Like a good whiskey, the Technical Communication Suite improves with age

It is fair to say I am not always at the front of the queue when it comes to PC or software upgrades. Even if I want to upgrade, there are often factors that prevent me from rushing to my supplier. Primary amongst these factors is the need to ensure that what I am about to buy meets all my needs. Whilst I am often excited by the arrival of a new toy, the cautious side of me needs to understand how it will affect me. In the corporate world, this is especially true as your reputation, and your job, can rely on it.

At work I run RoboHelp X5, RoboHelp Server 6, Captivate 2 and FrameMaker 7 on a Windows XP platform. Hardly cutting edge, but they do the job. Up until recently I also used MS Office 2003 until one of our applications implemented a feature only available to MS Office 2007 users. I had to have MS Office 2007 installed which created a dilemma as RoboHelp X5 only supported up to MS Office 2003. However a side by side install of MS Office 2003 and 2007 did the trick as we don’t use the features of RoboHelp that interface with MS Word.

With this in mind I’ve often wondered why it is that product users seem hell bound on buying a new release as soon as it is released. I’ve never felt compelled to queue overnight on the pavement outside a bookstore so I can be among the first to buy the latest Harry Potter novel. I didn’t even think of putting in a order for the 3G I-Phone before it was formally released. Similarly I’ve never felt the need to get up at 4am to catch a flight to go on vacation when there is another one at 10am. Perhaps it is just me, but I always want to wait and see before jumping.

This is partly because I have worked with software companies all my professional life. I know what is involved in producing a software application. I understand the commercial demands that set a product deadline in stone. Above all I appreciate the pressures that make a Product Manager evaluate whether a software bug is sufficient to prevent a product’s release. It is a fact of life, as sure as eggs are eggs, that software applications contain bugs. It is also certain that applications can be released in order to meet a deadline, yet with full knowledge of their faults. Then a month or so down the line a patch is released to solve the issues.

As if to illustrate this fact, Adobe recently released a patch for FrameMaker 9. As you would expect it fixes a long list of bugs. No doubt plans are also in place to release updates to RoboHelp 8 and Captivate 4 to correct bugs in the released versions that form part of the Technical Communication Suite.

I hope so. Just this week, my company put in an order for five Technical Communication Suite licenses. The cost of £6000 UK -which includes an upgrade to RoboHelp Server 8 – is substantial for a company our size and we need to get it right. We need to ensure that we are using all the features of RoboHelp that we can and let it be known, to those that matter, how our productivity has improved as a result. I have no doubt we can do this, especially with the:

• Ease with which screen captures and Captivate demos can be incorporated in our projects.
• Enhanced search results, including the ability to index PDF and MS Word files.
• Improved interface between FrameMaker and RoboHelp. This will become a big feature for us as we move towards producing out help and training materials (produced in Framemaker) from the same source.
• Ability to output a RoboHelp project to a PDF, send it for commenting and import those comments back into the source in a fashion similar to MS Word’s track changes. This is huge for us as we have to maintain an log of all changes for our ISO 9001 audit status.
• Scripting interface that allows us to produce and run out own scripts to fulfill a specific purpose.
• Ability to easily hide topics from the search without the added hassle of. XHTM files and adding them to baggage. A small change but one that will save us untold hassle.

I could go on, and I haven’t even started on the completely redesigned user interface. OK I know this was available in RoboHelp 7 but for a RoboHelp X5 user this is a big thing. This level of control that allows you to customise your workspace, when put together with the features I’ve highlighted above, makes the Technical Communication Suite 2 a must buy.

Of course I knew this even before it was released, as I was fortunate enough to be part of the beta test team. That said, even after the beta test I never intended to buy the suite straightaway. Just like a good whiskey, the Technical Communication Suite improves with age.