RoboHelp was one of the first HATs (help authoring tools) and has long had a big part in molding today’s online help and content world. Adobe acquired RoboHelp in 2005 as part of its purchase of Macromedia and has been extending it since then, starting with v. 6 in 2007 and continuing through v. 11, released on January 14, 2014.
In this review, I’ll focus on what I consider to be the most
significant features of RoboHelp 11 and what they say about trends in tech
comm. There are two, enhanced support for responsive design as part of HTML5
publishing, and the cloud-based collaboration added to the Resource Manager.
HTML5 Publishing and Responsive Design
I’ll start with a quick overview of HTML5 and responsive
design if you’re not familiar with the terms.
HTML5 Concepts
HTML5 is the successor to XML and earlier versions of HTML. It’s
both a coding language and an output format. RoboHelp 11 still uses XHTML,
introduced in v. 8, as the native coding environment, but added HTML5 as a browser-based
output format in v. 10 and extended it in v. 11. You can still use WebHelp for browser-based outputs, but HTML5 has
several benefits that make it worth looking at as a replacement for WebHelp,
including:
· Searchability by web crawlers. The WebHelp
output format has met our needs for years but has a problem that didn’t
manifest itself until web search crawlers came into use. WebHelp uses “framesets”
to controls layout, but framesets block web crawlers from going beyond the home
page in browser-based help. The result is that the online help that you write
and distribute as WebHelp won’t be found by a crawler and won’t appear in the
list of hits from a Google search. In other words, users can’t find your content through Google. This may
not matter if the content is behind a firewall or login and only available to
customers. But if your company is adopting a more public-facing strategy, this
can be a strategic limitation. HTML5 fixes that limitation.
· Support for CSS3. This extension of the CSS
(Cascading Style Sheet) 2 standard gives more power and flexibility for
formatting under modern browsers.
· Support for a new type of mobile apps called
“hybrid apps” that are based, in part, on HTML5. RoboHelp doesn’t output hybrid
apps, but the HTML5 code that it does
output forms part of the foundation for those apps. In other words, HTML5
output is a step toward hybrid apps.
Responsive Design Concepts
The idea for responsive design arose as more and more
devices with different screen sizes, resolutions, and other properties appeared
on the market. We can optimize our
outputs for one or two devices, but it quickly becomes technically difficult
and cost-prohibitive to optimize our outputs for every device on which they might
appear. The emerging answer is “responsive design”.
Responsive design says that content can automatically change
its design based on the properties of the device on which it’s displayed – e.g.
it’s device-agnostic. For example, HTML5 output from a project can change its
design depending on whether it’s displayed on a PC, tablet, or smartphone. (The
image below shows how content might reformat itself based on the device. The
three images look the same at first glance, but note how the Greek temple, the Adobe
icon, and the controls move or disappear depending on the output.
Automatically…)
RoboHelp’s Support for HTML5 Output and Responsive Design
RoboHelp 10 supported what Adobe called “Multiscreen HTML5”
– basically responsive design. It used “screen profiles” (to specify different
screen resolutions that controlled the redesign), “screen layouts” (to design
the page types and customize them for the different resolutions, and CSS “media
queries” (to define the specifics of the page format for each resolution set
through the screen profiles). This mix of features let you automatically change
the design of the output and, by using conditional build tags, change the
content itself depending on the device. It was a good start, but there were two
issues.
· Some of the concepts, particularly CSS media
queries, were new to many users.
·
Some of the work, especially screen layout
design, was complex and could be time-consuming.
RoboHelp 11 goes a long way toward addressing both issues by
adding a new output type, Responsive HTML5. Responsive HTML5 is a streamlined
version of Multiscreen HTML5 that uses predefined layouts for different screen
sizes and properties. In other words, much of the setup work has been done for
you. If you do want to customize a
layout, the process is semi-wizard-driven. To contrast the two approaches, the image
below shows the layout editor for the Topic page type in Multiscreen HTML5.
There’s a lot of power available in the toolbar but you have
to know what you’re doing. In contrast, the image below shows the layout
customization editor for a layout, in this case the Theme2_Government layout,
for the Responsive HTML5.
The many screens prompts make it easy to see what screen object
you’re changing and the options are clearly labeled in the Properties pane. So
customization will be fairly straightforward, hopefully tasteful as well. And
Adobe has a link to a layout gallery which currently lists two predefined
themes, with more sure to come, so you won’t have to start creating yours from
scratch.
So Responsive HTML5 is easier than Multiscreen HTML5 but
less customizable. The main difference is that Multiscreen HTML5 lets you use conditional
build tags to vary the content for individual devices while Responsive HTML5 lets
you use conditional build tags but applies the same build tagged content for
all devices. This should be a minor point if you want to output the same
content to all devices, but may affect your planning if you literally want
different content output to a tablet versus a smartphone.
If all this sounds confusing, here’s a simple summary. If
you want to output a project using responsive design, open the project in
RoboHelp 11, select Responsive HTML5 output in the Single Source Layouts pod,
select the desired layout on the General tab, and generate. When RoboHelp
finishes generating, click the View Result button (and allow blocked content if
you use IE). The output displays in a browser window. Now grab a corner of the
browser window and start reducing its size. Once you get to certain sizes – think
tablet and smartphone – you’ll see the format change automatically. You’ll have
to think about the actual design but the sheer mechanics are impressively
simple. And it’s just neat to watch.
Cloud-Based Collaboration via Resource Manager
I’ll start off with a quick overview of the Resource Manager
if you’re not familiar with this feature.
Adobe added the Resource Manager several versions ago as a
way to share files between projects. For example, let’s say you want to use the
same CSS in two projects. The old approach was to find the desired file in the
“master” project’s folder in Windows Explorer and copy it to the other project.
This worked, but you were doing the file “sharing” manually, outside RoboHelp,
so it was easy to paste the copy of the file-to-be-shared in the wrong folder.
The Resource Manager eliminates this problem. You’re sharing
the files in RoboHelp under RoboHelp’s control, so they’ll automatically be put
in the correct folder.
The one thing missing in this scenario was file sharing via the
cloud. RoboHelp 11 fixes this by letting you set up a shared location using
various popular cloud-based services rather than a network drive. You’ll see
this option in the Location Type field on the Add Shared Location dialog box
that displays when you click on the Add Shared Location icon on the Resource
Manager pane, shown in the image below.
You can select from Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, or
others that you might use. When you select one, RoboHelp will find its folder on
your PC and fill in the Path field for you. You can also set up subfolders
within a service and select just that subfolder. Once set up, you can share
topics (new in v. 11 – previous versions didn’t let you share topics) and
various control files. If a topic contains embedded elements such as images,
RoboHelp will detect their use and carry them over with the topic. (You will
have to pull in any snippets separately, but RoboHelp will add them to the
topic once you do.) There are also various ways to synchronize changed files.
Overall, the cloud-based collaboration feature is a useful
extension of the file sharing concept behind the Resource Manager and a
reflection of changes in tech comm.
Other Changes
In addition to the two main features defined above, several
others correct problems or omissions. These include:
·
Importing headers and footers when importing a
Word document.
·
Defining different headers and footers in
different master pages and applying them to different page types in print
output.
·
A new color scheme for the interface for greater
contrast and readability.
·
SWFs now display and play when included in Word
output.
Summary
RoboHelp 11 will be largely familiar and easy to learn for any
user of an older version. The biggest new convenience is the addition of
cloud-based collaboration, but even that fits into Resource Manager.
The most important new feature, in my opinion, is the
addition of the Responsive HTML5 output. Few of my RoboHelp clients need mobile
or display-agnosticism yet but every one I’ve spoken with sees it as on the
horizon. Responsive HTML5 makes it easy for them to get their feet wet in
mobile and should help them ease into the full power of the Multiscreen HTML5
output.
Do you need to upgrade to v. 11? If you don’t need
responsive design, cloud-based collaboration, or multiple headers and footers
in your print output, probably not. But if mobile or display-agnosticism is on
your horizon, RoboHelp 11 is a worthwhile upgrade and a job well-done by Adobe.
