Publish or Link

[rpineger]

TCS3.5

Which is better: publish from FM and select the required RoboHelp output, or link in RH to Framemaker?

[Mark Southee]

I want to use RH purely as a publishing engine, without any manual editing, so I prefer to link my FM books and then output whatever format is required. I do make tweeks to the output format in RH but I don't touch the content form the linked FM files.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Doesn't really matter - if FM is your content source, then RH is just another output path, like PDF is to FM. Whether you link or import FM to RH, it all ends up creating the same output. I personally import because RH has (maybe had, I haven't tested lately) an issue in linking with FM's book of books concept.

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools]

As Mark and Jeff mentioned, it's not so much "better", but "better in a given context"

They both work, but there is nuance in how things happen when you get to "edge cases". Jeff's books within books, is one example, and the automation settings for the linking process for Mark is another example.

Personally, I'd focus on where you will edit content. If you want to retain the ability to edit within FM, I'd try linking first.

-Matt

@mattrsullivan