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- John Daigle
Adobe Certified Captivate/RoboHelp Instructor

Lots of Resource Links!

About the site
Brief bio about John
This site includes demos, screencasts and other eLearning tutorials covering Adobe Captivate 4, RoboHelp 8 and Acrobat Connect.

 

 Show Me the Demo!

Using Adobe RoboHelp Server Analytics for Improving Content

Free, live webinar Thursday, October 28, 2010, 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM US/Pacific
 Register Now for the free webinar

Help Authors have long wanted to know: "Am I being helpful?" Adobe RoboHelp Server 8 helps answer that question.

Adobe RoboHelp Server is a powerful option used with the RoboHelp authoring tool. Join Adobe Partners and Experts for this interactive eSeminar to receive practical tips on how to configure and publish RoboHelp projects to the RoboHelp Server and to generate user feedback reports.

What is covered in the eSeminar?

  • Benefits of content optimization and creating a constant improvement loop with user feedback.
  • What end-users experience as they view content delivered with enhanced power of RoboHelp Server.
  • Setting up Authoring groups and users - strategies for multiple authoring teams.
  • Creating password protected "Areas" for special audiences.
  • Administering the RoboHelp Server remotely from any web browser.
  • Scenarios for Merging Projects (one TOC/Index/Search/Glossary for many separate projects).
  • Generating User Feedback Reports to determine what topics the end users see and what they search for.
  • Using the reports to continuously modify content.
  • Tips on working with the IT department to deploy RoboHelp Server.

John Daigle will be your guide for this eSeminar. John is an Adobe Certified RoboHelp and Adobe Captivate instructor (ACP) and has consulted on Adobe RoboHelp Server since its inception.

Adobe Captivate 5 and eLearning Suite 2 released!
New! Check out RJ Jacquez blog for the latest:
 http://rjacquez.com/

From RJ's blog, "The first video I want to share with you is an overview of the brand new user interface (UI) in Adobe Captivate 5, and the benefits it brings to our existing users. In fact, Captivate has been re-written from the ground up in order to reuse the same code across both platforms.

The new user interface in Adobe Captivate 5 looks and works the same way on Mac as it does on Windows. Also, with this new UI, Captivate now works like other Adobe products, for example Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, and FrameMaker, which means that you should be able to comfortably go from any of these applications to the next without missing a beat."

John Daigle offers onsite and "virtual" instructor-led classes in Adobe RoboHelp and Adobe Captivate

Students rave about our training classes! 
Here are verbatim comments from recent classes.

Adobe Certified Training in:

  • Adobe RoboHelp 
  • Adobe Captivate 
  • Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional

For technical writers and instructional designers email John Daigle for special training class dates or arrange for your own onsite custom training.


Now offering virtual classes through

Now publish to the new ePub format for mobile devices!

 Adobe RoboHelp makes it easy to move content to mobile devices
See full details on Adobe RoboHelp Product Manager Ankur Jain's blog post.

Adobe Creative Suite 5 announced
See feature details on Adobe TV video on RJ Jacquez' blog

Adobe RoboHelp News
With thousands of authors around the world using RoboHelp in different environments, Adobe constantly gathers feedback in order to improve the way it works. Here are some items that will help you make sure your version of RoboHelp is working smoothly with the latest improvements.

RoboHelp tips and techniques are often contributed by my instructor/author colleagues. Here is a list of those resources:

Adobe RoboHelp 8 and the Adobe Technical Communication Suite 2 are released!

John's highlights: I counted over a 100 significant new features in this release of Adobe RoboHelp 8. Major additions like Scripting, a world-class Search engine, strong support for XML standards and DITA import are just some of the new items. This version instroduces a new Adobe AIR help application which has end user commenting for team reviews, favorites and an automatic content updating feature. It also and looks sharp, too.

Adobe RoboHelp 8 combined with other members of the Adobe Technical Communication Suite 2 make this a no-brainer upgrade. This is especially true for anyone who has a single-sourcing requirement for both print and online audiences. Adobe FrameMaker 9 is well-integrated along with Adobe Captivate 4 and even Adobe Photoshop CS4. That's quite a bundle.

Trials are ready for download from the product pages shown below. Read complete details in this announcement

Should you upgrade? Here's help on making that decision:

A new Adobe RoboHelp 8 Reviewer's Guide has just been posted to help managers evaluate the new release.

There are  61 pages of details feature-by-feature along with Try-It-Exercises that can be downloaded and used in conjunction with the Reviewer's Guide to explore and test-drive the new features.

As you follow that link, be sure to download the Reviewer's Guide PDF so that you can more comfortably play all 7 of the Adobe Captivate feature/how-to demos which are embedded toward the end of the Guide. 

Many of you longtime RoboHelp authors know, RJ Jacquez who is the Adobe's Tech Comm evangelist. Here is his blog post about the new release.

Here are product page links and "What's New" videos on the following new releases:

Also the new Adobe eLearning Suite has been announced with a focus on rapid eLearning development.

Bob Doyle who publishes the DITA Newsletter, explains the DITA features of Adobe TCS and how Adobe FrameMaker 9 and Adobe RoboHelp 8 are integrated to work with DITA. 

Updated: Flare to RoboHelp converter (and free)

"With a tight deadline looming, and with other people on the doc team using RoboHelp, I was faced with having to convert my Flare project to RoboHelp as quickly as possible. John Daigle's "Flare to RoboHelp Converter" was a blessing in disguise. I was able to convert the HTML files, TOC, and Index entries into RoboHelp in a matter of minutes. Even the conditional build tags converted (although I did have to apply them to a very complex TOC afterward). John's excellent customer service also made the conversion a pleasure! Highly recommended on all counts."

Denise Tyler
Author and Technical Writer for these publications:
Macmillan Publishing, Pearson Education, Sybex, 
Charles River Media, Thomson Learning, eFrontier, 
DAZ Productions 

A migration path for Flare authors who want to return to RoboHelp
Last year at WritersUA and STC in Minneapolis, several folks asked me if there is such a thing as a converter for taking a MadCap Flare™ project and converting it to an Adobe® RoboHelp® 7 project. Now there is a Flare replacement for those who want to return their familiar favorite, RoboHelp. Read more and download the Flare to RoboHelp Converter for free

To see how easy it works, here is an Adobe Captivate Demo

Adobe RoboHelp 8 Read more on the Adobe website. I'll be posting screenshots and Adobe Captivate movies of the new features soon.


This screenshot (one of many to come) shows off the new Multiple Document Interface (MDI). Two topics are open side by side allowing for quick copy/cut/paste across topics. The new "pods" are drag and droppable and if you want to have a less cluttered view, you can close the pods and save your Environment for different workflows. 

  • Cleaner code (die <kadov> die!) and more robust HTML Editor

  • Unicode support for 35 languages

  • Snippets and improved User Defined Variables for easy reuse of content

  • Windows Vista and Office 2007 support

  • Synonym Search, Search Highlighting and Breadcrumb Navigation

  • Much greater integration with FrameMaker and Adobe Captivate

Stay tuned in the coming days for many more screenshots and Adobe Captivate movies!

Adobe Training Classes Scheduled:

  • Contact John Daigle for Certified Instruction in Adobe Captivate, Acrobat Connect Pro and RoboHelp.

  • See Silke Fleischer's Adobe Captivate blog.

  • Flash Video Interview with Silke Fleischer at MAX 2006 View (Flash Player 8)

  • The Content Wrangler has a great interview with RJ Jacquez, Senior Adobe Framemaker and RoboHelp evangelist.

  • Adobe Technical Communications FAQ - The synergy of RoboHelp, Framemaker, Captivate and Acrobat into a full tool suite for technical writers and eLearning designers. Read more

  • Adobe Captivate 4 is officially released Read more

  • Macromedia Breeze Meeting is now Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional Read more

  • Captivate Users Group - Seattle Check out Mark Chrisman's new site 

  • Rob Houser - Adobe Community Expert announces User Assistance Group and new website

Must Read: New Adobe Tech Comm FAQ posted for RoboHelp, Framemaker, Captivate and Acrobat. A new Adobe Technical Communications FAQ was posted on the Adobe website which addresses questions regarding the Technical Communications products.


Adobe RoboHelp Resources
Adobe Captivate Resources

Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional Resources

Adobe® RoboHelp® 7 is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved
MadCap Flare™ is a trademark of MadCap Software, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.  All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.