FYI, I got very useful help also from Rob Houser, a tech writer w/ a user assistance company who is familiar w/ RoboHelp and Flare. I hope it helps others too.
Rob wrote on 09/27/2007 09:50:42 AM: > Hey, Tim! You have some pretty open-ended questions considering the > minimal requirements you listed. Here's something to think about. > > Sales people, as you noted, aren't going to spend much time reading > or even going through training sessions UNLESS their management > mandates it and you specifically test and track their mastery of the > information. > > From a requirements standpoint, I'm hearing the following needs: > > * method to push information to the sales force online > * easy way to update information as changes occur > * simplified authoring tools (not overly technical) > * online training (i.e., eLearning) > * possible way for sales force to contribute to the product discussions > > That leaves you with a few solutions: > > Put PDF fact sheets on a web site and add a wiki for discussion > challenges and best practices to particular product lines. Add very > brief Adobe Captivate movies as possible to teach them more about > key products. All of this can be done fairly inexpensively. It would > allow you to use a tool you know (Word...and I presume Acrobat, > although it's not hard to learn if you don't know it). Your > technologies that you would have to learn are a wiki that you could > tie in to your website, an HTML tool like Dreamweaver (or a HAT such > as RoboHelp if you find that easier), and Captivate. But the beauty > of this approach is that you could start with just the PDF files and > a website. Sales people won't read books, so you need to divide the > content into something they can print and take with them (and it > needs to be mostly lists and tables, not long paragraphs of text). > > Madcap Flare has a wiki-like tool built into it that allows users to > add comments to help topics. You could deliver your factual content > via Flare help topis and allow the sales force to provide comments > by appending them to individual topics. If you take this approach, > I'd still use Captivate for the eLearning portion. > > At the ASTD training conference this year, there was a lot of talk > about using podcasts and mcasts (podcasts delivered via mobile > phones) to get info to sales users. That could be an interesting avenue, too. > > If having the sales people add their two-cents worth isn't > important, you can drop the wiki idea. They key is getting them the > information they need, which can be accomplished with short, focused > PDF fact sheets or brief podcasts if they have a way to listen to > them. If you dive into the training world, then you have to find out > from the sales managers how much accountability they want to build > into the system. If it's just optional info, then just make simple > Captivate demos (and, again, keep them brief and focused). If it's > actual training, then you'll need to build in "tests" that scare > them into paying attention. Captivate can do that too. > > I know this is a bit of a scatter-shot answer. If you need to talk, > you can call me at ------- > > rob Tim Mantyla Rob's helpful review of Robohelp 6: http://www.writersua.com/articles/robohelp_6/index.html ______________________________________________ Author Help files and create printed documentation with Doc-To-Help. New release adds Team Authoring Support, enhanced Web-based help technology and PDF output. Learn more at www.doctohelp.com/tcp. Interactive 3D Documentation Parts catalogs, animated instructions, and more. www.i3deverywhere.com _______________________________________________ Technical Communication Professionals Post a message to the list: email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, unsubscribe, archives, account options, list info: http://techcommpros.com/mailman/listinfo/tcp_techcommpros.com Subscribe (email): send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe (email): send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Need help? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] Get the TCP whole experience! http://www.techcommpros.com
