This is the second of a series reviews that will cover what is contained in the Adobe Technical Communication Suite 2. Unlike the Adobe Creative Suite, the Technical Communications Suite is geared for technical communicators, help authors, instructional designers and training professionals. The suite contains five products; FrameMaker 9, RoboHelp 8, Captivate 4, Photoshop CS4 and Acrobat Pro Extended. The goal of this series it to define what each product does and provide information of what the new version brings to the table. Please note that some of these products have been reviewed in other suites and I have provided the links above.
First, let me provide an overview about the Technical Communication Suite 2 in general. This suite is meant to be an end-to-end solution for authoring, reviewing, managing, and publishing technical information and training content. Through the use of interactive 3D models, rich media, multilayered images, demonstrations, and embedded SWF movies, you can create and maintain technical documentation, user assistances programs, knowledge bases, simulations, software demonstrations, and much more.
What do you need to run Adobe RoboHelp 8?
• 1.0GHz or faster processor.
• Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 (Service Pack 3 recommended) or Windows Vista® with Service Pack 1 (certified for 32-bit editions).
• 512MB of RAM (1GB recommended).
• 1.2GB of available hard-disk space.
• DVD-ROM drive.
• 1,024x768 screen resolution
Adobe RoboHelp 8 is a help authoring tool that was originally developed by eHelp Corporation in 1991 and was acquired by Macromedia in October of 2003. It was then acquired by Adobe Corporation in December, 2005. When RoboHelp 7 was released in October, 2007 it was a major upgrade for the product and included as part of the Technical Communications Suite.
Adobe RoboHelp 8 is an integral part of the Technical Communications Suite. The three core areas of use for RoboHelp is for online help for applications; used for both desktop and web based applications. Free standing knowledge bases - this being useful for policies and procedures, user manuals, call center, and help desk support. Finally it also works in concert with Adobe Captivate to create eLearning systems.
With RoboHelp you can create content from existing projects or import content from HTML, XML, Adobe PDF, FrameMaker or Microsoft Word documents. RoboHelp splits properly tagged information into help topics and keeps existing tables of contents, indexes, and glossaries. It has wizards and topic templates to help you build help systems more quickly. It has single sourcing output so that you can author once and publish to different formats. It even has the ability to let you collaborate with other contributors.
Article comments
1 - Second Chance Checking
Now that I read the requirements reiterated from your article, does having only 512 mb of ram really make a big difference? My computer has 512MB and it runs quite slow with TCS running.