user assistance! Web 2.0 technologies are already changing the way people interact with each other. User assistance can benefit from the involvement of users in content creation. Users can provide the kind of best practices and tips and tricks that many current help systems are missing. Plus, you can set up the comments so they have to be reviewed and approved before posting them. Other noteable features of the Feedback Server are its ability to track desktop-based targets, the history of page visits for each topic, and a Feedback Server hosting package that tracks the data for you.
The source control integration is important as too few Flare users are currently maintaining their projects in a source control package. Don't put your company's investment at risk. Keep your Flare projects in source control so every version of every file is archived in case you have to roll back any changes. Flare integrates with Microsoft Visual Source Safe, Microsoft Team Foundation Server, and most other industry source control systems that use the Microsoft SCC API interface. Why does integration matter? As you create new content or edit existing content, Flare can automatically check files in and out for you, making it easier to work with multiple authors on a Flare project.
Other exciting features include: (1) WebHelp Plus, an enhancement to WebHelp that allows you to search external documents such as DOC, XLS, and PDF files (included in the basic Flare application). (2) Improved search rankings that take into consideration index entries and synonyms. (3) Simplified stylesheet editor. (4) Ability to add a WebHelp toolbar to an HTML Help system. You can find a more complete list of features at Madcap Software's site (http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/flare/features.aspx)
Adobe Opens Up at the STC Conference - May 2007
At the STC Conference, Adobe broke new ground by breaking some of its own rules. Adobe usually doesn't comment on upcoming releases until a product is announced, which occurs the month before they start selling it. However, at the STC conference we saw something that we may not see again--sneak peeks of RoboHelp and Captivate in advance of their next release.
RoboHelp Sneak Peek
Akshay Madan, the Product Manager for RoboHelp, showed the following through a series of sneak peeks: 1) A customizable user interface that includes "pods" that can be moved and docked to different areas of the screen. This pod design should support dual screens. The demo showed customizations to the toolbar and saved layouts of the UI customizations. 2) A Multiple Document Interface which allows you to open multiple documents simultaneously and copy/paste content between them. 3) Unicode support. They showed RoboHelp topics being imported and edited and published in languages such as Russian and Chinese. 4) Multiple TOCs. They showed the ability to create multiple tables of contents for a project. 5) Translation workflows. 6) Breadcrumbs (Navigation links). 7) Search that highlights found keywords. 8) Improved MIF support. 9) Support for Vista and Word 2007. They mentioned more support for importing Framemaker content, but weren't very specific about what that meant. Adobe said that RoboHelp was in an early beta.
FrameMaker Sneak Peek
Adobe said that Framemaker is also in beta. They showed the following features: 1) Unicode. 2) DITA support. 3) Flash and 3D support. 4) Vista Support and docx import. 5) Track text edits. 6) Attribute-based filtering/output. 7) Import of XML and CSS files. 8) Conditional text enhancements.
Captivate Sneak Peek
Finally, Adobe also showed Captivate, which also is in beta. They showed the following features: 1) Multimode recording. 2) Re-recording for web applications IE 6 and 7. 3) Transitions with a hover object.
Summary
What does this new open attitude mean? It seems that Adobe wants everyone to know that they're serious about their continued support for RoboHelp. Adobe was a platinum sponsor at the STC Conference--a position newly created to show their investment in the conference. They're clearly flexing their strong marketing arm.
No date was announced for the release of any of these products. However, we can assume that if all of the technical communication suite of products are in beta then the release should occur before the end of the year.
Madcap Software Releases v2.5 of Flare
Madcap Software continues to add major functionality to Flare. So far, they have had two releases per year and show no signs of slowing their development. The latest point release added some interesting new outputs with Microsoft XPS and DOCX in addition to PDF and the formats that Flare already had (WebHelp, DotNetHelp, HTML Help, Word documents, and Framemaker documents).
Rob Houser wins Award of Excellence for Neenah Paper WBT
Rob Houser won an Award of Excellence from the STC Atlanta Chapter for the web-based training (WBT) he created for Neenah Paper. The WBT helped Neenah Paper employees learn to use their new Oracle-based self-service HR/Payroll system.
RoboHelp 6 Released
Adobe has released RoboHelp 6 after a dormant period of over two years. Some long-time RoboHelp users have been grumbling that Adobe didn't do enough on its first release of RoboHelp (after acquiring RoboHelp from Macromedia which had only recently acquired it from eHelp). However, Adobe seems to be solidly behind its newly created suite of products for technical communicators, which includes Acrobat, Framemaker, and RoboHelp. Some of the new features available in RoboHelp 6 include: user-defined variables, increased power of conditional build tags (which can now be applied to TOC and index entries as well as folders), command line compilation, and RoboScreen Capture. They have also made significant improvements to RoboSource Control. For users of RoboHelp Server, Adobe has added FlashHelp support, web-based administrator (so help authors can more easily configure the server), and improved installation for the server database.
Copyright 2007. User Assistance Group, Inc. All rights reserved.