Migrating to Technical Comm. Suite

Report · Nov 02, 2007

I viewed a webinar on "Content Reuse: Technical Communication Suite" that showed the integration between FM 8 and RH 7 .

In the demos, the source content was all in FM (this seemed to be the point). All of my content is in HTML, so I assume I will need to convert my content to a format supported by Frame. Is this a relatively easy process?

Report · Nov 02, 2007

Hi PigBodine

I stand to be corrected here, but I'm doubtful that the goal of the suite is to convert everyone from a RoboHelp workflow to a Frame workflow. I think there is probably a HUGE market for existing FrameMaker users that are using a different product to create on-line output. Adobe is making it very attractive to entice those existing Frame users to consider the suite, as they get four products for less than the price of any single product. For those that are RoboHelp users, you may continue using RoboHelp. But you get Captivate and Acrobat Pro 3d tossed in as well. Hard to beat a sweet deal like that!

Cheers... Rick

Report · Nov 02, 2007

Thanks for the reply. I agree that the pricing and extra apps are very attractive in their own right.

So then as an RH user, I wouldn't need to use Frame as the backend at all. In the demo, it seemed like you would use Frame to store the "Source" and then would use Robo for generating HTML output. They made a point of saying: "while you can edit the content in RoboHelp, you might not want to do that as it wouldn't be replicated back to the source" (paraphrasing here) and that it would be better to make the change to the Frame source and then force the update to flow through to Robo. But since I wouldn't be using Frame, I'd just skip that part.

I feel better now, because I migrated from FrameMaker to WinHelp about 9 years ago, then from WinHelp to HTML about 4 years ago. Not sure I'm ready to complete the circle.

I think part of my misunderstanding was that the webinar was called "Content Reuse". I thought I was going to see chunks of content being reused in multiple documents (like DITA conrefs) instead of repurposing Frame into a different output format.

Report · Nov 02, 2007

Hi again

Yeah, if you are talking DITA, you are talking Frame. I know RoboHelp offers some XML importing and exporting capabilities, but it knows squat about DITA. So anything DITA would have to come from (and be managed by) Frame. At least at this point. Who knows what will happen with the evolution of a tool, eh? Hmmm, DITA... Evolution... seems somehow, I dunno... related?

(For those of you wondering what the joke is, Google what the acronym DITA represents.)

Cheers... Rick

Report · Nov 02, 2007

DITA is something I'm currently investigating. I'm curious to see how it works with Frame. I have quite a few topics, so any conversion is going to be a big deal. It is nice to know I can upgrade to Tech Comm Suite and perhaps leverage the Frame side later if/when I need to and not have to do it from the outset. Thanks again for your help.

Report · Nov 02, 2007

Hi again PigBodine

Keep in mind that what I know about Frame is mostly what I've simply overheard from others. But as I understand it, there are two ways to use Frame. One is Structured and the other is unstructured. Again, as I understand it, only Structured frame supports DITA. But I also overheard RJ Jacquez (Senior Adobe Product Evangelist) advising many folks that Frame now sports an option on a menu related to DITA.

Not sure if this does anything but confuse an issue, but it's intended to help.

Cheers... Rick