Hi Ed
Ed
From a purely personal standpoint, I don't like cloak and
dagger one little bit. For one thing, for me anyway, honesty has
always been the best policy. If for no other reason, it's pure
logistics. I'd much rather tell a person one honest thing and be
done with it. Nothing to remember. Whom I told what and on which
day and all. It just gets tiresome.
The unfortunate part of all this is that in order to see new
products and test their features, we have to play by the rules and
agree to non-disclosure agreements. I tend to take these very
seriously. Shouldn't the fact we are all advising we have been
testing a new version of the product be evidence that one is
forthcoming pretty quickly?
tkirkland
I wasn't trying to bash anyone's product. I was simply
providing what I thought were my own insights regarding my own
experiences with Flare. Believe it or not, I really do wish the
Flare guys well. I totally support their efforts. I've met Mike
Hamilton personally and he is a really nice and admirable person. I
really was super irritated at Macromedia when I heard they laid the
developers all off. Not because they were essentially trying to
kill off my favorite product, but because of what it meant when I
heard that many no longer had jobs.
I'm guessing when you say "MVP" you are referring to my
Microsoft status? If so, this designation does not mean I support
all HATs. It simply means I'm involved with the overall help
technology. I am devoted to RoboHelp (as are others) because it's
just so darn
easy to use. This is the part I tried to contrast. Perhaps
it's just my long history and experience with the product, but I've
not seen any other HAT that makes the process of help development
as easy as RoboHelp does. I feel this is a large reason for it's
success. As a Microsoft MVP, I was recently offered free licenses
of almost every other HAT out there. Flare included. So I have
access to use any of them I would like. But to be honest, I've not
installed a single one. Just RoboHelp. I'm not sure if that just
says I'm insane or if it implies what I hoped it would. LOL
Sherri_k
I'm sorry, but I have to respectfully disagree with you if
you are saying the Flare interface is easier to use than
RoboHelp's. I'd really love it if there were a way you could
actually show me. (Well, I guess that's the Missourian coming out
in me. You know, the "Show Me" state?). Are you sure you didn't mix
up what you were trying to say regarding the interface? Personally,
both the interface as well as the WebHelp output look very
"developer like" to me. But I am all too aware that this is totally
subjective. If you have read the above, you know I totally agree
with you regarding cloak and dagger. As for substantiating claims
of a release, I'd say that first half of 07 is accurate. And I
think all of you that are waiting will be surprised.
For all that read what is beginning to look like a tome
even Blue Sky/eHelp did not want the feature set of
RoboHelp betas openly discussed. I've been through betas with this
product since 2000. It's always struck me as odd, but it was policy
so I accepted it and moved on.
For those of you who are devoted to othe HATs, I say shame on
the other HATs! I believe in advertising and all, but once it
became known that Adobe was reviving interest and development in
RoboHelp, I feel the others should have ceased advertising that
"Converting your former RoboHelp content is a single click away".
And most I've seen are still having a feeding frenzy with that.
They are trying to keep the FUD alive so folks will switch away.
(FUD=Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) Makes me think of all the
derogatory political ads I so hate to see when it's election time.
Cheers and happy Wednesday all! Rick