Is RoboHelp 2015 compatible with RoboHelp 11?

[Guest]

Member  in our work group use RH 11.  If a new member order RH 15, can all members work on the same files?

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

Pretty much a one way street here. The moment anyone with a newer version touches a project, everyone else will need the same newer version to work on it.

Cheers... Rick

[DominoEmma]

Hi Captiv8r,  Is this the "official" Adobe response too or based on useage?  Just that we are about to upgrade to latest version of Technical Communication Suite as we had RH10 and our translation agency has RH11 - they were not compatible.  So I clearly don't want to then leapfrog them and end up in the same position. Really annoying.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Which latest TCS version? The one with RH2015 & FM2015 in it? If so, then yes, you would be in the same position – once the project is opened by RH2015, it upgrades it and you can’t open it again with a lower version.

[DominoEmma]

Hi Jeff, yes it is the one 2015.  So, sounds like this is going to be a real problem.  Thanks for the reply.  Maybe I can log this as a feature requirement as it is really limiting and would cause me to look elsewhere

for a software tool.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I think it’s always behaved that way – there’s never been any sort of Save As functionality in RH’s projects.

[rombanks]

Hello fellows,

I wonder if it's possible to "downgrade" the project to one of the previous RH versions using Extendscript. This is possible in FrameMaker, for example.

Kind regards,

Roman

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

It might be possible to accomplish it. You would need someone "extendscript savvy" like Willam van Weelden‌ to tell you how it may be done. Or he may even offer up a script you could purchase that would do exactly that! Check out his site at the link below.

Click here to visit Willam's site.

Cheers... Rick

[rombanks]

Hi Rick,

In general, I agree with you. In this specific case, though, I think Adobe should have provided a sample script showing how to do that.

Best regards,

Roman

[Captiv8r]

LOL, I'm sure Adobe would disagree. The fact they supply sample scripts is likely evidence that they aren't hiding you can script things. But how would they be able to conceive every permutation of what users would want? Besides, they are here to sell you RoboHelp. What financial incentive would entice them to supply a script that would downgrade a project?

Cheers... Rick

[rombanks]

For Framemaker, they have created sample scripts that are much more complex than the SaveAs operation. I can't say those scripts were working perfectly, but at least they showed the APIs required to get the ball rolling.

IMHO, Robohelp should be no different.

Best regards,

Roman

[DominoEmma]

Exactly, this seems to be purely a method for creating money rather than supporting users.  We work with external suppliers for translation and therefore have to pass files about.  This, in general is not a problem in FM - just using the save as function (as long a new features are not required specifically). However, the moment we get out pf synch with them with RH, we are stuffed unless one of us then buys another version.  Present example being we had RH10 as part of TCS4, but they have RH11 - so we update TCS, but that includes RH2015!

It is really putting me off RH.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

IMHO your translation company should maintain multiple versions of RH/FM for different clients. Just saying…

[DominoEmma]

I do agree and have discussed with them - I believe that they do.  But doesn't really solve the problem.

[Willam_van_Weelden]

You don't need ExtendScript to downgrade. You can do it manually, but there are a few unsupported options. See https://www.wvanweelden.eu/articles/downgrade-robohelp-project

[Peter Grainge]

Rh 2015 is logically Rh12. You might have a while to wait for Rh15.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

LOL – should we start calling it RH’15 ? ;>)