The Best FrameMaker-Based Single Sourcing Solution

[mbarwick -at- invatron -dot- com]

Greetings TECHWR-Lers!

At my software company have charged me with the task of determining the 
right single-sourcing solution for product documentation. The requirement 
is for delivery by PDFs and online help. Most of the existing 
documentation is in FrameMaker and in that authoring environment I'd like 
to stay as the version of Microsoft Office we are using is so archaic, I'd 
blush bright red for all to see if I told you what it is. 

So I need to single-source in Frame but the question is with what to build 
the online help?

I've looked into Quadralay's ePublisher. I have a colleague outside my 
company who is working with an earlier than current version of it who says 
its great. Alas, the quote I got from the company was larger than 
anticipated (nearly 2K). I'd need good reasons to justify such an 
expenditure. 

Half as expensive is the other option I'm considering:  Adobe's Technical 
Communication Suite (TCS). Preliminary research has revealed though that 
some claim it's not a true single-source solution (tweaks in RoboHelp 
apparently don't find their way back to the FrameMaker files) and one 
reference to severe restrictions if creating help from FrameMaker (but no 
details as to what those restrictions might be). It's still so new that 
there's not a lot written about it yet.

I've looked at other online help tools such as Flare but they really want 
you to single-source in within their own environment rather than an 
external one such as FrameMaker even if they will import FrameMaker files.

Here are my questions for those writers whose needs are similar to mine:

For those using Frame with ePublisher: is it great? Tell me why it works 
for you and how I can justify its enormous price to my manager.

For those using Adobe's TCS: Can you do everything you need to do with it? 
Are FrameMaker and RoboHelp greater than the sum of their parts?

For those with other Frame-based solutions, I'm all ears. Tell me what is 
working for you.

Thank you for your attention! I look forward to your responses.

Regards,

Michael Barwick
Sr. Information Developer
Invatron Systems Corp.
mbarwick - AT- invatron - DOT - com
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