Need suggestions for doc conversion to Help

[Ellen Sinett <ellens -at- CARETOOLS -dot- COM>]

I am creating a user guide for a software product with FrameMaker. I
need to produce a Help file with RoboHelp and now a requirement just
appeared for context sensitive help. I am looking for suggestions on
the best way to approach this. From my Frame TOC I have estimated that
we have about 350 topics. I believe I can take the Book and create
.rtf files to bring the topics into RoboHelp.

The dilemma is that our product is customizable. Although it is a
client/server application, the screens delivered to each customer do
not necessarily look identical. (The information comes from the same
database tables, but the GUI changes.) Can you create context
sensitive help for a system such as this, or do map id's have to be
standardized to specific fields in specific locations on windows?  And
if I create context sensitive help for one system, if another version
is delivered to another customer with the same content but a different
GUI, can I use that context sensitive help or will we have to create
Help for each system we ship?

For anyone who's a RoboHelp expert, do you have a suggestion on the
best way to create this kind of Help? Is What's This? Help a better
way to do it?

Also, does anyone have an idea of how long it would take to convert
350 topics from FrameMaker into a Help file? I will probably be
looking for a contractor to help me do this.
Ellen

Ellen Sinett
Manager, Technical Documentation
CareTools, Inc.
Prospect Place, 230 Third Ave.
Waltham, MA 02154

Direct: (781) 684-7059
ellens -at- caretools -dot- com


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