HATs Today and Tomorrow
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HATs Today and Tomorrow
Who Am I?
� Neil Perlin - Hyper/Word Services.– Internationally recognized content consultant.– Help clients create effective, efficient, flexible
content in anything from hard-copy to mobile.– STC’s lead W3C rep – ’02 – ‘05.– Certified – RoboHelp, Flare, Mimic, ForeHelp (once
upon a time), ViziApps.
� Evolution of HATs (in 2 slides…)� HATs today� HATs tomorrow� The HAT space� Flare and RoboHelp� Time for questions…
Evolution of HATs
Evolution of HATs
� From this…
� To this…
Evolution of HATs
� HATs were very esoteric in ‘91…– Doctor Help…
– RoboCop…
� HATs were thought to be dead when help changed from RTF to HTML in 1997.– Yet the HATs adapted, and merged silos.
– Or disappeared – from 30+ HATs to today’s few powerhouses.
HATs Today
HATs Today
� A few major players, in rough market share order:– RoboHelp
– Flare
– Doc-To-Help
– Help and Manual
– AuthorIT
– More at HAT-Matrix (http://hat-matrix.com/)
HATs Today
� Long-ago evolved past help, although older tools’ names reflect their roots – e.g. Doc-To-Help, RoboHelp.
� Can be used to create almost any type of doc – online, print, mobile, etc…
HATs Today
� Reflect or even anticipate changing trends in technologies and methodologies.– Topic-based authoring? Doc-To-Help, Robo-
Help in 1991.
– Structured authoring? Informally in every HAT via topic templates.
– DITA? Flare, RoboHelp 6 years ago.
– Single sourcing? Yep…
HATs Today
� more…– XML? RoboHelp X5 in early 2000s, XHTML...
– VCS integration? RoboHelp X3(?), Flare.
– CSH? Almost every HAT since day 1.
– Mobile? Mobile-optimized web apps in Flare 6, ebooks in RoboHelp 8, HTML5 in Flare 8 and RoboHelp 10.
» Native mobile apps? RoboHelp 10.
– HTML5? Flare 8, RoboHelp 10.
HATs Today
� more…– Responsive design? Flare 10, RoboHelp 11.
– Supports CSS3, media queries, float property? Flare 10, RoboHelp 11.
– Support for browser strict mode? DOCTYPE specification option in Flare.
– Dynamic OLH? AuthorIT.
– Progressive disclosure? RoboHelp 1, Flare 1.
– Conditional output? Yep. And Flare 10 supports expanded Boolean operations.
HATs Tomorrow
HATs Tomorrow
� Some guesses:– Continued increase in standards compliance.
– Continued support of new technologies and methodologies, if only on a vendor analysis checkoff list basis – like DITA.
– Continued one-upmanship, to our benefit:» Flare’s out-of-the-gate support for XHTML, CSS
editor on steroids, QR codes in 7.
» RoboHelp 10’s output of native mobile apps, support for index in ePub output.
HATs Tomorrow
� Some more guesses:– Support for social media integration.
– Increasing need for rigorous project planning, programming best practices, and less “winging-it” or “thinking outside the box”.
– Publishing to the cloud.
– Continued see-saw between output and content.
The HAT Space
Some Major Characteristics
� Wide and deep support ecology for major vendors.
� Varying levels of support quality.� An increasingly confusing environment:
– HTML Help vs. HTML help?
– WebHelp vs. Web Help?
– WebHelp vs. browser-based help?
– Windows Help vs. Windows Help?
Some Major Characteristics
� Priority shifts – From print to online, from print to PDF, “mobile” (whatever that is), multiscreen output, output to “the cloud”.
� Standing pat – Continued use of dead tools like ForeHelp, dead versions like RoboHelp X5, in-house tools that no one outside (or inside) the company understands.
Some Major Characteristics
� HAT work needs to be integrated into the company’s larger strategic direction – e.g. what’s our business rationale?
Flare and RoboHelp
MadCap Flare
� www.madcapsoftware.com� One of the newest HATs, about 8 years old.� Abandoned many legacy formats and styles
– result is cleaner code but causes problems for companies that want to upgrade legacy/ pre-HTML projects.
Flare
Adobe RoboHelp
� http://www.adobe.com/products/robohelp.html
� 2nd oldest HAT after Doc-To-Help.– Temporarily orphaned (and hurt) during the
Macromedia era.
� Has a huge legacy project tail that can make new releases a difficult job.
RoboHelp
Demos…
� Depending on interest and time…
Hyper/Word Services Offers…
Training • Consulting • DevelopmentFlare • Flare CSS • Flare Single SourcingRoboHelp • RoboHelp CSS • RoboHelp
HTML5ViziAppsSingle sourcing • Structured authoring
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