Choose the right tool for creating online help techrepublic. Designed for advanced topicbased authoring, publishing and content management cms, madcap flare is more than a help authoring tool. Conversely, robohelps strength has been on creating online help with a secondary focus on generating printed documentation. Market overview of recommendable tools for creating software documentation, especially for the creation of user manuals and online help files. Mar 26, 2020 download adobe robohelp build and publish help systems, knowledge bases or user manuals with full support for html, adobe air and xml documents, providing a userfriendly working environment. A brief comparison of flare versus help and manual.
Since i havent regularly used robohelp in over 10 years, it is hard for. Prefer open source need some sort of online help authoring tool for an open source project. Robohelp is fairly easy to learn and help manual vs robohelp use though i would not say it is, download. Flare is a better choice if you need a fulltime help authoring tool and are prepared for a steeper learning curve. The latest version of robohelp 2017 release helps you to easily create nextgen responsive html5. Framemaker vs robohelp adobe support community 427443. Using robohelp to singlesource help and manuals published 2004, q1 june 20, 2007 robohelp online help documents software single sourcing. In this tutorial, we will use robohelp 8 html and generate a help file, starting from a blank project. Unicode support full unicode support, meaning you can create help files in up to 106 languages, including asian languages. Adobe robohelp is a help authoring tool hat developed and published by adobe inc.
When technical writers create a large project like a user manual, it takes a long time and costs a lot of money. Easily and efficiently develop help systems, elearning content, policies, procedures, and knowledge bases with robohelp. What is adobe robohelp 2019 release get started with robohelp 2019 release robohelp 2015 release video tutorials. Which is your primary output format, paper or online help. Successful companies know that the effort of translating content from one language to another does not lie solely on the localization teams. Companies switching from robohelp and framemaker to flare. It produces help content only for a documentation website, and excludes printed manuals. Alternatives to adobe robohelp for windows, mac, web, software as a service saas, linux and more. Doctohelp was the first help authoring tool hat i used in my technical writing career. Localization support project synchronization and the option to save a project in uncompressed xml format make translation with external tools easy. Adobe robohelp 2019 releasean allnew way to create content. Build a help skeleton from your visual studio source code and extract code comments and internal documentation. The help project built from vs sources can be updated later on, when unit structures, functions and objects have changed. I am an instructional designer and looking to buy a tool that can help me.
But, online instruction manuals created by either adobe robohelp or mad cap. Blue sky software was founded in 1990 and changed its name to ehelp corporation on 4 april 2000. Both are similar and much cheaper than robohelp or flare. Adobe robohelp 2019 release is a powerful and intuitive application for creating and publishing content. For example writing style, choices of html help or winhelp or browserbased and so on.
Robohelp software free download robohelp top 4 download. Adobe robohelp is a help authoring tool that enables technical writers to collaborate and optimize content for help systems, policies, procedures and knowledge bases. Helpsmith is a featurerich help authoring tool allowing users to create help files and manuals with ease. Download, find membership help, and learn the basics. It can produce online and printed documentation, pdf docs, context help, policies and procedures. To help you choose a suitable help authoring tool that will allow you to complete your help project, we have prepared a list of features that you may need for that. Adobe robohelp 11 software empowers you to deliver differentiated content for. Which is the better tool for online instruction manuals.
Filter by license to discover only free or open source alternatives. Both the software applications cost almost the same, but your requirement seem to. Robohelps own help is not all that great, chiefly because it contain. Haufig gestellte fragen zu adobe robohelp 2019 release. I have created enduser documentation for two projects using sphinx, and have also used it to document a couple of python packages sphinx has a lot of features around extracting documentation from python modules, it was originally. Get started in minutes just sign up and get your own documentation portal. This could be a word, sentence, paragraph, or entire page. Publish content as responsive html5, pdf, mobile app and much more to serve customers across all touchpoints. Robohelp service releases adobe robohelp version 2019 adobe robohelp 2019.
There are a big number of help authoring tools available on the market whose feature set and license price may significantly vary. When it comes to single sourcing tools tools for outputting manuals to multiple formats from the same source content, there are a number of popular tools available such as adobe robohelp, madcap flare, etc. The most popular help authoring tools compared document360. Clickhelp online documentation tool for mac, windows and. Right now, there are two plugins readly available and shipped with all professional and floating licenses. Customize layouts and templates with a powerful css and skin editor. Download adobe robohelp build and publish help systems, knowledge bases or user manuals with full support for html, adobe air and xml documents, providing a. The latest version of robohelp is packed with features, which allows you to create responsive html5 layouts that work on any device size. All use the same software but have different goals and tasks. Adobe offers a help authoring tool called robohelp and it is the main rival to madcap flare. Dec 26, 2007 framemaker is wellregarded as industrialstrength software for printoriented documentation and manuals with secondary focus on producing online help. Help authoring tool hat software market new technologies. Deliver exceptional help, policy and knowledgebase content with the 2019 release of adobe robohelp.
In fact we have written a number of blog articles about. Framemaker is wellregarded as industrialstrength software for printoriented documentation and manuals with secondary focus on producing online help. Adobe robohelp 2015 release viii view merged help projects. This quick start tutorial barely covers 10% of everything you can do with robohelp. For example, the software user manuals i write typically target many different audiences such as administrators, clerks and financial officers. Unlike robohelp, however, all the content is stored in a single proprietary database with a. First look a couple weeks ago, adobe focused most of its attention on bringing robohelp into the modern era, where responsive design, cloud and mobile first become the central buzzwords applied to software applications. Until version 3 it was based on the rtf file format and heavily designed around the winhelp paradigm. The robohelp 2019 release installer installs both robohelp 2019 release, an allnew application for creating and publishing content, and robohelp classic 2019 release, which retains the experience of older versions of robohelp with updates. Robohelp is a deep program with too many functions and capabilities to count here. Robohelp was created by gen kiyooka, and blue sky software released version 1.
Adobe robohelp creates all content files in xhtml, so if you use both tools the files will need to be converted from xml to xhtml using their converter. Update 12 of robohelp 2019 release includes ability to publish frameless output to robohelp server 10 update 2 10. Which help authoring tool is better robohelp or madcap. Help authoring tools are an important category of software since they allow you to. It is used by industry professionals to deliver engaging help content, elearning resources, organizational policies and knowledge base articles to a wide audience irrespective of device form factor. The idea is to create such documents only once single source. Doctohelp similar to robohelp, doctohelp uses a relatively simple graphical interface to help you import documents and create an online help system. Radiant technologies has switched from robohelp to dr.
Its a software program used by technical writers to create online help topics, documentation. Using adobe robohelp 2017 release adobe help center. This list contains a total of 19 apps similar to adobe robohelp. Adobe robohelp is a help authoring tool hat that allows you to create help systems, elearning content and knowledge bases.
A basic robohelp 8 tutorial technical communication center. Case radiant technologies has switched from robohelp to dr. Customers who switched to madcap software increased productivity by more than four times, reduced project time over 30% and improved overall customer satisfaction. Sphinx can create html, windows html help and pdf via latex. The application provides an intuitive environment that combines a fullfeatured word processor with a spell checker, the topics manager, the keyword editor, and formatting tools, that you can use to organize the table of contents, create an alphabetical. Offline help manuals robohelp classic 2019 release help. I like sphinx you write your documentation using a plain text markup format, restructuredtext. Devexpress develops software components and ide tools for visual studio and market overview of recommendable tools for creating software documentation, robohelp will not install acrobat elements 7, meaning you can create help files in up to. Macromedia acquired ehelp corporation on 24 october 2003.
Mohr if you find yourself in a situation where you have to produce online help and a user manual for the same software application, robohelp may be the answer. Robohelp software free download robohelp top 4 download offers free software downloads for windows, mac, ios and android computers and mobile devices. Luckily for us robohelp has undergone a change for the better. A good manual provides each of these audiences with only that help content that they need to meet their goals. The latest version of robohelp is packed with features, which allows you to create responsive html5 layouts that. Using robohelp to singlesource help and manuals carolina. Paligo combines most of my favorite features from framemaker, madcap flare, and confluence with integrated cms, versioning, and workflow management. Architected from the ground up to be the ultimate singlesource, multichannel publishing application, madcap flare is built using the latest technologies available.
Arcom replaces adobe robohelp with madcap flare to streamline delivery of print documentation and online help for construction specifications software we tried flare out for a trial period, and within that trial period we were able to do everything that we wanted to do and then some. Adobe robohelp is a popular help authoring tool hat from adobe. Import help manual vs robohelp directly imports project files. Since then robohelp has overtaken it as the tool of choice for technical writers, especially as its now owned by adobe and bundled with its technical communications software pack. A help authoring tool or hat is a software program used by technical writers to create online. If you find yourself in a situation where you have to produce online help and a user manual for the same software application, robohelp may be the answer. Which help authoring tool is better robohelp or madcap flare. Flexible online documentation tool for mac, windows, linux. Ive been using madcap flare for almost 10 years, and ive been providing training and consulting services for flare for almost 8 years. Dynamic filtering is my favorite feature of robohelp 2015 release, saving many hours and effort. Topicbased authoring and smart content reuse lets you release your docs in a fraction of the time. Jun 15, 2005 our company is in the process of purchasing help authoring software. Feb 02, 2016 ive been using madcap flare for almost 10 years, and ive been providing training and consulting services for flare for almost 8 years.
Customers who switched to madcap software increased. Both the software applications cost almost the same, but your requirement seem. Explain and how that had affected their companys effectiveness. For example, to print a manual you must have support for indexing accurate. Many of these help authoring tools, online documentation tools, and other user assistance development tools can generate printable user manuals pdf and online help systems help sites from the same text base single source publishing. Conversely, robohelp s strength has been on creating online help with a secondary focus on generating printed documentation.
Help authoring tools are an important category of software since they. Mar 29, 2017 adobe robohelp versus madcap flare comparing the two most popular single source help authoring programs. Watch our documentation tool videos to see product features and save your time. Clickhelp online documentation tool for mac and windows. For years, robohelp has allowed you to generate word.
Some of the most popular are adobe robohelp, madcap flare and helpndoc. Visual studio help compiled html help format, mandatory for software component documentation in visual studio and other development tools. Explain, which sped up project development and maintenance by at least 100% joe evans and scott chapman from radiant technologies have shared with us a thrilling story about migrating their end user documentation writing process to dr. Which is the better tool for online instruction manuals, adobe. Professional and floating just differ by the licensing model. Adobe robohelp versus madcap flare comparing the two most popular single source help authoring programs.
242 1413 415 1158 577 1402 419 1468 425 985 975 537 191 424 486 120 282 1183 233 583 1440 1469 300 887 838 1573 642 94 1374 633 981 1437 711 1369 1356 271 1144 1009 1439