Adobe RoboHelp – Page 12 – TechCommGeekMom

A bold move into the wild blue yonder, aka the Cloud!

Posted on September 23, 2012 by TechCommGeekMom

After my recent run-in with scammers, I’ve now come to better appreciate cloud computing and everything that is has to offer. It’s not that I didn’t appreciate it before, but in having to restore several items and back up others very recently, I was glad that I had several cloud storage accounts set up, and that much of my software could be restored easily because I had downloaded them from cloud accounts. Some of the programs on my laptop which I didn’t worry about included most of my Adobe software. Why? Most of the programs I use were downloaded through the Creative Cloud 6 subscription I have. I’m glad I made that move, instead of getting the disks. Not that the disks would be bad–they would do the job too, but at least I’d have the latest and greatest on my system, no matter what.

Well, I was just reading on Twitter from @saibalb79, @maxwellhoffmann and @AdobeTCS that the Adobe Technical Communications Suite 4 is cloud-bound! I think that’s awesome, really, and rather forward thinking. It supports mobile initiatives for some computers, like the impending Microsoft Surface, to be able to access the information more easily, but also for the rest of us as well. It appears that the subscription is offered either monthly at US$99.00 per month, or when signing up for a one-year plan, it would be US$69.00 per month. That seems like a pretty good deal if you ask me! Since I already have a copy of TCS4, I won’t need to subscribe for a while, but for those who have not upgraded yet, this seems like a great opportunity.

I think what’s also great about this is the fact that it works well with the idea of using Creative Cloud 6 apps in conjunction with the apps in TCS4. Imagine…always being up-to-date because you have subscriptions. I know that Microsoft is starting to promote this concept more as well, but knowing that Adobe is trying to stay on the cutting edge and keep up with technological needs and taking advantage of the cloud more and more is rather proactive thinking, in my opinion.

You can find out more by checking out Adobe’s website at this link: adobe.ly/Qp18q9.

Now tell me, do Flare or Doc-To-Help, or any of those other tech comm software suites offer cloud services like this? Let me know if I’m missing something…I’ll gladly present those to my tech comm readers as well, but I haven’t heard anything as of yet…

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Welcome to TechCommGeekMom’s First Advertiser!

Posted on September 13, 2012 by TechCommGeekMom

Just a quick note to have you notice something new on the right-hand column of my blog. It’s an ad for our first advertiser, Adobe!

I’m very excited to have this relationship with Adobe, who have been just huge supporters of TechCommGeekMom.com since the blog first started. Please be sure to click on the ad and check out the Technical Communications Suite 4! I did a review of TCS4 back in July which has been received very well, so here’s your chance to check the product itself out!

Hopefully this is the first ad support of many more to come.

If you, someone you know, or your business is into technical communications, education or e-learning, and are interested in advertising on my blog, let me know!

I am an equal opportunity blog here, and I would like to be able to help present the best products on the market when I can, and I’m off to a great start.

Thank you, Adobe!

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Check out the Adobe TCS 4 Product-opedia–now available!

Posted on September 5, 2012September 5, 2012 by TechCommGeekMom

Just a quick entry to let you know that Adobe has compiled an excellent and very comprehensive list of various resources about their Technical Communications Suite 4 product. The “Adobe-Product-opedia” is available at this URL:

http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2012/09/productopedia.html

and includes my review of the TCS4 product in both the main product information section and the Framemaker section. Other resources are from Adobe as well as some really great bloggers and tech comm professionals, such as Colum McAndrew and Connie Giordano of TechWhirl among many others.

Make sure you check it out!

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Be a warrior with Technical Communications Suite 4!

Posted on August 20, 2012 by TechCommGeekMom

One of the things that many people don’t know about me is that I have a first-degree black belt in Songham Taekwondo. I was even a state champion in weapons as a color belt for my age group. I enjoyed TKD a lot, until a knee injury took me out. What I like about taekwondo is that it’s a versatile martial art; one doesn’t spend all of the time studying forms alone, but rather a student learns basic moves that will help in other areas such as sparring and weapons. The more skills one gains, the more adept to changes when sparring or using weapons. This is what trained the ancient warrior as well as the modern day warrior.

This kind of mentality is also needed to be a technical communicator. How, you may ask? Well, like a black belt in taekwondo, one has to have many skills to get the job done. One needs to know a little bit of this and that, like technical writing, editing, and content curation–among many other skills–to produce kick-butt documentation and output. But it also helps to have the right tools as well.

For today’s taekwondo student, one can wear various protection pads, and learn how to use weapons–including hands and feet–as the tools to achieve the end goal. For technical communicators, there are various software tools out there.

One of the foremost products out there is Adobe’s Technical Communications Suite 4. With this latest rendition of the Technical Communications Suite, technical communicators have even more options and choices in how documentation and other technical writing output is achieved. There are reliable standbys like Framemaker and Robohelp–both of which have been updated, but there are also additional tools as Acrobat, Captivate, Presenter, and Illustrator. Combined with the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite, it seems to me that there is nothing that can stop a technical communicator from being a tech comm warrior!

Tomorrow, on August 21st, 2012 from 10:00-11:30 AM Pacific Time, one of Adobe’s strongest tech comm warriors, Ankur Jain, is going to be presenting the What’s New in Technical Communications Suite 4 webinar,which is not only going to talk about the strengths of this tool, but also the newest and latest features to make it a more effective tool for technical communicators everywhere, including features that now allow technical communicators to bring finished products to a mobile audience. (And you know how pro-mobile I am!)

Tell Ankur that I sent you by telling him, “I am a TechComm Warrior!” 😉

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“Hey Mom, you’re a TechComm celebrity!”

Posted on August 17, 2012 by TechCommGeekMom

Yes, that’s what my son said to me when I discovered something today, and showed it to him. He is a kid who is being raised in a fairly technologically adept home (Mom is a technical communicator, and Dad is an internet developer who specializes in e-learning and LMS programming), so he knows who Adobe is and he knows that if something is on the Internet, it’s the equivalent of what it was like to see one’s own name in the newspaper as a kid, or seeing oneself on TV.

In this case, I discovered this at the bottom of Adobe’s Technical Communications Suite 4 page:

Can you see what I’m referring to? Let’s take a closer look in the Resources section:

Yes, that’s right! My preview of TCS4 is listed as an Adobe RESOURCE!

I’m thrilled and excited about this. It’s no secret that I was happy to see my article included in Adobe’s consolidated list of TCS 4 reviews (mine is fourth in the list) on Adobe’s blog, but to see my preview on the MAIN Tech Comm Suite page just blows my mind.

THANK YOU, ADOBE!

It would certainly explain how suddenly there was a huge surge in hits on this website in the past week. This week, I hit some fairly big milestones (at least in my eyes) with this blog as far as the number of hits it’s received. I hope that anyone reading becomes a regular follower. I do my best to provide both original content as well as curated content that relates to technical communications, e-learning and m-learning, so I hope that anyone new stays tuned, and lets me know how I’m doing, or if there’s anything they’d like to see discussed here.

Thank you one and all for your continued support– more to come soon!