Originally posted 6 July 2006, see below for 10 July update

Ever since I posted the article on the new toys from MadCap (and it was linked from MadCap’s press center - thanks, guys, I was honored) - I’ve been getting lots of “what about Adobe and RoboHelp?” feedback. If you haven’t heard, Adobe has entered damage control mode over the RoboHelp (RH) fiasco.

At the WinWriters UA conference a couple of months ago, Adobe tried mending some fences by promising renewed dedication to RH. Joe Welinske has written a very comprehensive article that summarizes Adobe’s commitment to RH development via an interview with Adobe’s Michael Hu.

I urge you to read that article, and then read this rebuttal, written by Mike Hamilton of MadCap.

As Hamilton points out, parts of the interview with Hu are puzzling. For instance, he is quoted as saying:

Hu: Now we are reallocating resources to products like FrameMaker that have been under resourced. Also, the support for XML is a big feature of FrameMaker that was a bit ahead of its time. We waited for the XML market to mature and become popular. Technical publications is where the promise of XML will be greatly realized. We’ve increased resources on FrameMaker significantly.

…which is great news (even if it’s a complete contradiction of everything leaked from Adobe for the past five years). However, later in the interview, Hu is asked about Frame’s role in RH:

JW: Macromedia shelved the RoboHelp for FrameMaker product in 2004. Since you own FrameMaker it would seem to be a natural candidate to be revived.

Hu: We continue to endorse the products from Quadralay as the best solution for FrameMaker users. Quadralay also has excellent consulting support and training. That being said, Adobe will respond to customer needs and will evaluate the opportunity for RoboHelp for FrameMaker.

So… it seems to me that Adobe has promised to continue development of RH, while still really recommending the FrameMaker/Quadralay route to online documentation. It’s puzzling. I also wonder what Quadralay thinks about Adobe’s RH plans.

Another interesting part of the interview:

Hu: We have a company-wide pool of knowledge for browser support at Adobe. It is something we deal with all the time and in a timely fashion. The development team is aware of IE 7 issues. There is definitely a learning curve, but we have had a team involved with RoboHelp since acquisition. We are confident we can deliver a new release by applying a lot of resources to it.

Does it seem odd to hear that Adobe is “applying a lot of resources” to IE7, when RH is currently breaking left and right in IE6, and spotty in Firefox, Safari, and Opera?

Finally, Hu takes a swipe at the folks over at MadCap:

Hu: We have a wealth of knowledge about RoboHelp. We aren’t starting from scratch and trying to figure out what to build first. Looking at Flare, you need to know what you are investing in. Adobe is a brand users know they can trust. Migrating to another tool also affects productivity and requires a lot of new training.

…to which Mike Hamilton responds (edits and emphasis mine):

Adobe seems to be trying to push the idea that MadCap can’t be trusted since we are “new guys” without a track record… the way that I see it they are the new guys… It was the old RoboHelp team that were the innovators in this industry. It was the RoboHelp team that introduced the technologies and concepts [in the tools]… Now the core of that very team that provided all of that innovation is now at MadCap Software. No, it is the Adobe folks that need to prove something here… It is a bit like a wealthy aristocrat buying Rembrandt’s paint pots at an auction and then claiming that because he has Rembrandt’s paint pots he will be able to now create new Rembrandt masterpieces. It is not the paints that are important, it is the artist that matters, and in this case the artists are here at MadCap Software. Adobe has simply purchased the old RoboHelp paint pots.

As a long-time loyal RH user, and one who has converted to Flare, I look forward to seeing how this will all play out. It will be interesting to see what Adobe can bring to the table, with it’s near-bottomless resources. If nothing else, a little healthy competition could only benefit users.

Credit & copyright of quoted content: Joe Welinske, WritersUA, and Mike Hamilton, MadCap

UPDATE:

10 July 2006
Do actions speak louder than words?
Reports are starting to surface that RH’s activation servers are down, and Adobe/Macromedia tech support is not able to provide any help. One user complained:

In fact, I just installed RoboHelp after reformatting my hard drive and cannot activate RoboHelp because their activation server is down. When I called them to ask how long it would be down, they told me they could give me no answer. I tried asking for a time frame: a few hours, a few days, a few weeks, a few months? Neither of the tech reps I talked to would give me any time frame…

…the people I talked to seemed to know nothing about RoboHelp other than its title and the fact that they didn’t know when the activation server would be up again. Honestly, I don’t know how much they knew about RoboHelp, but the impression they gave me was one of complete incompetence, and I couldn’t get them to transfer me to someone more knowledgeable.

It should be noted that former RH developers, now at MadCap, predicted last year that this very issue would occur. That prediction was included in part one of my UX&A presentation series (Note the last bullet):

Click to embiggenate

Time will tell how serious Adobe is about RH.

UPDATE
11 July 2006

Jason Eberwein of Adobe has reported that Adobe has fixed the RH activation server issues. Good news, and fast work, too!

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