Adobe RoboHelp

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

RoboHelp is a Help authoring tool (HAT) created by the eHelp Corporation and now owned by Adobe Systems following the acquisition of Macromedia. The software is used by technical writers to create computer help files in various formats, including:

FlashHelp
Microsoft WinHelp
Microsoft Compressed HTML Help
Sun JavaHelp
WebHelp
Oracle Help for Java
XML
Microsoft Word

[edit] Speculation about RoboHelp's future

On 16 January 2007, notices were sent out announcing "RoboHelp 6". New features include command-line compilation, user-defined variables, build tag usage reports, conditional build tags, RoboSource Control 3, Microsoft Word import/export improvements, Adobe Acrobat Elements, and more. Articles at Adobe's Developer Center describe some of the new features.

Robohelp 6 is now released and Adobe Developers are now working on RoboHelp 7.

And Historical Information:

Following comments [1] by Joe Welinske, president of WritersUA, intense speculation among the help authoring community began regarding the status and future of RoboHelp. The aforementioned change of ownership lead to hearsay about the whereabouts of the RoboHelp developers and producers, and the development cycle and support status of RoboHelp X5. To date, RoboHelp X5 is still sold and supported through Adobe's Web site.

Speculation increased in March 2005 when several key members of RoboHelp's production team appeared at the WritersUA conference in Las Vegas, NV, now representing a new company named MadCap Software and touting a new XML-based authoring tool named Flare. Notably, Macromedia's RoboHelp display in the conference's Exhibition Hall was the only one that was unstaffed.

In March 2006, it was reported [2] that Adobe was planning to set up a new development team in India, and they were setting up meetings with interested parties to determine the future direction for the product.

At the April 2006 WritersUA conference, Adobe indicated that their developers are working on RoboHelp code[3].

At the DocTrain conference in Boston on October 3, 2006, Adobe announced that they were seeking beta testers for the new release of RoboHelp. According to their Adobe solutions for technical communications FAQ page [4], the update is expected to be released to the public during the first half of 2007.