FrameMaker, robohelp or both?

Forum|Forum|12 years ago
March 1, 2014
2 replies
2173 views

I have a massive publishing program with tens of thousands of pages in unstructured FrameMaker 8 files. we need to be able to go to print publication, html5, and many E-formats.

1. would it be better for us to use structured FrameMaker?

2. can FrameMaker alone handle all E-format outputs?

3. Where and how does robohelp fit into this equation?

4. We also need to produce PowerPoint slides and other supplements for instructors using our books. Many supplements are direct lifts of content in the frame files. Is there a good way to automate this process Using FrameMaker and/or robohelp? We need to include all tables and provide text bullets.

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Arnis Gubins

Inspiring

FM12 can output in ePub 3, responsive HTML5, Mobi, KF8, Web Help and Microsoft CHM formats along with the PDF format. Going through RoboHelp, adds another 12 output formats, so depending upon what you mean by "E-formats", FM12 may suffice.

FWIW, Acrobat XI can produce PowerPoint slides from PDFs. So you can satisfy the requirement using that route or as Error suggests, stick with PDF slides (and use the Microtype Presentation Assistant to help with the slides - http://microtype.com/timesavers_Assistants.html ).

P

pdeitelAuthor

Known Participant

Does RoboHelp help perfect the output of any of the formats that FrameMaker supports? In my past experience, the HTML output from FrameMaker was horrendous.

Arnis Gubins

Inspiring

It's a completely different approach for FM now. FM12 uses a subset of the RH processing to "publish" those formats. (FWIW, you can still create the simplistic HTML output using the mapping tables).

There's a fair bit of control in the mapping of the FM tags and some customization to the skins that you can apply. IIRC, there just a bit more depth to the controls in RH.

Bob_Niland

Community Expert

I'll let others address the structure/ebook/RH questions.

> 4. We also need to produce PowerPoint slides ...

Is PPT or PPTX strictly necessary? For the last 20 years I've always done my slides as PDF directly from FrameMaker. It's pretty easy to paste or reflow content onto landscape pages, adjusting format defs for the larger text sizes required.

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