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- You generate to a local file.
- You publish to a server.
It's OK to just generate and give that to developers. They will then have to upload everything you give them to a server and in some cases only they can do that, for instance where only they have access to the server or they are creating an installer that will go to the customer site.
Where you have or can be given access to the server, then there are advantages.
- RoboHelp can be set to only change modified files.
- When you generate, the folder is emptied first. That doesn't apply to the publish location. As a result you can place files there that can be accessed from your help but are not part of the project.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
Hi Sue
Hopefully my esteemed colleague won't mind my offering a little tidbit here.
As he explained, you generate to create the output. You then publish that generated output to the server. I noted that what was mentioned was that "It's OK to just generate and give that to developers".
My reason for adding to the post is to say that even if this is all you are doing, publishing can come to your aid. You may likely have the impression that once you generate you now have to make that content available to the developers. And often that's done by copying the content to an intermediate folder. You notify the developers it's ready and they go copy it from the intermediate folder to the web server. And it's at this point the Publishing process can actually simplify your life.
By defining a Publishing destination as the intermediate folder it becomes a single click operation to populate the intermediate folder with your generated output. You won't have to open Windows Explorer afterward, then manually copy the files.
Cheers... Rick 
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That's true but what I have found is that where the developers want the output, they usually want what is in the generate folder and nothing else. By giving them a zip of that, they get what they want. If you use the Publish option for that, you may well also be giving them obsolete files as well because, as you know, publishing does not remove those.
If the author does publish to the server, then it is more likely that is the only place the help gets published to so a few extra files will not matter.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
LOL, wouldn't the simple solution for that be to simply have the developer(s) just delete everything from the folder once they uploaded to the server?
From my view it's a simple matter for them to delete it all and leave behind an empty folder. Much simpler than it would be for me to Generate the content, dismiss my dialog, open a zipping utility, navigate to and select the contents of the output folder, Zip it up, copy the zipped file to the destination folder, THEN return to RoboHelp to continue working.WHEW! I'm knackered just thinking about it. LOL
As opposed to just clicking a Publish button after you generate, then dismissing the dialog. But I'm probably missing something. 
Cheers... Rick
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Maybe. In many places though it gets done the way the developers want, rather than what may be more logical.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
In our case, the developers want the new build in a zip file that gets given to installers who visit the sites. They just want the new stuff in a zip file, nice and clean. They do the trashing, cannot be done by the developers or the author.
I don't think there is a right and wrong way of going about this. It depends on how each organisation wants to do it.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
Of course there is a right and wrong way! I say BAH to the developers! Do it the right way! LOL
But I do agree with your sentiments.
Cheers... Rick
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