With the imminent release of DITA support in MadCap Flare, will competing Help authoring tools (HATS) suddenly seem inadequate to the task of technical writing?
Where does this leave Adobe’s RoboHelp?
I suspect it will be difficult technically and commercially (Adobe also owns FrameMaker) for Adobe to add DITA support into RoboHelp.
If writers are collaborating on a project or if a Help system needs be localised into foreign languages, then RoboHelp and other HATS may well lose out to Flare.
However, if a sole author just needs to write a straightforward Help File, then many may not feel the need to change from the tool they use today.
So what would you do if you were Adobe?
I wonder if Adobe will choose to compete with MadCap in other ways. RoboHelp could become more of an online training, performance support, tool. Also, Adobe could bundle RoboHelp with FrameMaker at a price that makes Flare seem very expensive.
This, of course, may be all academic if the DITA standard isn’t taken up by more authors.
I’d flip this round and say that, if MadCap get the DITA thing right (in other words make it easier to use and drop the jargon (seriously, conref? it’s a REFERENCE PEOPLE!!)) then MadCap could bring DITA to those who don’t fully understand the potential value as it is, IMHO, still shrouded in techno-babble.
Fingers crossed!
Put another way:
If DITA = all_it_claims_to_be AND a_bag_of_chips Then
Success = HAT_Provider_with_reasonable_implementation
Else
Point = Moot
End If
Craig Prichard
Technical Communicator
craig.prichard@gmail.com
I don’t think other tools will be inadequate at all…like always, “it depends”.
Some folks don’t need or want DITA (see Sarah O’Keefe’s articles), and that will include MadCap users (who will continue to use Flare).
And other HATs very successfully handle localization and collaboration. Those features aren’t just going to go away.
Given the changes made in RoboHelp for version 7, I don’t see why it would be any more difficult for them to add DITA support than it would be for any other HAT that uses XML/XHTML. A DITA plug-in for Frame already exists…it should be possible for Adobe to leverage that with RoboHelp in TCS.
DITA has now been around for a long time and so there’s nothing new or innovative about a vendor having DITA support. Most companies have had this for a long time now, including our Technical Communication Suite via FrameMaker and many of our customers have been producing Online Help in RoboHelp using the DITA maps they create in FrameMaker, so in fact, as a company, MadCap, is once again late to another party. IMHO, if you want to write about innovations in Technical Communication, take a look at how FrameMaker handles 3D models and interactive demos in the Flash format. Once files go to PDF, these files come to life in PDF and these assets are also preserved in RoboHelp and anyone with a browser or the free PDF reader can consume these files. Or, you can take a look at our new Adobe AIR story in RoboHelp, which incidentally other companies are beginning to copy that same support. One final thing to look at for innovative inspiration is our ConnectNow technology through Acrobat.com, which allows our Tech Comm Suite users to hold real-time screen sharing with up to 3 people, now that is news you can use!
RJ Jacquez
Senior Product Evangelist
Adobe Tech Comm Suite
RJ – thank you for your comments.
We’ve mentioned AIR both in our blog and on our newsletter. We’ve also mentioned Acrobat.com in our newsletter, and I’m pretty sure we mentioned the 3D capabilites about a year ago in our blog.
What is the DITA buzz all about?
DITA just isn’t a big deal for Technical Authors and anyway other tools such as FrameMaker support it, check the surveys. We want a focus on workflow and ease of use.
Reminds me of the German Maus tank which was so heavy – 188 tons – that it was unusable. Can’t see a big uptake in DITA as it is such a small market.
Agree with gordon, lets hope they get it right.
Hi Ellis, thanks for the update and I’m happy to hear that you have already included Adobe AIR, Acrobat.com and 3D in your newsletter, this is truly appreciated, so keep up the good work! BTW, I recently submitted a RoboHelp AIR project to the Brandon Hall Awards for consideration under the category of “Innovations in Learning” and I was lucky to win an award, so AIR is definitely gaining momentum in this space. I’ll be blogging about it and posting the project shortly in case you are interested.
RJ Jacquez
Senior Product Evangelist
Adobe Tech Comm Suite
http://blogs.adobe.com/rjacquez