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Re: [Q] Windows Help Development using Star Office/Open Office/etc?
Subject:Re: [Q] Windows Help Development using Star Office/Open Office/etc? From:Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 11 Oct 2001 14:42:23 -0700
"Girardot, David" wrote:
> I've been watching with interest the development of Star Office/Open Office
> as a possible MS Word replacement. However, one of my uses for Word is for
> single-source help production using an add-on tool like Robohelp or
> Doc-2-Help. Now then, I'm wondering if similar tools exist for Star
> Office/Open Office and if anyone has tried them out.
>
> I will post a summary of any replies I receive to the list; to make sure I
> don't miss any, please make sure you cc: them to my email address.
So far as I know, Star Office/Open Office has no equivalent to the tools you
suggest. Although both are cross-platform, and Star Office began on DOS in the
mid-Eighties, their emphasis these days is largely on UNIX/Linux. So,
unsurprisingly, Windows help isn't a large priority.
However, StarOffice especially has some of the best filters I've seen for MS
Word, HTML, and RTF (all done, interestingly enough, with XML). StarOffice 6.0,
which is in beta, is supposed to have even better filters than 5.2, the latest
official release. So, there is probably no reason why you couldn't open the
files created with these filters in Robohelp or Doc-2-Help.
--
Bruce Byfield bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604.421.7177
"All rights and all wrongs have long since blown away,
For causes are ashes where children lie slain."
-Stan Rogers, "The House of Orange"
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