RoboHelp HTML v. Word

[Chuza-qWtfb1]

I have recently been tasked with building a "just in time" resource for a call center. I will need to develop three independent projects for the resource, two of which are for different platforms that we conduct business on and the third will be a general company guide/glossary. I want to merge the three projects so all 40 people that will use the resource have access to all three sets of information from one location.

I have a choice of RH HTML v9 and RH v 5.X to build the projects with. I am new to RH in general and don't really know which version would be best for this task. Any suggestions?

[RoboWizard]

Hi Chuck

Personally, I would use RoboHelp X5. It's newer and has a few more features that could prove useful to you.

Additionally, and keep in mind this is largely my personal choice, I avoid using Word at all costs. Sounds like you will be in the world of HTML. HTML is an afterthought with Word. I would use RoboHelp HTML. The interface is mostly "Word Like", but has been created to deal specifically with constructing HTML files.

Cheers... Rick

[Phil_Wells]

I've used both the Word and HTML environments in RoboHelp 5.0.2.

If you are a complete newcomer to RoboHelp it will probably be a bit easier to learn the basics in the RoboHelp for Word environment.

However (IMHO) RoboHelp for HTML gives better results once you've got the basics.

If you've not alreadty found them there are two very useful websides:

www.grainge.org - Peter Grainges website
www.robowizard.com - RoboWiz's site.

Lots of good info there.

[RoboWizard]

Hi Phil

Personally, I would respectfully disagree with that observation.

My viewpoint is that if you learn the Word way first, it becomes more difficult to transition to the HTML version. Whereas if you only learn the HTML version, the process is simpler. I speak from the view of one that came from the Word version. I began using RoboHelp back in 1992 and all that existed was the Word version. It took me a while to grow accustomed to using RoboHelp HTML.

Then again, maybe I'm just a slow learner.

Cheers all... Rick

[Phil_Wells]

'Course you can disagree, Rick. It's horses for courses I guess.

I was OK with Word, but had never used a Help Authoring tool before RoboHelp, so the Word environment got me started. (Having transitioned to HTML, I've no intention of going back).

The downside for me was/is that converting Word type help files over to HTML type help files is a pain in the proverbial.

I didn't have much trouble making the transition, but that's mainly because my HTML expertise is nil, so I can get by using the interfaces.

I rather wish there was a good book on RoboHelp about, because if you're on your own a lot of the learning process is trial and error (plenty of error in my case).

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Chuck and welcome to our community. As RH v 5.X is the later version of the two I'd plump for that one. Something I ought to point out though is that there was a patch build to this version (RH 5.0.2) that you can download from Adobe's site). I recommend you do this before doing anything.

[RoboColum_n_]

Oops! Sorry Rick. Looks like it's my turn to tread on your toes today

[Chuza-qWtfb1 · Accepted solution]

Thank you for the responses! In that the consensus leans toward starting with RH v 5 that is how I will start. Thanks again