I didn’t realize I was a lemming
Over at The Content Wrangler, you’ll find a critique of Larry Kollar’s XML Heresy article. I provided some feedback to the critique article, but it occurs to me that if Mr. Kollar describes himself as an XML heretic, then that makes me…an XML lemming?
Excuse me, I see a lovely cliff ahead.
“Perception is reality”
Once upon a time, a long time ago, a wise manager told me this in response to some whining from me. Things were happening, life was unfair, and I couldn’t understand why my wonderful contributions weren’t being appreciated.
“Perception is reality.”
The perception was wrong, and reality was irrelevant. Never mind whether I was doing a fantastic job — upper management didn’t see it that way, and their evaluations are based on their perception.
It seems that RoboHelp has a similar problem. Ellis Pratt writes on the Cherryleaf Technical Authors’ Blog: “The challenge for Adobe, I believe, is to develop a better product and to try and rebuild relationships that haven’t been nurtured properly for the past four or five years. Maybe it’s time they read ‘The Tipping Point’.”
A less emotional take on RoboHelp
Rob Houser of User Assistance Group, Inc. has a review of RoboHelp 6 available at WritersUA.
The food fight over RoboHelp at monkeypi.net and elsewhere has been fun, but if you want a detailed overview of the new features with minimal snark, take a look at Rob’s article.
Driving Miss DITA
Over on the Adobe Technical Communication blog, Aseem Dokania compares DITA to transportation infrastructure:
Creative Suite 3
A little public information from the Adobe Training Partners Summit. Creative Suite 3 will be officially announced on March 27.
Free (legal!) Photoshop
Adobe has just announced that they will have an online, ad-supported, FREE version of Photoshop:
Oh, this is not a good idea
[Update: According to Aseem, comments are back on and turning them off was unintentional.]
In an earlier post, I linked to a blog posting from the Adobe Product Manager for FrameMaker, who requested product suggestions via meetings and email. But, unsurprisingly, the requests went into the comments. And most of the commenters are asking for a Mac version. And now we have this (from a comment on my post):
It appears the ability to comment on that post has been turned off. If I had been allowed to comment, here is what I would have written.
[another request for Mac support with a detailed recommendation on how to do it]
I suppose that it’s possible that Adobe’s blog system limits each entry to 16 comments?
<crickets>
Probably not.
I don’t think that a flood of “gimme back my Mac” was what Aseem was looking for. (Hi, Aseem!)
Blogs are a two-way conversation. Sometimes, the person you’re talking with changes the subject. And hitting the mute button is really not the best way to deal with that.
[I will now await a flood of comments that will make me eat my words.]
Helpdesk in the Scriptorium
(hat tip: Steve Rickaby, who posted it on framers this morning)
Note: Safe for work, but you might want to set aside all beverages before proceeding.
And now, a word from FrameMaker product management…
Posted today on the Adobe TechComm blog by Aseem Dokania, FrameMaker product manager:
I have noticed discussions on some blogs and mailing lists regarding the future of FrameMaker. Let me assure you, as the Product Manager of FrameMaker, that FrameMaker is here to stay. We would do what it takes to keep FrameMaker at the leading edge of technology.
Aseem also requests feedback, and I know my readers have opinions, so get those comments going, either here or directly on his post.
