Just a question: Best tool on the market?

Just a question: Best tool on the market?

What do you guys think is the best tool on the market for help authoring?

Issue is that we run into tremendous problems. We use Innovasys and the 
experience is "mixed". From slow (takes easily 10 times as long as ndoc) to 
limited integration (source control, for example) we are not satisfied. We 
looked at a lot of other tools, but it seems to be the best for us (pure 
..NET documentation, plus manual).

Now a customer of ours, for which we develop a CMS, is starting looking at a 
ppossibility tobranch off a documentation management program off the CMS - 
simply because we need features that are missing. I still ytr to find 
something to buy, so here I come and ask :-)

-- 
Regards

Thomas Tomiczek
THONA Software & Consulting Ltd.
(Microsoft MVP C#/.NET)
(CTO PowerNodes Ltd.)
---

Still waiting for ObjectSpaces? Try the EntityBroker today - more versatile, 
more powerfull.
And something in use NOW. for the projects you have to deliver - NOW.

date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 08:35:42 +0200 author: Thomas Tomiczek [MVP]

Re: Just a question: Best tool on the market?

Take a look at MVP Char James-Tanny's web site www.helpstuff.com - she has
reviews of various tools. Sadly, the tool market is getting smaller...the
"industry standard" RoboHelp was purchased by Macromedia, who then laid off
all the developers and was in turn purchased by Adobe. ComponentOne just
released a new version of DocToHelp, and there's still a few other tools
left but pickings are getting a little slim.

Dana Cline - MVP

"Thomas Tomiczek [MVP]"  wrote in message
news:eIhI5r#bFHA.1504@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> What do you guys think is the best tool on the market for help authoring?
>
> Issue is that we run into tremendous problems. We use Innovasys and the
> experience is "mixed". From slow (takes easily 10 times as long as ndoc)
to
> limited integration (source control, for example) we are not satisfied. We
> looked at a lot of other tools, but it seems to be the best for us (pure
> .NET documentation, plus manual).
>
> Now a customer of ours, for which we develop a CMS, is starting looking at
a
> ppossibility tobranch off a documentation management program off the CMS -
> simply because we need features that are missing. I still ytr to find
> something to buy, so here I come and ask :-)
>
> --
> Regards
>
> Thomas Tomiczek
> THONA Software & Consulting Ltd.
> (Microsoft MVP C#/.NET)
> (CTO PowerNodes Ltd.)
> ---
>
> Still waiting for ObjectSpaces? Try the EntityBroker today - more
versatile,
> more powerfull.
> And something in use NOW. for the projects you have to deliver - NOW.
>
>
>

date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 12:51:18 -0500 author: Dana Cline - MVP

Re: Just a question: Best tool on the market?

Too bad - the list had nothing new for me.

I agree with you regarding the market getting smaller. Plus, imho, none of 
the tools are really usable. We use innovasys at the moment, and their 
source control integration does not really help us, they are html based and 
and and....

It looks like if someone steps up and makes a good and usable tool, he could 
grab some market share.

-- 
Regards

Thomas Tomiczek
THONA Software & Consulting Ltd.
(Microsoft MVP C#/.NET)
(CTO PowerNodes Ltd.)
---

Still waiting for ObjectSpaces? Try the EntityBroker today - more versatile, 
more powerfull.
And something in use NOW. for the projects you have to deliver - NOW.


"Dana Cline - MVP"  wrote in message 
news:O17S2z5kFHA.2444@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Take a look at MVP Char James-Tanny's web site www.helpstuff.com - she has
> reviews of various tools. Sadly, the tool market is getting smaller...the
> "industry standard" RoboHelp was purchased by Macromedia, who then laid 
> off
> all the developers and was in turn purchased by Adobe. ComponentOne just
> released a new version of DocToHelp, and there's still a few other tools
> left but pickings are getting a little slim.
>
> Dana Cline - MVP
>
> "Thomas Tomiczek [MVP]"  wrote in message
> news:eIhI5r#bFHA.1504@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>> What do you guys think is the best tool on the market for help authoring?
>>
>> Issue is that we run into tremendous problems. We use Innovasys and the
>> experience is "mixed". From slow (takes easily 10 times as long as ndoc)
> to
>> limited integration (source control, for example) we are not satisfied. 
>> We
>> looked at a lot of other tools, but it seems to be the best for us (pure
>> .NET documentation, plus manual).
>>
>> Now a customer of ours, for which we develop a CMS, is starting looking 
>> at
> a
>> ppossibility tobranch off a documentation management program off the 
>> CMS -
>> simply because we need features that are missing. I still ytr to find
>> something to buy, so here I come and ask :-)
>>
>> --
>> Regards
>>
>> Thomas Tomiczek
>> THONA Software & Consulting Ltd.
>> (Microsoft MVP C#/.NET)
>> (CTO PowerNodes Ltd.)
>> ---
>>
>> Still waiting for ObjectSpaces? Try the EntityBroker today - more
> versatile,
>> more powerfull.
>> And something in use NOW. for the projects you have to deliver - NOW.
>>
>>
>>
>
>

date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 11:36:40 +0200 author: Thomas Tomiczek [MVP]

Re: Just a question: Best tool on the market?

Well, the laid-off RoboHelp developers have gotten together and are working
on a new tool written from scratch, and I've signed up to be a beta tester
but no word yet on when it will be out. You might want to join the Yahoo
HATT group and ask there, as it's the largest collection of help authors in
the world and they keep on top of stuff like tools...

Dana Cline

"Thomas Tomiczek [MVP]"  wrote in message
news:uWjqNd#lFHA.2920@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> Too bad - the list had nothing new for me.
>
> I agree with you regarding the market getting smaller. Plus, imho, none of
> the tools are really usable. We use innovasys at the moment, and their
> source control integration does not really help us, they are html based
and
> and and....
>
> It looks like if someone steps up and makes a good and usable tool, he
could
> grab some market share.
>
> --
> Regards
>
> Thomas Tomiczek
> THONA Software & Consulting Ltd.
> (Microsoft MVP C#/.NET)
> (CTO PowerNodes Ltd.)
> ---
>
> Still waiting for ObjectSpaces? Try the EntityBroker today - more
versatile,
> more powerfull.
> And something in use NOW. for the projects you have to deliver - NOW.
>
>
> "Dana Cline - MVP"  wrote in message
> news:O17S2z5kFHA.2444@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> > Take a look at MVP Char James-Tanny's web site www.helpstuff.com - she
has
> > reviews of various tools. Sadly, the tool market is getting
smaller...the
> > "industry standard" RoboHelp was purchased by Macromedia, who then laid
> > off
> > all the developers and was in turn purchased by Adobe. ComponentOne just
> > released a new version of DocToHelp, and there's still a few other tools
> > left but pickings are getting a little slim.
> >
> > Dana Cline - MVP
> >
> > "Thomas Tomiczek [MVP]"  wrote in
message
> > news:eIhI5r#bFHA.1504@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> >> What do you guys think is the best tool on the market for help
authoring?
> >>
> >> Issue is that we run into tremendous problems. We use Innovasys and the
> >> experience is "mixed". From slow (takes easily 10 times as long as
ndoc)
> > to
> >> limited integration (source control, for example) we are not satisfied.
> >> We
> >> looked at a lot of other tools, but it seems to be the best for us
(pure
> >> .NET documentation, plus manual).
> >>
> >> Now a customer of ours, for which we develop a CMS, is starting looking
> >> at
> > a
> >> ppossibility tobranch off a documentation management program off the
> >> CMS -
> >> simply because we need features that are missing. I still ytr to find
> >> something to buy, so here I come and ask :-)
> >>
> >> --
> >> Regards
> >>
> >> Thomas Tomiczek
> >> THONA Software & Consulting Ltd.
> >> (Microsoft MVP C#/.NET)
> >> (CTO PowerNodes Ltd.)
> >> ---
> >>
> >> Still waiting for ObjectSpaces? Try the EntityBroker today - more
> > versatile,
> >> more powerfull.
> >> And something in use NOW. for the projects you have to deliver - NOW.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
>

date: Wed, 3 Aug 2005 12:13:34 -0500 author: Dana Cline - MVP

RE: Just a question: Best tool on the market?

Check out Flare by http://www.madcapsoftware.com/ 

When I checked out all of the documentation tools that had booths at PDC 
this was the only tool that stood out from the Pack. (Although Doc-to-help 
did look good for projects with less than 600 help topics) Flare looks to be 
an easy to use, highly extendable help system. It's entirely XML based, with 
a WYSIWYG editor, allowing low-tech users to work with the software easily, 
and power users to write scripts to affect the XML directly. 

Because it uses a simple XML based file format, it looks as though it will 
be easy to deal with for translation. 

I would definitely check this out as a possible help tool.

      - Dave

date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 16:19:03 -0700 author: Dave