Developing Online Help for Mobile Applications

[FredWBrown]

My company is just starting to develop applications for mobile devices (cell phone, iPad

, etc.). Can anyone tell me whether RoboHelp is the best Adobe application for devel

oping online help for mobile devices or if some other application should be used? Thanks.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

RH's dev team has just released a script for publishing help in the ePub format (see http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2010/04/robohelp_script_to_generate_epub_format_content_for_mobile_d.html). But I haven't heard too much about anybody really using it much.

[FredWBrown]

Hi Jeff,

Yes, I just happened to find that. Unfortunately, that script was developed for RoboHelp 8 and we are still using RoboHelp 7. Do you happen to know if it works with RoboHelp 7? Thanks.

Regards, Fred W. Brown

Technical Writer 3

InnovaSystems International, LLC

(757) 282-7921

• Writing is simple. First you have to make sure you have plenty of paper... sharp pencils... typewriter ribbon. Then put your belly up to the desk... roll a sheet of paper into the typewriter... and stare at it until beads of blood appear on your forehead.

• Prof. Cosmo Fishhawk, in Shoe

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I highly doubt it - RH8 is XHTML output whereas RH7 was HTML based. From what I understand, ePub depends on an XML output. Have you tried out the demo of RH8?

[FredWBrown]

Thanks for the insight. I haven't read about RH8 so wasn't aware of that difference. No, I haven't tried the demo yet. I guess that would be the logical next step. I've been trying to get to the STC web site to download the PDF file of the presentation, but can't get the web site to open. Oh well. Thanks again.

Regards, Fred W. Brown

Technical Writer 3

InnovaSystems International, LLC

(757) 282-7921

• Writing is simple. First you have to make sure you have plenty of paper... sharp pencils... typewriter ribbon. Then put your belly up to the desk... roll a sheet of paper into the typewriter... and stare at it until beads of blood appear on your forehead.

• Prof. Cosmo Fishhawk, in Shoe

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

What presentation? The demo version is located at http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?loc=en%5Fus&product=robohelp or you can run it on a virtual server at Adobe (to save you the hassle of downloading - the down side is that you can't import or save your docs/output when using that route)

[FredWBrown]

Sorry, I switched horses in midstream. The blog has a link to a presentation about generating online help for from RoboHelp/FrameMaker/Word for mobile devices on the STC web site. It has nothing to do with the RH8 demo. It was just on my mind when I was responding. Sorry for the confusion.