Help with RoboHelp

How to decide whether to keep using RoboHelp as your online help authoring tool

(PRWEB) June 15, 2005

Recent Internet news has shown that the RoboHelp development team no longer exists at Macromedia. What does this mean to the millions of users of the product? There are still ways that you can work with your help files without needing upgrades, learning a new program or converting your existing help files.

The possibility of RoboHelp being sunset means that support and upgrades will go to the wayside. Businesses will have to take matters into their own hands or work with value added resource providers. “RoboHelp is not dead,” states Leila Johnson, co-owner of Data-Scribe(tm) in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. “We’ve noticed a huge increase in requests for our online and onsite RoboHelp training.”

RoboHelp is the authoring tool of choice for many software developers and technical writers because it’s easier to learn than other authoring tools. This is a plus for individuals within a company who have to update documentation occasionally, but also have other job responsibilities.

One thing to consider is how RoboHelp is used currently within a business. If it is integrated with other programs (Flash, XML, Internet Explorer, Java, Oracle, etc.), RoboHelp could become obsolete sooner rather than later. As other programs continue to be developed, RoboHelp will not keep up with the latest versions.

Johnson offers some guidelines in this area. If any of the following are true, you should be able to keep using your current version of RoboHelp.

• 75% or more of your online help is already in RoboHelp
• You are in the middle of an online help project using RoboHelp
• You use RoboHelp solely to create printed documentation
• Your staff is very familiar with using RoboHelp

About Data-Scribe(tm): Founded in 2003, VelaMira Business Services, LLC DBA Data-Scribe(tm) is located in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The woman-owned, minority-owned business provides database, writing, and software training services to Micro-Businesses. Visit their Web site at http://www.datascribe.biz or call them at 505.896.9379.

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