Wiki or Robohelp - What are the benefits of using a wiki vs publishing projects in robohelp?

[DXD_Princess]

What are the benefits of using a wiki vs publishing projects in robohelp? I currently use RH9/RH9 Server and  publish multiple SSL.  The company is looking to stop using Robohelp and replace our online help authoring tool  (RH) with a wiki. Are there any benefits of going to a wiki environment.  What RH features/functions that I have today will i not have by having IT import our robohelp files into a wiki?

I know that a wiki is not an authoring tool, but someone must think it is and we'll still have all the functionality of publishing multiple SSLs, reports, etc once in the wiki environment.  Any comments - is this the best route?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Short answer - it depends.

Wikis can be used as HATs, but that wasn't their primary purpose. What is the company hoping to achieve with the wiki vs RH? AFAIK, getting content out of RH and into a wiki will be painful - there's no import I've heard of.

[DXD_Princess]

Going to a wiki is a way for anyone to update the 'online help' without being restricted to purchasing RH licenses.  I also think they are making the assumption that I will be able to publish or allow different audiences to see all the generic topics plus be able to allow them to view their specific topics (like when I publish SSLs today in RH).  From what I can tell the only way to do something like that would be to setup up 'folders' containing the topics for each audience group which could be a maintenace nightmare possibly.

Going to a wiki could have it's benefits, but I think I will loose much of the features/funtions that I currently have with RH.

[DXD_Princess]

What do you mean when you say.....Wikis can be used as HATs, but that wasn't their primary purpose. What is the company hoping to achieve

[Willam_van_Weelden]

Hi,

There are many differences. The idea of a wiki is to allow anyone to view and/or edit the content. Depending on the wiki system, you can set access control for viewing and editing.

Wiki's typically have simple syntax (html in a wiki is a serious security risk), allow image embedding, links and attachments. You will need to learn the specific syntax (rather easy, but also very limited).

What will you lose? This depends on the features available in the wiki system as well as the available plugins. A few downsides:

- WYSIWYG editor limited, if at all.

- No snippets

- No variables

- Dropdowns (may be possible through plugins)

- Index

- Styling based on css classes (mostly supported through HTML which is a security concern)

- Only one version of your support system: multiple versions require multiple installations/configurations.

- No searching in attachments.

- No CBT (Though some wiki's allow comments in the wiki code)

- No Word/FrameMaker import.

- You have to create your own CSH calls.

On the upside:

- Most wiki systems are free, even for commercial use.

- The syntax is quite simple, allowing you to quickly write text.

- Wiki's typically offer good support for syntax highlighting.

- They are very easy to set up.

- Most wiki's have plugins to enable comments.

The greatest downside in my opinion is that you always have the latest version of all files. Whenever you update a page, everyone immediately has the latest version. And if you want to create help for a feature that isn't released yet, you will have to use access control to make sure not everyone sees the (unfinished) help for the unreleased feature. With RoboHelp you have a single source that creates a one way output.

We use both RoboHelp and wiki's: RoboHelp for customer help and wiki internally to share knowledge. And sharing knowledge is what wiki's are designed for.

Greet,

Willam

[DXD_Princess]

this is great information - thanks

Can you explain further these two items from your discussion:

• Only one version of your support system: multiple versions require multiple installations/configurations.
• You have to create your own CSH calls

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Willam means your developer has to build their own way of calling specific pages in a wiki - none of them bundle any CSH APIs as far as I know.

[Willam_van_Weelden]

Hi,

A wiki by default shows the latest version of individual pages. Most wiki's have a revision history, but there is no way (that I know of, but I'm not omniscient) to get a snapshot of the contents of the wiki of a specific version/date.

For example: Every release contains fixes, new features and even existing features that may have been substantially revised. The wiki will show the latest revision, that is, the latest version of the software. If you need to provide help for previous versions as well as the current version, you will have to provide different wiki's altogether. Meaning that you must make a copy of the database, host the wiki on the server, etc. With RoboHelp, you just leave the old output, amend the project and publish a new help to another directory. If you want to actively support different versions, you will probably also have different projects, but you can just create a copy of a project with the explorer. And using version control you can also get specific versions of your project for publishing.

RoboHelp has capabilities for having your developers call the help using map numbers or map id's. These functions are missing from the wiki. You will have to come up with your own way to call the wiki context sensitive.

Greet,

Willam

[prhmusic2]

I'll stay generic regarding my experience with using Confluence as a means to deliver end-user documentation.

We used snippets for paragraphs or sentences that we inserted as separate paragraphs, such as a standard warning. There's more to the story.

We inserted many drop-downs throughout our sites and didn't use any plugins. There's more to the story.

We didn't use labels nearly as much as we could have because the labels in Confluence display on the page at the bottom and if you had a lot of labels, it made the page look cluttered. There's more to the story.
Unlike Paul Harvey, who would give you the rest of the story, you'd have to ask me privately for me to divulge it.
Paul

Edited: I just discovered that the 461 page Confluence, Tech Comm, Chocolate Ebook is now available for free at XML Press​.

[DXD_Princess]

Also thank you William for your great feedback.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

When I say that wikis can be used as a HAT (help authoring tool), but that wasn't their primary purpose, I mean that wikis were designed for community sharing of content; HATs traditionally are one-way - the author writes and the audience receives; with a wiki, everybody can write & all receive. It's a different model.

Wikis like Confluence have done a lot to add HAT-like features to their structure. You can configure different spaces for version control and content access, but it's still not as easy as CBTs and SSLs in RH.

[DXD_Princess]

Thanks Jeff. You’ve provided me with very valuable information.