Office 2007: Impact on RoboHelp?

[alden4]

My company is reviewing the impact of implementing Office 2007 and someone asked me if there would be any considerations for RoboHelp. I am currently using RoboHelp HTML in RoboHelp Office, Version 5. All I have thought of so far are that importing to & exporting from Word will probably be impossible if we go to Office 2007. Can anyone think of anything else that I might mention? Is RoboHelp tied to Word in other ways, so that it won't work if we load Office 2007?

Also, does anyone know if RoboHelp HTML 6 works well with Office 2007?

Thanks! Alden

[Peter Grainge]

Neither X5 nor RH6 are Office 2007 compatible.

You can use RH HTML without Word but obviously you cannot import a Word document or create printed documentation. Also RH for Word will not work at all.

[Bobby_Walker]

Hello alden,

Peter is correct here. If you are looking for a support matrix, please look here:

http://www.adobe.com/go/rb_21285


Thank you,

Bobby Walker
Adobe Technical Support

[alden4]

Thanks much to both of you.

[Bobby_Walker]

Odd, I am not seeing the same results as you on that table, but I did notice some typo's. I will have the editors fix it. =)

It should read that both RH X5 and 6 are not yet compatible with Microsoft Word 2007, but both do support Word 2003.

[alden4]

Bobby, I do apologize, I was looking at the matrix in a dyslexic fashion & just realized that as I posted my response ... unfortunately you got there before I was able to edit my post! Thanks again to Peter & everyone else who has contributed to this discussion.

Shane, thanks for your comments on Adobe's plans for RoboHelp. Hey, are you the same Shane who used to support RoboHelp way back through the eHelp days? I hope so!

[Peter Grainge]

Bobby

I am guessing you read the email rather than the post which was amended later.

A very useful table to know about. Any more little gems like that?

[donalmc]

Alden,

It is worth bearing in mind that Office allows side by side installs of Office 2003 and Office 2007. I've been using Office 2007 for a while now and it is the first great leap forward I have seen with Office - I would hate to have to go back.

Thanks,
Donal

[DoceNNt]

I have a question to Adobe experts. Since neither version of RoboHelp supports Office 2007 so far, do RH developers plan to release a patch that will pemit us to use Robo Help with Word 2007? Like it was with RH X5.0.1. and Word 2003 (initially Office 2003 was not supported by RH 5)...

[Peter Grainge]

I'm seeking clarification on that one. I'll post back as soon as I hear something.

[Peter Grainge]

I have had a response from Adobe and they advise "Adobe is committed to providing support for Word 2007 and Vista in 2007."

As a new member to the forums, you may not be aware that it is a very firm policy of Adobe's that they do not reveal dates in advance, even if the release is due tomorrow! (Don't interpret that as meaning a patch will be released tomorrow!)

[Shane_T_-_Adobe_TS]

Hi everyone,

We are working towards providing our customers with a release of RoboHelp that supports latest operating systems and software solutions, including Office 2007 and Microsoft Vista in the current year (2007). Adobe is committed to providing users with a quality user experience therefore in the short term Adobe has decided to forgo the standard 18-24 month release cycle and put RH on an accelerated development path to meet the needs of our customers.

Thanks!

Shane
Adobe Technical Support

[unknown camera guy]

I just wonder why there was no thought @ Adobe as to making Robohelp compatible with VIsta & office 2007 in the first place. Micro$oft has been talking about both upgrades for a few years and I know that they have had beta available for over a year. I've always been told that one of the reasons that Micro$oft announces their products long before they are available is so developer's will be ableto make their products compatible with them.

Now does anybody remember where I put my copy of Office 2003?

[RoboWizard]

Hi there

One needs to understand that RoboHelp hasn't always been an Adobe product. Adobe acquired it when they acquired macromedia. Macromedia acquired it when they acquired eHelp. macromedia then promptly laid off all the RoboHelp development staff and let the product stagnate. So while Microsoft may have had a beta available for some time, it would have taken quite a crystal ball in order to predict changes that needed to be made with a product you didn't even own.

RoboHelp 6 was released in January. While it wasn't earth shattering, it demonstrated that Adobe listened to customer comments. They heard loud and clear that customers wanted to see a new release to demonstrate their committment to the product. You have to also understand that they were struggling to come to terms with code they had never seen.

Personally, I'm willing to bet they will quite handily step up to the plate and provide a good and stable version that both runs on Vista and is Office 2007 compatible.

Sincerely... Rick

[CRO1]

Similar to alden4 we are looking to upgrade to Word 2007 and for the time being use RoboHelp 5. Although Shane indicated that Adobe is working toward supporting Office 2007, does this mean RoboHelp 5 is going to support Word 2007, or only RoboHelp 6?

Thanks,
CRO

[Peter Grainge]

We simply don't know at the moment. My guess would be that with the next version of RoboHelp being worked on, it is unlikely that Word 2007 compatibility would extend back beyond RoboHelp 6.

[DocSteiner]

So, what exactly will no longer function if I am using RH X5 and my company upgrades to Office 2007? We don't often import from or export to Word. I'm trying to advise the staff how fast we have to make a move....

Melissa

[alden4]

Hi Melissa,

We tested RHX5 with Office 97 at my company recently, and the only problems we found were the importing/exporting issues, which we knew wouldn't work anyway. We don't use RoboHelp for Word at all so that's not a problem for us. We are planning to start using RHX5 as soon as Office 97 rolls out in the next month or so.

[Peter Grainge]

If you upgrade to Word 2007 you will not be able to create printed documentation at all. I don't have a machine with just X5 and Word 2007 to test the import. It might work but don't rely on it.

[Peter Grainge]

Aiden

I think you mean Office 2007 or are you really still using Word 6? 🙂

[alden4]

Well, I actually did mean to say Office 2007, but I am using Word 2003 - is that Word 6?

Peter, when you say you can't print doc, you mean Word doc, correct? I guess that's what I meant by exporting to Word. We did try importing also when we tested RHX5 on Office 2007 and it didn't work at all, as you suspected. Importing & exporting are both things I do for my customers sometimes but we just won't be able to offer those capabilities until my company allows us to upgrade RH (someday ... one can only hope).

[Peter Grainge]

I was teasing that you were upgrading from Word 6 to Word 97. When some refers to exporting to Word I take it they mean generating a printed document..

Incompatibility with the company's choice of Office version sounds like a good case for upgrading RH.