Technical Communication

Technical communication is moving from static documents to richer content. A Picture Speaks A Thousand Words. In the online world, it is not just limited to pictures, end users of technical documents want more - tutorials, videos, 3D objects and so on. A number of technical communicators already use Captivate, Photoshop, Acrobat 3D and related products. We recognize this need and trend.

FrameMaker enables import of graphic files by reference and enables you to resize, crop, change orientation, rotate and flip the images. With Acrobat 3D, manufacturers can incorporate 3D designs into technical communication (see sample embedded 3D file in PDF). You can manipulate a 3D object (for example, rotation, taking different views, lighting, etc.) in Acrobat 3D, capture or export an image and include that in FrameMaker and RoboHelp. After you create a PDF, you can replace the picture with the actual 3D object in Acrobat 3D and change the orientation, background color, highlight specific areas of the 3D model and so on.

Adobe RoboHelp 6 allows you to insert Adobe Captivate demo (simulations, software demonstrations, and scenario-based training) from a topic within RoboHelp HTML and RoboHelp for Word. In addition, RoboScreenCapture (ships with Adobe RoboHelp 6) enables you to capture screens in 10 different modes, including Free Hand, Virtual Screen, and Multi-region. You can edit screen captures (add image stamps, frames, and drop shadows; add shadow and shape effects; change image colors; flip, rotate, crop, resize images) and export images to common file formats. This also enables adding identifying stamps, such as company name or logo, to each screen capture. After you have edited, you can save images in different formats.

Please let me know your views on the role rich content plays in technical communication and how will you like FrameMaker and RoboHelp to support you in this endeavor.

On a separate note, Aseem, Product Manager, FrameMaker joined me on the Technical Communication blog. I hope to have more colleagues join us as we go forward.

Note - Since I am unable to visit every external link and validate it, please don't post comments with external HTML links.

Posted by at 2:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

It was heartening to see the number of emails that I received in response to FrameMaker - Is and will remain to be... The emails were both encouraging and critical. There were good suggestions as well as valid complaints. I would request you to keep the emails and the feedback coming, as it provides us with very valuable inputs.

I received a few mails and comments regarding Mac support. Adobe discontinued FrameMaker software for the Apple Macintosh operating system on April 21, 2004. The decision to discontinue FrameMaker on the Macintosh operating systems was based on the market conditions for FrameMaker. The majority of our customers use FrameMaker on Microsoft Windows and Sun Solaris platforms. FrameMaker 7.2 will continue to be available on Microsoft Windows and Sun Solaris platforms. Adobe is continuing Macintosh development for flagship print and web publishing solutions such as Adobe Creative Suite, Photoshop, Illustrator, Contribute and many others. Having said that, I believe there are some good workarounds available now for using windows applications on Mac. It may be possible to use one of them for FrameMaker

The response from Europe was very encouraging. I do plan to travel to Europe during the 2nd qtr of 2007. It would be great if I could meet some customers and users at that time to understand their Technical Communication workflows and to hear their inputs on FrameMaker. Please send me a message at aseem(at)adobe(dot)com if it is possible for you and your team to take out an hour or two for the meeting.

Thank you

Aseem Dokania, Product Manager - FrameMaker

Comments for this post have been switched off. Please send your comments to aseem at adobe dot com.

Posted by at 2:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Past few months have been busy.

On one side, I have been meeting FrameMaker users and enthusiasts, and on the other, I have been working with FrameMaker engineering. The most important question is; how can we make sure that FrameMaker continues to be the tool of choice for you? How do we make sure that FrameMaker evolves with time and helps you take benefit from emerging trends and standards? The DITA application pack was one such project designed to help our users adopt the emerging standards.

Over the last few months I met many FrameMaker users, consultants, plugin developers and trainers. It was a very pleasant experience. FrameMaker is like an inseparable part of their work lives. They love using FrameMaker and they love talking about it and providing valuable inputs and suggestions on making it better. What features to add to FrameMaker. What bugs to fix at the earliest. What are the limitations of conditional text. How important is multilingual authoring. The list goes on...

Most importantly, they were relieved to know that FrameMaker would be there for years to come, and it would become better with each release. I have noticed discussions on some blogs and mailing lists regarding the future of FrameMaker. Let me assure you, as the Product Manager of FrameMaker, that FrameMaker is here to stay. We would do what it takes to keep FrameMaker at the leading edge of technology.

All the valuable suggestions that I have received from you play an important role in laying down the product roadmap. I have already met many of you and I would like to meet more of you to learn from your experiences. Please send a message to aseem(at)adobe(dot)com to schedule a meeting. I am also planning to be at the WritersUA annual conference at Long Beach, and the STC annual conference at Minneapolis, where we can meet in person.

Thank you for your time.

Aseem Dokania, Product Manager - FrameMaker

Comments for this post have been switched off. Please send your comments to aseem at adobe dot com.

Posted by at 6:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (34)

Technical,communication,Adobe,Single sourcing,Robohelp 6,Source Control,Content Management,Team Authoring

Team authoring is an important requirement for technical communication. Technical communicators are often working in teams and need to collaborate on projects. There are of course several means of collaborating, for example, through e-mails, shared folders, source control repositories and content management systems. 

Each of these collaboration methods have their positives and limitations. E-mail is convenient and available for everyone. While ad-hoc nature of e-mail is a positive, it can also become a problem when you have tight deadlines. Since there is no shared collection of all the project files, there is no way of tracking the team activity and ensuring everyone has a same view of the project at all points in time.

Shared folders are easy to use, can use access control built into the operating system and work well in LAN environment. However, you must work on the network all the time. For example, if you are editing a file and don't want anyone else to change it till you have finished, you cannot work on a local copy. If you create a local copy and work on that, you lose the benefit of shared folders. Also, if two authors simultaneously edit a particular file, there is no way of merging the files.

Source control repositories enable all the benefits of file sharing, with an ability to work on a local copy of the file, while the file remains "checked-out" from the repository. Source Control systems also allow the ability for multiple authors to simultaneously work on a particular file and merge back the changes made in each version. Version management, access over a network (outside the LAN), access control, file sharing etc are features which are normally available as part of source control systems. In case of RoboHelp, RoboSourceControl is integrated inside the application, which makes the workflow seamless. RoboSourceControl also has advanced version management capabilities, for example, comparing different versions – view changes, merging two versions of same file, labeling different versions and rolling back to previous version. Installation of source control system is relatively easy (it took me about 15 minutes to install, configure and run RoboSourceControl).

Content management systems add advanced workflow management capabilities, searching the repository for related content, and have a mechanism to alert team members about the status of the project. Even though, RoboSourceControl also has e-mail alert capability, this feature is usually not part of source control systems. Content management systems are usually installed and maintained by IS systems and may require consulting support for installation and training. Often, companies opt for an enterprise wide installation of a content management system.

It would be useful to know your views on the best way of collaboration and what is that you are most comfortable with.

Posted by at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Technical,communication,Adobe,Single sourcing,Robohelp,RoboHelp 6,help authoring tool,HAT

Technical Communication is published in multiple formats, HTML, FlashHelp, WebHelp, Print, PDF, Hosted Online Help and a host of other formats. End-users of knowledge bases, documentation, regulatory notices etc. want to access information in multiple formats and single sourcing has enabled this now at a low cost.

RoboHelp is a well recognized leader in single sourcing. RoboHelp has conditional build tags with highly visual color indicators, conditional build expressions, custom structure of print documents, single source layouts and batch generation capabilities (you may want to view this article by Matthew Ellison). RoboHelp also enables you to preview the output for a specific conditional build expression (you know what you are getting).

When we started work on Adobe RoboHelp 6, it was clear to the team that we needed to further enhance this functionality.  Conditional build tags for Table of Content and Indexes were identified as important new features. In addition, you can apply conditional tags to folders and to rows or columns in a table. Several enhancements have also been made to color coding for conditional text. For more details, you may want to check out an interesting article at RoboHelp Dev Center.

PDF creation was also identified as an area of major improvement. Since this was going to be the first release of RoboHelp from Adobe, it was imperative for us to improve the PDF creation. In Adobe RoboHelp 6, you can generate a PDF with hyperlinks, bookmarks and all the features you would expect from the best PDF creation tool.

The feedback on the above has been good. At the same time, there is always scope for improvement. If you have more ideas on how this can be improved, do drop in a feature enhancement request.

Posted by at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)