Technical Communication

Technical Communication,RoboHelp,FrameMaker,Acrobat,3D,Captivate,HAT,Help Authoring,Knowledge Base,Policies and Procedures

This week we announced a new product Adobe Technical Communication Suite and Adobe RoboHelp 7.  This takes the total number of technical communication related product releases in 2007 to 6 (RoboHelp 6, Acrobat 3D ver 8, FrameMaker 8, Captivate 3, Adobe Technical Communication Suite, RoboHelp 7).  You can imagine the excitement in our team.

Overall, initial feedback has been very positive. At the same time, there have been a few questions and I take this opportunity to answer some of them.

• Can I play Flash files in the Adobe Reader?
• FrameMaker can now include Captivate demos and publish them as part of PDF.  When you click a Captivate demo in PDF, the Flash file plays inside the Adobe Reader.

• How is Acrobat 3D different from Acrobat Professional?
• Acrobat 3D is a super set of Acrobat Professional with additional 3D features and 3D toolkit.  Acrobat 3D is available as a separate product and you can buy it from (www.adobe.com/products/acrobat 3d)

• How do I generate demos in Captivate?
• Captivate enables creation of professional demos and simulations in a very simple and easy way.  During the recording process, Captivate captures a sequence of actions in a software application as a set of slides and mouse movements.  It also records text entries and automatically generates text captions (for example, “Click on Open”).  You need to try Captivate to realize how easy it is to create professional demos. FYI, in STC Conference at Minneapolis, we exhausted our set of Captivate trial CDs in a couple of hours. Anyone who learned about Captivate, wanted to try it.  Now, both FrameMaker and RoboHelp can integrate Captivate demos and publish to PDF and help output respectively.  Also, RoboHelp can import Flash files from FrameMaker.

• How do I prepare 3D models for import into FrameMaker?
• Acrobat 3D includes a 3D Toolkit and this should be used to prepare 3D assets for use in FrameMaker. You can now include the actual 3D model in FrameMaker, a significant step forward from working with 2D renditions of these models.

• Do I need to convert FrameMaker documents to .MIF for importing in RoboHelp?
• No. RoboHelp 7 can import .book, .mif and .fm files.  In Adobe Technical Communication Suite, you can add FrameMaker files (.book, .fm and .mif) as live links to RoboHelp.  

Do let me know your comments and suggestions.

Posted by at 9:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Adobe,RoboHelp,New Features

You can’t imagine how thrilled and excited I am. I feel like jumping on my chair. Jump, Jump…

We just announced another significant release of Adobe RoboHelp. Check out RoboHelp product page at www.adobe.com/products/robohelp for more information. Another major update in record 9 months. Oh boy - RoboHelp development is on steroids.

This has been a very special release – we have had some rave comments on the prerelease site about the current release. Customers who have seen this (via our prerelease program) still don’t believe that we could add such major advancements in 9 months. Enough of trumpeting, let’s get down to the point.

Summary of major feature added in Adobe RoboHelp 7:

• Highly customizable user interface - Create your own unique workspace with personalized toolbars, menus, keyboard shortcuts and dockable pods that work the way you want. A Multiple Document Interface (MDI) makes it easy to copy/paste and edit across multiple topics in a tiled arrangement. Then save your workspace environment for different projects. Quickly remove clutter of unused interface items to focus on the work at hand.
  
     
  See Large Image       

• Full Unicode support - accommodates 35 languages and powerful translation workflows.  Localized in 4 languages and binary compatible across languages. Create in a French version and open that same project in a German version.
  
  
  See Large Image
  

• Enhanced support for FrameMaker file import -Import multiple file formats in .fm, .book, .mif. .bk or .frm file types. Files will be converted to HTML topics.

• New HTML Editor - produces cleaner code, customization including color coding and author-configured as well as automatic Intellisense for rapidly inserting commonly used code phrases.
  
  
  See Large Image

• Easing author’s workflow with reusable content - Snippets and User Defined Variables.
  
  
• Dramatic new Single Sourcing capabilities - with Multiple Tables of Contents, Indexes and Glossaries.
  
  
  See Large Image

• Cross-product integration with Adobe technical communication programs - See how RoboHelp works with Adobe Captivate, FrameMaker, Acrobat 3D and RoboScreenCapture.
  
  
• Better end-user experience with Search Synonyms, Search highlighting and Breadcrumb navigation.
  
  
  See Large Image

• Improvements to standard features - Word import/export, RoboSource Control 3.1, RoboHelp Server, WinHelp to WebHelp migration

• Improvements to Adobe RoboHelp Server - Valuable Feedback Reports and the ability to search the text of non-HTML documents such as PDF, Word, Excel, etc. make this a perfect choice for company Intranets. Many installation and administrative improvements have been made in this release.

Posted by Akshay Madan at 6:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Adobe,RoboHelp

I call him Uncle John, some call him Expert John and he calls himself Scuba John. Yes, I am referring to John Daigle - a very talented RoboHelp expert who loves nature. Today is his birth day (15th September) and he is out in the jungles of Peru to celebrate the same with Anacondas. Hey man what a fine way to celebrate a birth day.

Happy birth day - uncle John. May God bless you.

Akshay

Posted by Akshay Madan at 12:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Technical Communication,RoboHelp,FrameMaker,Captivate,Acrobat 3D,HAT,Help Authoring,Knowledge Base,Policies and Procedures

With FrameMaker 8, we began our journey towards closer integration among Adobe products for technical communicators.  With four products, FrameMaker, RoboHelp, Captivate and Acrobat 3D, catering to the needs of technical communicators, we have best in class products for each requirement.  Now with much closer integration among these products, we are enabling new workflows. 

FrameMaker 8 has two novel features - (a) insert a SWF file and (b) insert a 3D file.  Using Captivate, you can create a software simulation and generate a Flash (SWF) output.  With FrameMaker 8, you can now embed the SWF file in a document and when you save as PDF, the PDF generated contains the Flash demo.  The end users can now play the Flash demo by double-clicking the SWF file in the PDF.  We recognize that FrameMaker document also gets printed and the author needs an image (instead of the SWF) to print the document. There are two options there. One, before you publish a Flash demo from Captivate, select a pre-loader image.  This pre-loader image is visible in FrameMaker and when you take a print of the document, this image will be printed as part of the document.  Second option is to use conditional text to specify an image for print purposes.

Update - To ensure that Captivate includes the Playback Control in the published SWF, de-select the borders option in Captivate before you publish. Go to menu Project -> Skin, select the tab Borders and de-select the Show Borders check box. If you use this option, then the SWF will show the playback controls in the generated PDF. If you click on the SWF in the Adobe Reader, you can scroll, play, pause and stop the playback.

Use of 3D files in documentation opens up a new paradigm in technical communication.  You no longer need long descriptions of the 3D models, designs or diagrams in the document.  A short description with the 3D file in the document should now suffice. In addition, this substantially improves the user experience. With FrameMaker 8, you can now embed a U3D file (with Acrobat 3D, you can convert a large number of CAD formats into U3D format) and when you save as PDF, the PDF generated contains the 3D file.  The end users can now double click on the 3D file in the PDF and can rotate, enlarge and view the 3D object in different ways.  From printing perspective, there is a feature in Acrobat 3D to define default views for the 3D object.  In FrameMaker, you can select one of the default views and the printed documented will have that default image.

During the Sneak Peek of RoboHelp at the STC Conference in Minneapolis, we also demonstrated closer integration between RoboHelp (currently under development) and FrameMaker. Cross product integration is a long journey and with FrameMaker 8, we have moved significantly forward. For sure, we have many more milestones to cross.

Please do share your comments and suggestions.

Posted by at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)