Another novel about technical writers

[Pro TechWriter]

If I was teaching the Tech Comm course again at USF, I would go with MadCap
Flare, mainly because of the capability to use DITA-like snippets for
reusable text. The interface and the way it handles content is going to be
more compatible with how we will be creating and reusing content. The Madcap
support and sales people are just stellar in my opinion. They are so helpful
and interested in making it a good experience to use their product.

Adobe, >>IN MY HUMBLE OPINION<< on the other hand, couldn't care less, and
being that their tech support is, I think, in China, getting a quick
response from them is more difficult, and they are not always that familiar
with the product. (If anybody wants to flame me on that remark, go ahead,
but I am speaking about my own experience here and that's what it is: my
experience. If yours was different, good for you, but mine was as stated,
and it pretty much sucked dirty pond water.)

That said, Author-IT also has some great capability in that area. It is very
impressive, but more difficult to use. They have great support though, which
offsets the use part. Unfortunately,  I couldn't use their product because I
had a merged RoboHelp WebHelp file that required links to the merge files
from the TOC. AuthorIt wouldn't do that effectively. They are in Australia,
but also have wonderful support and very knowledgeable sales people. They do
free Web seminars to show you how their product works and will call you and
walk you through using the evaluation copy step-by-step. It was too bad I
couldn't get it.

Do you know who uses what tool the most in your area? I see more Madcap
Flare requests now than I used to.

PT


On 11/16/07, David A. McMurrey <hcexres at io.com> wrote:
>
> Still Life with Husband -- Lauren Fox (wife bored with boring tech writer
> dumps him but comes to regret it)
>
> Hey. In the Business & Technical Communication program at ACC, we are
> trying to decide which online-help software tool we should standardize on.
>
> For ten years or so, it's been RoboHelp. Should we continue with the new
> release from Adobe? We can't afford more than one such application.
>
> In the past, Robo seemed like the NAME that employers recognized and
> demanded in job posts. Therefore, we wanted our students to use it for
> projects in our classes to increase their employment chances.
>
> Is that still the case?
>
> Given our tiny budget, I'd be delighted to use a free or less-expensive
> tool; however, we want students to get serious exposure and portfolio
> items related to the most in-demand tool.
>
> And, yes, I know that Mary is an advocate of AuthorIT and Leah an advocate
> of Help & Manual. However, our experience with MadCap Flare at ACC has
> been very bad.
>
> Thanks!
>
> -- David McMurrey
>
>
> ---
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