Upgrade Question - Is Mismatch allowed in multi-author environment?

Report · Nov 23, 2009

I have four folks on x7 using RSC 3.1 successfully in a multi-author environment. I'm getting two additional seats due to demand for what we're publishing daily (KB).

I can only buy x8. Is it possible to have the new seats at x8 and the rest of us at x7 without consequence? Or with mitigated consequences? Does Adobe allow retro-fitting of x8 licenses to x7?

I know the price diff is negligible ($500 upgrade x 4)... but we didn't get it into the budget. The request for additional seats didn't come in until after we submitted our budget. Additionally, I don't really have the time to do the upgrade properly (reorg topics based on user feedback - >2,220 topics).

Thanks in advance for any insight you can give me.

Steve

Report · Nov 23, 2009

Hi, heavywriter!
I think the short answer to the "mismatch" is, "no" if I understand correctly.

I can't speak to the licensing, but we need a tad more info on what you want to do with the projects. In other words, will the RH 7 authors need to access the RH8 projects and vice versa? So far as I know, the RSC 3.1 part should be OK for storage.

But I have the idea that you want to mix and match the projects and unfortunately you cannot. You will not be able to open an RH 7 project in RH 8 without forever converting it to RH 8. (You can go forward but not backward as has always been the case with RoboHelp versions .)

Also, are these authors publishing to a master project in a merged scenario, or does each manage and publish their own closed system? So long as one project version does not have to play with the other, you're OK. But I suspect that's not what you want.

Fill us in a bit more and we'll take another crack at it.

john

John Daigle
Adobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate Instructor
Newport, Oregon

In Response To johndaigle · Nov 23, 2009

Thanks for the quick response, John. It's not the answer I was hoping for, but with the conversion of any project to x8 the first time it's opened, it sounds like the upgrade is needed for all of us. I'll speak to our asset management folks and see if we can get x8 licenses with a retrofit to x7 for the new folks so we can get them in quickly, push our upgrade costs out a bit, and do a planned upgrade to x8 vice a necessitated one.

Background:

Our present circumstances have the authors all working in one large project with four SSL's kicked out as customized content based on job role.

One of the new authors would be using the existing project, the other author would eventually be assisting me with a new, large scale project. I will need access to both projects as the Tech Communicator/Knowledge Manager. The other authors may need access to other project as backups and in my grand scheme of turning one or two of them into technical communicators if they so desire.

Steve

In Response To heavywriter · Nov 23, 2009

Hi there

I hate to have to ask this, but where exactly does one find licenses for X8?

X5 I'm aware of. That was a naming scheme used by eHelp years go. When Adobe acquired it, they first released version 6. Then version 7 and finally version 8. But there is no officially branded version of Adobe RoboHelp known as X8. It's quite simply version 8.(And logically, it's version 16 of the venerable product)

Using the correct terminology can sometimes go a long way toward acquiring the correct product when purchasing.

Cheers... Rick

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