Framemaker vs Robohelp

[Rainer Frameuser]

Hi all,

We are starting a new documentation project from scratch. We use unstructured Framemaker for our previous products. We have subscribed to the Adobe Technical Communication Suite.

For the new project we have the following requirements:

• Output formats are pdf and HTML5 online help for software.
• Conditional text for different variants of the product.
• We also want to create the GUI strings and tooltips for the software. Is this supported with on-board tools in Framemaker or Robohelp? We have no experience with this.

What is your favorite tool to implement this? Framemaker or Robohelp? And why?

Thanks and Regards,

Rainer

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

As the commercial says, "Why not both?" - seriously, you should test out both to see if publishing direct from FM works well for you; using the FM to RH import works; or authoring & creating output in RH only works.
In my case, for one of my products, the PDF output from FM is superior, but the level of control over the HTML5 output I create is better in RH - so that product gets authored in FM, imported into RH, and outputs created from both. Another project didn't need PDF, so it's authored entirely in RH and published to HTML5.

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools]

So to clarify Jeff's recommendation, it's more "Why not all three?"

• authoring in Fm, then publishing from FrameMaker directly to HTML output 
• authoring in Fm, then linking to Rh for publishing HTML output
• authoring in Rh, then publishing HTML output

Each method has (dis)advantages, but if you already have reasonable Fm experience, exploring the direct output from Fm will have the shortest learning curve. However, publishing directly from Fm gives you less access to a few higher level options and layouts that Rh has added in the last few years.

[Rainer Frameuser]

Thanks for your answers. I am checking to publish directly from Framemaker to HTML5. First impression is good.

Any ideas how to create Tooltips (to embed them in our company's software) with Framemeker or Robohelp?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

RH offers a thing called microcontent - see https://www.grainge.org/RoboHelp_Tour/rh2022/authoring/microcontent.htm - that might work for you. Most tooltip content I've seen is actually embedded in the application code itself and is done by the developers directly.

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools]

Are you asking about context sensitive help (CSH)?

Both Fm and Rh can produce solid CSH that your engineers can link to various components in your software.

[FrameMaker-dk]

If you still are in the testing fase and want to play around some, I would suggest taking a look at one of my templates, like this for instance:

https://framemaker.dk/en/hikashop-menu-for-brands-listing/product/56-extra-anejo-us-letter

It comes with predefined options for output to PDF and HTML5

Especially the customisation of the HTML5 output can take some time to get right. If you have a distinctive design and you would like it to be reflected in all published outputs, customizing the css for HTML5 can be challenging. In my templates I try to incorporate both pdf and HTML5 in the same settings file, allowing for single sourcing.