Technical Communication

Adobe,RoboHelp,HAT,Unicode,Localization,Technical Communication,Language Support

I am back after a short break. There was a lot of launch related stuff that had to be completed after RoboHelp 7 and RoboHelp Server 7 ship and then it was time for me to take a break as well.

OK, today I shall talk about a couple of features that would be of interest to people who are involved in producing content in multiple languages.

The world is shrinking and businesses are now becoming truly global with markets all across the world. To cater to global customers, the product, including documentation needs to be customized as per local market. This means that there is a greater need to translate documentation in different languages. Adobe RoboHelp 7 and Adobe RoboHelp Server 7 will help you author, manage, translate and publish your content in multiple languages.

Adobe RoboHelp 7 is now Unicode complaint, meaning thereby that you can use RoboHelp 7 to design your Help System / Knowledge base in any language. To be precise in all languages those are written Left to Right and Top to Bottom (LRTB). RoboHelp 7 however has built –in supports for 35 languages which include Eastern European and Asian languages. When we mention support for 35 languages, it essentially means that RoboHelp is pre set for producing Content for all these 35 languages – you do not need to worry about skins, setting up dictionary, spell check etc. When you select a language in the Project settings, everything gets automatically set up – skins, dictionaries etc.  Please refer to the table below that summarizes the Language Support built in RoboHelp 7.

Unicode feature in RoboHelp also allows you to have content in multiple languages in a single topic, Glossary, Index and TOC.  This is really helpful when you want to create a single page that caters to people in different geographies. You can see a real use case in the Customer Care sample that comes along with RoboHelp 7. Also, you can have different topics in different languages.

Apart from this, RoboHelp 7 now can be installed in four different languages – English, French, German and Japanese. While we developed this, we made sure that the projects are binary compatible – meaning thereby that an author who uses German version of RoboHelp can send across the project to a colleague in Japan who can work upon this project in Japanese version of RoboHelp 7.

Enough of talking – let’s see this in action

Click on Start in the Captivate Demonstration above to start the same. It is an interactive demo and you will be required to click on Next and Continue buttons during the demonstration.

Coming up next - RoboHelp 7 - Support for Translation workflows.

Posted by Akshay Madan at 08:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Technical Communication,Adobe,DITA,Authoring,FrameMaker,Captivate,Acrobat 3D,Suite

FrameMaker 8.0.1 patch is live now. This patch has fixes for several reported problems. The key areas include:

1. PDF: Text going behind tables, tag structure not correct as per accessibility standards etc.
2. XML / DITA: Fixes for crashers, handling invalid input, bugs related to Unicode etc. Apart from this, two functionality workflows that we have fixed are:
   1. Enabling round-tripping of user-variables in DITA files
   2. Enabling Track Changes in DITA file
3. Conditional expressions for Books
4. Track Text Edits: Crashers, some workflow issues. There are fixes for some Japanese locale specific bugs too.

These bug fixes are in addition to localization, installation, FDK, Server, documentation and Suite features.

These patches are available at the following locations:

UNIX - http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=22&platform=unix

Windows - http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=22&platform=win

 - Mahesh

Posted by Mahesh Kumar Gupta at 07:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

RoboHelp,FrameMaker,Technical Communication Suite,HAT,Help Authoring Tool,Single Source,HTML publishing

Adobe Technical Communication Suite enables a HTML publishing workflow from FrameMaker to RoboHelp.  While adding FrameMaker files as live links in RoboHelp, you can map FrameMaker styles to RoboHelp styles.  RoboHelp uses a specific style sheet fmstyles.css which can be modified for custom needs. 

1. The style information in RoboHelp can also be edited after the content has been imported in RoboHelp.  Please make sure you make these style changes in fmstyles.css since all the style sheets in the RoboHelp project for FrameMaker files are derived from this style sheet.  If you make changes in this style sheet, all the linked chapters from the FrameMaker book will inherit the change which will be consistently applied across the project.

2. If you want to edit the style information specific to a Chapter (from the FrameMaker book), you may want to create a style in FrameMaker for that Chapter. By creating a unique style specific to that Chapter, you can now map this style to any RoboHelp style. If needed, you can also add styles in fmstyles.css.  The style sheet can be edited using RoboHelp User Interface.

I am including a Captivate demo of how you can edit style information for linked FrameMaker files (Update- I have added a "Click to Start" button to the demo). I hope you will find this useful.  Please let me know your comments.

Posted by Vivek Jain at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

FrameMaker,RoboHelp,Technical Communication,DITA,Suite,Help Authoring Tool,HAT

I have been talking about various features and settings for linking FrameMaker documents in RoboHelp. Today, I’ll take you through the functionality offered when the linking of files is already done. Yes, let’s see how you can update these files.

If you want to change some of the settings you specified at the time of linking files, right-click on the linked file and select ‘Properties’.

‘FrameMaker Document Settings’ Dialog opens up. All the setting dialogs which were seen during the initial linking can be seen as tabs here.

You can choose to update a particular chapter by changing the settings for that particular chapter or you can update the settings for the whole book (right click the book icon and then change properties).

Once settings are changed, the icon changes to red representing an internal un-synchronization.

As can be seen below, if properties are changed for the whole book, all child level entries too get unsynchronized.

Right-clicking an icon gives the update options. Just choose whether you want a simple Update or Force Update. One the selection is made, RoboHelp will quickly update your files taking care of your updated settings!

- Mahesh

Posted by Mahesh Kumar Gupta at 08:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

FrameMaker,RoboHelp,Technical Communication,DITA,Suite,Help Authoring Tool,HAT

Table of Contents (TOC) is an important part of FrameMaker books. RoboHelp recognizes this importance and allows the conversion of your source FrameMaker TOC to the corresponding TOC in RoboHelp.

I’ll explain the steps with an example. At the time of importing/linking FrameMaker book,

1. Place a check in the ‘ConvertFrameMaker Table of Contents’ box in the Content Settings dialog.

2. Click to open the Browse FrameMaker file dialog.

3. Navigate to the source files folder, select the source TOC and click ‘Open’. By Default, the TOC path would be populated with the first TOC file in the book. If your book has multiple TOCs, you can choose the one of your interest.

4. Select the Create new associated TOC radio button. This will create a RoboHelp TOC for the imported FrameMaker topics.

5. Enter a name for the this TOC. For our example, I have called it ‘TOC1’.

On completion of the import process, ‘TOC1’ would be created under ‘Table of Contents’ folder in the ‘Project Manager’ pod as shown below.

Double clicking ‘TOC1’ would open the TOC.

Snap-shot of the source TOC is shown below. We see that ‘Filter By Attribute’ is a book in the RoboHelp TOC. Topics under this book are same and in the same order as in the source TOC.

The styles in your FrameMaker TOC determine which headings become books, sub-books, or pages in the RoboHelp TOC. These levels are based on the following elements in the decreasing order of priority:

• Left-most indent
• Font Size
• Font Weight

Note: Headings with indented items are converted to book entries.

In Adobe RoboHelp 7, a project can have multiple TOCs, multiple indexes and multiple glossaries. In addition to creating multiple TOCs and indexes, RoboHelp also provides an ability to create a hierarchical structure of TOCs and indexes. For more information, please visit my following blog post

http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2007/10/content_aggregation_workflow_i_1.html

- Mahesh

Posted by Mahesh Kumar Gupta at 08:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

FrameMaker,RoboHelp,Technical Communication,DITA,Suite,Help Authoring Tool,HAT

Perhaps the most important, and most powerful, feature of the FrameMaker import process is the style mappings. You can map FrameMaker paragraph and character styles to RoboHelp styles, which will automatically reformat your FrameMaker content for publication in RoboHelp. In addition, you can also specify:

• New definitions for FrameMaker cross-reference formats (e.g., to remove page numbers from cross-references in RoboHelp output)
• Style names that will trigger topic breaks in RoboHelp
• FrameMaker styles to ignore when the styles are imported into RoboHelp
• A default RoboHelp style to be applied to unmapped FrameMaker styles

Now, I’ll take you through some of these features in detail.

In the Style Conversion Settings section of the Settings dialog, there is an option to Convert AutoNumber to HTML list. This is generally preferred if the FrameMaker document does not include complex numbering (e.g., multilevel section numbering).

If you want to use a user defined HTML Tag for the paragraph styles, you can specify the tag e.g. ‘Pre’ tag. You can even choose the styles where this tag should be applied.

For applying properties, Click Select to open the FrameMaker Styles Conversion Properties dialog. Select the styles where these properties should be applied. Click OK to close the FrameMaker Styles Conversion Properties dialog and to return to the Style Settings dialog.

In the Style Mappings section of the Style Settings dialog, click Edit. The FrameMaker - RoboHelp Style Mappings dialog opens. In this dialog you can map each FrameMaker paragraph, cross reference, and character style to a RoboHelp style.

Select the type of style you want to map from the Style Mapping Type list. By default, the paragraph styles are selected. The individual paragraph styles found in the FrameMaker document and the RoboHelp project are displayed as shown in the screen-shot below. The FrameMaker styles are listed in the left column; the RoboHelp styles are listed in the right column. By default, each RoboHelp style is set to [source], which indicates that the FrameMaker style has not been mapped to a RoboHelp style. Preview of these styles is available in the bottom part of the dialog.

You may want to use different cross-reference styles in print form and Help deliverables. For example, page numbers are useful in PDF documents, but have no meaning in Online Help. You can map FrameMaker cross-reference formats to RoboHelp Cross Reference styles with appropriate definitions for online delivery.

For the screen-shot shown below, you may want to change the ‘Heading & Page’ cross-reference to paragraph text. Click Heading & Page to select the cross-reference style. The current definition includes a page number. Double-click <$paratext> to adjust the cross-reference format to specify only the title of the target topic.

I will touch other aspects in my next post. You can reach me at mahesh@adobe.com

Mahesh

Posted by Mahesh Kumar Gupta at 09:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

FrameMaker,RoboHelp,Technical Communication,DITA,Suite,Help Authoring Tool

Adobe Technical Communication Suite comprises of Adobe FrameMaker 8, Adobe RoboHelp 7, Adobe Captivate 3 and Adobe Acrobat 3D ver 8. FrameMaker 8 extends the structured authoring functionality of FrameMaker to enable authors to work efficiently with DITA. With Captivate and Acrobat 3D, you can add Flash demo files and 3D models in FrameMaker 8. On the output side, FrameMaker lets you build a FrameMaker book from a DITA map to generate PDF and online help. Once you have created a FrameMaker Book, RoboHelp provides an ability to add them as live links, that is, any update to the Book will get reflected in Help output with just two clicks (Update and Publish). With RoboHelp 7, you can generate any of the output formats like CHM, WebHelp, FlashHelp, JavaHelp or OracleHelp. 

DITA is now core part of our product strategy. As customers adopt DITA and standards evolve, I envision enhanced support for DITA across Adobe Technical Communication Suite.

DITA Support in FrameMaker 8 - The DITA functionality of FrameMaker 8 is provided by a set of application features combined with a set of structure applications, which together provide core tools for DITA authoring and publishing. The DITA functionality of FrameMaker 8 can be extended for a variety of uses.

FrameMaker offers a range of features for DITA support:

• Import/Export processing: Includes the use of some FrameMaker-specific constructs and elements (notable by their fm prefix), which are present while authoring in FrameMaker but translated to DITA-conformant XML during the import/export process. This ensures interoperability with other systems.
• DITA map support: FrameMaker offers a structure application for creating and editing DITA maps, as well as managing relationship tables. Double-clicking on a topic within a map opens that topic for editing.
• Conref support: When you open a file, FrameMaker resolves conrefs, and displays the referenced content as a text inset in the open document. FrameMaker also features the Reference Manager dialog box for inserting conrefs.
• Xref support: When you open a file, FrameMaker automatically resolves <xref> elements and displays any associated text within FrameMaker. You can turn this feature on or off.
• Output support: For generating Adobe PDF content, FrameMaker lets you build a FrameMaker book from a DITA map. As the XML authored in FrameMaker conforms to the DITA standard for structure, you can also publish using other DITA tools, such as the DITA Open Toolkit. You can also download the Adobe FrameMaker 8 plug-in for DITA Open Toolkit from FrameMaker Development Center.
• Publishing to HTML using RoboHelp: FrameMaker lets you build a FrameMaker book from a DITA map.  RoboHelp as part of Adobe Technical Communication Suite provides an ability to add FrameMaker Books as live links. With RoboHelp, you can add breadcrumbs, browse sequences, Index, TOC, Glossary, Dynamic HTML effects to help output and also map FrameMaker styles to RoboHelp styles, generate context sensitive help mapping files and aggregate content from other applications like Word, DreamWeaver.

You can customize the DITA features of FrameMaker using the DITA Options dialog box or by editing the ditafm.ini file.

Posted by Vivek Jain at 03:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

RoboHelp,Captivate,Acrobat,3D,FrameMaker,HAT,Help Authoring Tool,Technical Communication,Suite

Adobe Technical Communication Suite provides an attractive opportunity to upgrade for existing customers of FrameMaker, RoboHelp and Captivate.  You can upgrade from any previous version of these products at a special discount. As a general rule of thumb, if you are currently using or plan to use more than one of the four products, you may find upgrade an attractive option.

Most FrameMaker users also use Adobe Acrobat software. By upgrading to Adobe Technical Communication Suite you get all the new features of FrameMaker 8 — including Unicode, DITA, 3D support, and enhanced conditional text handling—plus all features of Acrobat 3D Version 8. In addition, you get various enhancements that are unique to FrameMaker 8 for Adobe Technical Communication Suite, such as improved integration with Adobe RoboHelp 7, Adobe Captivate 3, and RoboScreen Capture. You can use the complete help authoring and publishing features of RoboHelp 7 to create help systems and knowledge bases. Adobe Captivate 3 enables the production of product simulations and demonstrations in the Adobe Flash® format by combining a realtime screen capture technology with a powerful editing environment for creating professional, interactive tutorials (complete with scenario branching and quizzes), without programming knowledge or multimedia skills. Based on the industryleading Adobe Flash platform, Adobe Captivate 3 automatically generates interactive, Adobe Flash Player compatible content that can be easily inserted into your FrameMaker and RoboHelp projects, Adobe PDF documents, or distributed via e-mail or the Web.

Engineering design and manufacturing professionals benefit from the latest version of Acrobat 3D along with the ability to export to standard 3D formats. With this suite, you will also be able to incorporate 3D models directly into FrameMaker 8, enabling you to produce rich technical PDF documents with live 3D models. In addition, you will be able to leverage the strengths and benefits of RoboHelp 7 and Adobe Captivate 3 to help meet your other technical communication needs, including the creation of help and support systems, product demonstrations, and simulations.

As a RoboHelp user, you get all the new features of RoboHelp 7 (including Unicode support, breadcrumb navigation support, a new user interface, and enhanced support for single-sourcing) plus enhancements that are only available in RoboHelp 7 for Adobe Technical Communication Suite, such as the ability to work with FrameMaker source files by adding them as links in RoboHelp projects. This provides a high level of control over online output by enabling you to define output settings and style mappings. You can embed engaging Adobe Captivate  demonstrations in RoboHelp projects, and select from a range of output formats, including WebHelp Pro and Adobe FlashHelp® Pro.

Posted by Vivek Jain at 02:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Adobe,RoboHelp,RoboHelp Server,HAT,Technical Communication Suite

I am slightly late in sharing this important piece of information with you all - trial builds of Adobe RoboHelp 7, Adobe RoboHelp Server 7 and Technical Communication Suite are now available on the Adobe.com. The specific URL's are:

There are some significant changes that we have done to the Trial version of Adobe RoboHelp. There is no restriction on the number of topics, no scrambling of text in the output. Trial version is a fully functional time bound (30 days validity) build. If you like the Trial and decide to buy the RoboHelp licence, all you need to do is, buy one online and enter the same on the startup screen. You do not need to uninstall the trial build or install anything extra.

There is one important point that you should be aware of - Adobe RoboHelp 7 is supported on Windows 2000, however the Trial is not. So, if you install the Trial version on Windows 2000, it will ask you for a serial number and will not let you run the product in Trial mode.The Trial version is supported only on Windows XP and Vista.

If you have any questions about Platforms supported or other System Requirements, please visit the specific product pages for detailed information on the same.

In case you find some difficultly in installing and/or working with the Trial build, you can refer to the knowledge base articles and Adobe RoboHelp forum. I encourage you to share the feedback about the product. You can reach me at amadan@adobe.com

- Akshay

Posted by Akshay Madan at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)