New RoboHelp 6 info?

Hi Ed

Ed
From a purely personal standpoint, I don't like cloak and dagger one little bit. For one thing, for me anyway, honesty has always been the best policy. If for no other reason, it's pure logistics. I'd much rather tell a person one honest thing and be done with it. Nothing to remember. Whom I told what and on which day and all. It just gets tiresome.

The unfortunate part of all this is that in order to see new products and test their features, we have to play by the rules and agree to non-disclosure agreements. I tend to take these very seriously. Shouldn't the fact we are all advising we have been testing a new version of the product be evidence that one is forthcoming pretty quickly?

tkirkland
I wasn't trying to bash anyone's product. I was simply providing what I thought were my own insights regarding my own experiences with Flare. Believe it or not, I really do wish the Flare guys well. I totally support their efforts. I've met Mike Hamilton personally and he is a really nice and admirable person. I really was super irritated at Macromedia when I heard they laid the developers all off. Not because they were essentially trying to kill off my favorite product, but because of what it meant when I heard that many no longer had jobs.

I'm guessing when you say "MVP" you are referring to my Microsoft status? If so, this designation does not mean I support all HATs. It simply means I'm involved with the overall help technology. I am devoted to RoboHelp (as are others) because it's just so darn easy to use. This is the part I tried to contrast. Perhaps it's just my long history and experience with the product, but I've not seen any other HAT that makes the process of help development as easy as RoboHelp does. I feel this is a large reason for it's success. As a Microsoft MVP, I was recently offered free licenses of almost every other HAT out there. Flare included. So I have access to use any of them I would like. But to be honest, I've not installed a single one. Just RoboHelp. I'm not sure if that just says I'm insane or if it implies what I hoped it would. LOL

Sherri_k
I'm sorry, but I have to respectfully disagree with you if you are saying the Flare interface is easier to use than RoboHelp's. I'd really love it if there were a way you could actually show me. (Well, I guess that's the Missourian coming out in me. You know, the "Show Me" state?). Are you sure you didn't mix up what you were trying to say regarding the interface? Personally, both the interface as well as the WebHelp output look very "developer like" to me. But I am all too aware that this is totally subjective. If you have read the above, you know I totally agree with you regarding cloak and dagger. As for substantiating claims of a release, I'd say that first half of 07 is accurate. And I think all of you that are waiting will be surprised.

For all that read what is beginning to look like a tome even Blue Sky/eHelp did not want the feature set of RoboHelp betas openly discussed. I've been through betas with this product since 2000. It's always struck me as odd, but it was policy so I accepted it and moved on.

For those of you who are devoted to othe HATs, I say shame on the other HATs! I believe in advertising and all, but once it became known that Adobe was reviving interest and development in RoboHelp, I feel the others should have ceased advertising that "Converting your former RoboHelp content is a single click away". And most I've seen are still having a feeding frenzy with that. They are trying to keep the FUD alive so folks will switch away. (FUD=Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) Makes me think of all the derogatory political ads I so hate to see when it's election time.

Cheers and happy Wednesday all! Rick

Hi Ed

Hopefully you understand that I'm under Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with Adobe. While I do, in fact, have hard facts, I'm not at liberty to divluge them. Unless, of course, I want to destroy any confidence Adobe has with me.

All I can say at this point is that if you are considering Flare, keep in mind that the very same folks that created Flare are the ones that also introduced all the KADOV in RoboHelp.

As for help outputs, I personally don't like the WebHelp output Flare produces. It's just too "Developer Like". I find the WebHelp output that RoboHelp produces to be much easier to comprehend and nicer looking. But that's all subjective.

I would also encourage you to just sit back and watch any of the videos that the Madcap folks created. I was on the Flare beta team and remember suggesting they create these. Not that this wouldn't have happened otherwise. But I have to admit that I was just slack jawed shocked at them. They are supposed to walk a person familiar with RoboHelp through how to do similar things in Flare. I recall seeing things like: In RoboHelp, open this dialog and click here. In Flare, Open this dialog, then this other dialog, then select items one two and three, then hold your left foot up while hopping over to the copier and press button Z. (of course I'm exaggerating a bit, but I really was amazed at the difference.) It seemed far too difficult to accomplish in Flare what I could easily do in RoboHelp.

Cheers... Rick