RANT - RoboHelp

[PAlexC]

Whoever is the product manager at Adobe for RoboHelp should take a good hard long look at a slow painful suicide.

We just migrated our help system to it, and it is by far the worst product I have ever seen, with completely garbage outputs, almost no support and a user base as technically savvy as a retarded chimp. They're able to communicate and write documentation about as well. OH THE F-ING IRONY!

Store your project on a file server? CRASH!

Multiple authors? CRASH! Use source control?

Anyone editing the TOC locks everyone else out of doing pretty much anything.

WebHelp output? Dozens of redundant and useless files that were sh*t back in the mid-90's when they were originally written, and obsolete now. Seriously, it's a goddamn joke. Worst use of XML and javascript I've ever seen. All this progress with Ajax and Spry, and they're still using sh*t that didn't work 10 years ago. What f-ing moron is in charge of this?!

Users using Safari? They're f*cked.

Adobe Support? You're f*cked.

If I could physically abuse the product itself right now, I would.

/end rant

[flashpipe1]

Yeah, pretty unhappy with Adobe support myself right now...STILL having issues installing CS3!! I've listened to the hold music for 3+ hours in the past two days...

What happened to the good 'ol days when an actual person would pick up the phone and say (with an accent you could understand), "hello, this is macromedia customer support."

UGGgggg...

[jAQUAN]

So it's just a help doc creator? Doesn't sound like the type of thing I'd trust adobe to handle. What made you guys decide to buy it?

[jasonsplace]

I've known quite a few people that have used RoboHelp and liked it. I don't have any experience with it personally but i've never heard of these kinds of problems.

[DaVulf]

I don't mind those systems so much if I can press '0' to get an operator. I don't care if it is 'easier' for them to direct my call when I navigate myself, I want someone at a switchboard to do it for me. That way, when I finally do get through after a 45 minute wait, it isn't to be told:

'I'm sorry sir, you're in the account department, we don't do billing... if you want to cancel your account, i could transfer you, but you will be placed at the beginning of the queue.'

'Okay.. do it.'

'Have I helped answer all of your questions today, sir?'

They always ask that, and most of the time they don't help. What a waste.

[PAlexC]

So it's just a help doc creator? Doesn't sound like the type of thing I'd trust adobe to handle. What made you guys decide to buy it?

The idea is you can author help projects and output them to multiple formats, including .chm. There aren't too many alternatives, and RH has been around the longest. It was originally created by a company called eHelp, which also did RoboDemo (now Captivate, which also sucks). Macromedia acquired eHelp around 2000 or so.