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Subject:MS HTML Help Workshop or RoboHelp? From:"Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 17 Jul 2001 08:52:57 -0400
Emily Cotlier is <<... mulling over whether to use MS HTML Help Workshop or
RoboHelp as our primary online help-building tool. I've checked the archives
on this list, and there seems to be an eerie silence from tech-wrlers about
MS HTML Help Workshop as a help-building tool. Perhaps this is because there
are other lists about MS HTML Help?>>
It's because HTML Help Workshop has the same relationship to RoboHelp that
WordPad has to Word: you can use it as an authoring tool, but why wouldn't
you use something that works _well_ for creating the final product? Much
though I despise eHelp's marketing approach and pricing policy, I freely
concede that they produce one kickass authoring tool. Enough so, actually,
that after four years working with the old version, we just upgraded to the
current version so I can get up to speed before our new projects are ready
for documenting.
<<I've found Microsoft's web site information about MS HTML Help Workshop to
be confusing and badly organized>>
Not surprising. I'm not an authority on this, but I recall reading somewhere
that Microsoft doesn't officially support their free help authoring tools,
and if that's true, why would they bother taking the time to document them
properly? On the whole, if you're going to be producing a lot of help
files--and it sounds like you will be--it makes sense to buy a productive
tool that will make the job go more smoothly. RoboHelp certainly meets that
test.
If you're unable to afford RoboHelp and want another alternative, I've just
completed an evaluation of the major tools, and ForeHelp comes in a close
second in terms of power and ease of use; it might even have edged out
RoboHelp if I hadn't already been familiar with the latter. Also, if you're
willing to use HTML Help--which we currently aren't doing--look into the
combination of Dreamweaver 4 and DevaTools (www.devahelp.com). There are a
few rough edges, but this combo shows considerable promise for creating help
files--particularly once they add a "what's this" help composer.
--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
"User's advocate" online monthly at
www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/usersadvocate.html
"I vowed [that] if I complained about things more than three times, I had to
do something about it."--Jon Shear
*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com
TECH*COMM 2001 Conference, July 15-18 in Washington, DC
The Help Technology Conference, August 21-24 in Boston, MA
Details and online registration at http://www.SolutionsEvents.com
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