My developer is asking, if we can generate HTML free of cost, what is the point to invest in Robohelp?

[Rahul_karn1]

We are currently using MS Word and planning to have context sensitive Online Help, I proposed for Robohelp but my developer is saying, if we can generate HTML free of cost, what is the point to invest in Robohelp?

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

I'd have to say it depends on what you want. Sure, you can use simple Windows Notepad if you like to create HTML pages. But it's going to be very slow and tedious and will require extensive knowledge on your behalf of how to code things properly.

RoboHelp offers many features that assist you with building projects. It offers a very "Word like" interface for authoring topics. Provides a mechanism to easily link from topic to topic. Provides an ability to easily create a Table of Contents, an Index, a Glossary and other things.

In the end, it's all about speed and ease of use. You might ask your developer what tools are used for his or her development tasks. And why he or she is using that tool. After all, it's likely that the same things could be accomplished in different ways that might be less expensive.

Cheers... Rick

[Willam_van_Weelden]

I have to agree with Rick. How is your developer planning on creating the HTML? You need to author your content somewhere. If you don't have a solution (other than Rick's rather rigorous notepad) you'll be in for a treat. You'll have to build your own table of contents logic, your own search (now that's an interesting challenge!), and so on. Also, how does your developer propose you keep your content up to date and consistent?

Basically, what is the alternative your dev is thinking of? Creating html from Word? (Ghastly) Building pages manually with Dreamweaver/Notepad/something else? (Really?) Wordpress/Drupal? (May work if you get it set up to do what you want but has its own challenges.) Given any of these, RoboHelp will certainly be a lot cheaper. Without knowing the alternative your dev is thinking of, it's hard to really give a good answer.

[Peter Grainge]

Just tell the developer you will write the HTML in Notepad if he does the

same with his code! J

Remind him of the expression "horses for courses".

[Eager_Beager]

By the same token, one doesn't need Dreamweaver to construct web pages, but it's certainly more efficient than rolling your own HTML.

RoboHelp is a development environment for managing complex documentation projects. Take a look at some product demo videos for the Responsive HTML5 output that RoboHelp can manage for you. Or is it the WebHelp output that you're considering? There's a variety of output types that RoboHelp provides for you.

[Rahul_karn1]

I think my developers are little afraid that context sensitive help may create trouble in the code. Could you suggest me the alternative in which help do not have to interfere with the existing code? Currently, we are providing PDF and our product is a web-based application developed on .NET.

[Peter Grainge]

The thread started with querying the need for RoboHelp rather than using some free HTML editor and that you wanted context sensitive help.

Whatever you use to create the help, your developers are going to have to create calls to the relevant topics. If they use URLs, the developers work will be the same in both cases. They will have to go to their forms/pages and somewhere there will be the equivalent of a Properties page where they add the URL. It should be very simple for them.

The downside of using URLs is that if you change the path or file name, the developers have to change their URL. Using MapIDs, which you will not get from a free HTML editor, they can call the MapID. A file that Rh generates will convert that into the current URL. You can change the path or file name but the MapID still calls the right topic. There's a bit more to it than that but that covers the key stuff.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge