RoboHelp 7 Help Desperately Needs Help

[jj_sailing]

I can't believe how drastically Adobe has RUINED RoboHelp's help system. I'm new to version 7 and have permanently lost view of my Table of Contents. It's not on the View menu. It's not on the Pod menu. It's not on a right-click menu, it's no where to be found. So I hit F1, hoping to connect to a searchable, indexed help. What do I get? A page with 0 information and 0 links.

Adobe's lack of respect for technical writers is deep and profound if they do not even understand the basics of user assistance enough to maintain a good system in a user assistance development product. We've seen how they behave at tech writer conferences and how well they listen to feedback. Shame on you, Adobe. You care not for the end user! You have eyes but do not see, and ears but do not hear!

By the way, I'm extremely experienced, fast, and would be willing to create an interactive searchable help system for Adobe, if they were to pay me. They wouldn't regret it.

[Captiv8r]

Hi there real tech writer and welcome to our community

Within RoboHelp, click Tools > Options... > General tab and enable the offline help. See if you like it better.

Sincerely... Rick

[jj_sailing]

oh gee, that's intuitive. Funny how they couldn't think to mention that in the Quick Start or Readme. They also fail to instruct me whether or not to UNINSTALL version 6 before installing version 7. It just took me a day and a half to upgrade my previous help system, so I'm on the verge of sending the product back. It seems the smart user disables all source control before making this attempt. Again a good subject for the readme or getting started.

I better see some good results for single-sourcing attempts or I'm outta here.

[jj_sailing]

oh gee, that's intuitive. Funny how they couldn't think to mention that in the Quick Start or Readme. They also fail to instruct me whether or not to UNINSTALL version 6 before installing version 7. It just took me a day and a half to upgrade my previous help system, so I'm on the verge of sending the product back. It seems the smart user disables all source control before making this attempt. Again a good subject for the readme or getting started.

I better see some good results for single-sourcing attempts or I'm outta here.

[CraigCC]

Hey Real Tech Writer,

surprised we have not seen you before if you are upgrading from Robobelp Version 6, just goes to show how intuitive robohelp can be

Seriously, if you need any help please let us know.

Kind Regards
Craig

[Peter Grainge]

- "have permanently lost view of my Table of Contents"

How so? It's permanently in the layout I have set up when I want the TOC. It's not in the layouts I have for other tasks. The point is the layout is now what I want which will not be the same as you. We can both have what we want and we can have different layouts for different tasks.

- The online help.

That is the Adobe standard so the RoboHelp team probably have no say in it. They do know our opinion of it and I believe they will make that known. The offline help is better but not beyond reproach. That too will be addressed.

- Lack of respect. How they behave.

I have encountered nothing but respect but then again I deal with them in a constructive way rather than going in guns blazing. What do you mean by how they behave?

- Feedback

Just because every bit of feedback does not get acted on immediately, does not mean you are not being listened to. Sometimes it's priorities, sometimes the views of others will conflict with yours. I do know though from speaking regularly to the RoboHelp team that they are working crazy hours to improve RH in line with the feedback they get.

It may not yet be perfect but it's a big step forward and there's lots more to come.