Problem
My department uses FrameMaker 11, unstructured, and RoboHelp 10.
We do user’s manuals in FrameMaker (one version for the US and one version for the UK) as separate books; minimal use of variables and/or conditional text. These docs are made available to customers as PDFs. I’ve used FM for 15+ years and consider myself an average FM user, not a power user. I used to use variables at a previous job, but my current job/co-workers don’t use variables/conditional text.
We do help files in RoboHelp, one help project for the US and one help project for the UK.
The powers-that-be don’t see that the *information *is the same (or mostly the same) between the help and the docs (I am trying to convince them that this is the way it is). One issue that is *always* raised is that the docs have pictures/screenshots/images and the help doesn’t. There are also discussions about using MindTouch to deliver information to customers; I don’t know if that means that we would stop using FM and RH.
Questions:
- I know that we could (possibly) have one set of FM files that could be used to provide a US document and a UK document. I don’t know *where* to start to make this happen. I don’t have any authority to spend money and there is no budget to pay for consulting. I am looking for free advice/suggestions where to find out *how *to do this.
- I believe we could either use our FM files to create help, or use our help files to create docs. As with #1, I want to know where to learn *how*to do this.
I’m not looking for theory/big picture ideas. I need some nuts-and-bolts, how-to advice. At the very least, I want to show that we could gain some efficiency if we stop maintaining one set of FM source files for the US and another set for the UK.
I hope this makes sense.
Solution
Here is an idea/steps how you can achieve this.
Firstly, if there is a scope for content within Framemaker to be updated at various stages, go for Link option for bringing in book/documents from Framemaker (for Both UK & US English) to RoboHelp. *(File– Link–Framemaker documents)*
*1#* One way is after linking your documents and converting all your FrameMaker documents into topics within Robohelp. Create 2 Conditional Built tag an apply them on US and UK English separately from Project manager and while generating your output, Select the CBT for which you want to generate the help.
Alternately, you can apply Conditional Text to your English US/UK Content
within Framemaker and directly publish it from there (File — Publish). You might require to create two different TOC for English US/UK content
*2# *Yes, you can create Help using FM Files, that is a standard workflow.
But the opposite is not a feasible solution.
As you have been working on FM for quite some time, I’ll share some steps to implement this from Rh End:
- Create (or Open Existing) Robohelp project
- Go to File– Link–FrameMaker document and browse- your FM (US) Book and select open. (Repeat the same for English UK book)
- This would Link your Book under Project Manager
- Make a right click to Book and Select Generate (You should repeat this step whenever there is any modification at Framemaker’s end
- Now create and apply the CBT (UK and US) to your Topics within Project Manager (Drag and Drop them over any topic to apply it)
- Generate your Help, say Webhelp, under Webhelp properties, Exclude the UK CBT from output.
I hope I have not confused you further. 🙂
Note: Linking only works if you’ve got the Technical Communications Suite (TCS); otherwise Importing is your only option of getting FM content into RH.
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