RJ, Thanks for the post.
You mentioned "live link your FrameMaker documents and books." Did you mean "import by reference", or is there a different linking method? I have attempted to IBR my FM files to RoboHTML, about 50MB total. The process takes ~30 minutes, and the Robo view of the files is "raw." That is, each cross-ref is appended with the FM file name as a prefix. This requires major handwork ex post facto. If there is a method to "live link", which implies true roundtripping, please elucidate...best regards, Kelly / PavTech/Rockwell -----Original Message----- From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of RJ Jacquez Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 7:44 AM To: Patrick Fortino; Jeremy H. Griffith Cc: Callie at lists.frameusers.com; framers at lists.frameusers.com; Bertsche Subject: RE: ePublisher Pro vs. other generated online help Hi Patrick, I just wanted to point out that the enhanced version of RoboHelp 7 in the Technical Communication Suite enables you to live link your FrameMaker documents and books in the same way WebWorks allows you to, so you may want to look into that if you have some time. There's a link in my last blog post where I talk about what's new in our latest Suite and on slide 3 of the recording, there's a link to another recording where I go over exactly how you can natively reuse FrameMaker documents in RoboHelp. The link to my blog is listed below my email signature. For what's worth, I worked for WebWorks for about three years and they are great people and I have also had a lot of great conversations with Jeremy from Mif2Go, so either way you go, you'll be working with great folks. Sincerely, RJ J?cquez Senior Product Evangelist Adobe Technical Communication Suite Adobe eLearning Solutions http://blogs.adobe.com/rjacquez -----Original Message----- From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Patrick Fortino Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 11:50 AM To: Jeremy H. Griffith Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com; Callie Bertsche Subject: Re: ePublisher Pro vs. other generated online help <RANT>First let me say that I think that ePublisher licenses are highway robbery. For example, they do not allow you to upgrade from an older version; instead, you pay the full price. I had webworks publisher pro, or whatever the version was before epublisher. No upgrade path for that because I did not upgrade when epublisher came out. I'd like to know what software planet webworks operates on, because I have NEVER bought ANY software that did not have an upgrade path. Also, webworks support will cost you plenty. NOTHING is free. Example, even though we bought two new licences and had difficulties installing it on one of our machines, Webwork offers NO support for this. This really pissed me off, especially since it turns out that my install problems were due to their poor documentation (there was no mention that you could only have one version of frame installed. I wasted a complete day getting the install to work). Their documentation is almost worthless. It's essentially a functional spec; eg, this function does this, this function does that, etc. There is very little "How To" help in the so-called "help" file. And to make it even worse, they don't even have a forum where you can post questions; you have to go to the yahoo webworks group which is supported by some very kindly webworks users.</RANT> However, now that you know my opinion of Webworks as a company, I will admit that the new epubisher a pretty nice tool. I had a hard time getting used to the new interface, but once I did, it converted my fm books pretty flawlessly. With Webworks Publisher, I would have to do extensive template modificaitons to get the html output to look the way I wanted it to look. But with epub, the output was almost perfect without any mods. And it was VERY EASY to set up a multi-volume help project (one with many different books). Because I was helping to set up this project for users who beginner frame and webworks users, ease of use was VERY important. epub is also much faster than wwpub pro at converting fm books. A real plus when you are developing a new project and need to generate output many times a day. One of the best things about epub, compared to robo help is that it uses your frame docs as the source. Last I checked, robo help still only uses the frame docs to import the project. Once imported, you have two content sources: robo help and frame. I haven't use flare so can't comment on it. I tried mif2go; it can almost do what epub can do, but requires a LOT more mucking around in the code. If price is your bottom line, it might be worth looking at. But I'd be willing to bet that if you keep track of your hours learning mif2go versus epub, the cost difference would be negligible. So that's the sad story. Because webworks is the only game in town, they can get away with their Draconian licensing practices. ------ Pat Fortino writenowdesign.com >>>>>>>>>>|<<<<<<<<<<<< - Web Sites - Technical Writing - Editing - Desktop Publishing Get Firefox, a Safer, Faster, and Better Browser On Sep 12, 2008, at 9:47 PM, Jeremy H. Griffith wrote: > On Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:58:51 -0700, "Callie Bertsche" > <c.bertsche at tecplot.com> wrote: > >> - Have other products sharpened their competitive edge since our last >> tool decision (a few years ago)? For instance, comparisons with >> MadCap >> or Flare? >> >> In considering a new product, I know immediately I value the >> following: >> >> - Dynamic connection with FrameMaker documents (ability to rescan/ >> update >> files in help project file) >> - Ability to set variables and conditions or pass them through from >> the >> document, in a user-friendly manner, when building the help > > You might look at Mif2Go, if you haven't lately. It does both of > those things, and in fact everything that ePP does with FrameMaker, > and more. (ePP can also process other XML sources, and Word source > docs, which Mif2Go does not; we're FrameMaker-only). Mif2Go is also > a lot more affordable, way faster, and we think produces better > output. > Try the free unlimited demo, and see for yourself: > http://www.omsys.com/dcl/download.htm > >> Thanks for any "help" on the help anyone has time to give! > > HTH! > > -- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc. > <jeremy at omsys.com> http://www.omsys.com/ > _______________________________________________ > > > You are currently subscribed to Framers as pxforti at gmail.com. > > Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com. > > To unsubscribe send a blank email to > framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com > or visit > http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/pxforti%40gmail.com > > Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit > http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to Framers as rjacquez at adobe.com. Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/rjacquez%40adobe.com Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to Framers as kmcdaniel at pavtech.com. Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/kmcdaniel%40pavtech.com Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
