Run Adobe RoboHelp X5 without activation

 

I am still managing with RoboHelp X5 for creating Online helps. But that is not the subject of this post.

Last month, when I was trying to update one of our help systems using RoboHelp, I got a pop-up asking me to activate the product.

Activation code Request

Of course I use a licensed product only. As mentioned in the above pop-up screen, first I tried to catch-up the Macromedia customer care by e-mail link available. I got the following failure notice after 36 hours:

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients. Subject: Activation Code Request

The following recipient(s) cannot be reached: activation@ehelp.com on 12/12/2009 6:19 PM

Could not deliver the message in the time limit specified. Please retry or contact your administrator.

I really wonder what is the use of that E-mail button then… Just for a better UI purpose..?

Ok, leave it, and then I called my office technical operations people to call the Macromedia customer care number. Yes, I cannot make an ISD call on my own. Of course it’s our company policy you know. 

I got a reply saying that the number mentioned in that pop-up is not reachable.

Then when I googled, I got this link from the adobe site. Remember adobe has bought the Macromedia long time back.

Follow the procedure and Install the patches exactly as mentioned. You will be able to run the RoboHelp X5 without any activation. 

Importing Word doc into FrameMaker

 

Usually people prefer to import a word document than directly writing (typing) on a FrameMaker page. While importing the word document, the tables in the word document would not get imported properly in the FM file. Here is the solution:

1. Convert the Word doc into RTF format
2. Open the RTF doc directly in the FrameMaker
3. Copy the tables from this temporary FM document into the Original book

This is the solution that http://allexperts.com provides for this issue. I haven’t checked this as I am yet to install the FM .  So I would be happy if you try it out and let me know in the comment section. 

Work Ethics

I have thought of writing about this topic for a long time. Nowadays many companies head hunt for their resources through Employment agencies (in India, they are commonly known as consultants). The way the consultants send email describing about a job opening is the main subject of this post. Here we go:

Part-1: Here the consultants will describe about their company’s profile saying we are the leading recruiting agency (I really wonder everybody claims themselves as Leaders) since 18th century and we have world-wide offices in the UK, USA, Africa, Asia and Antarctica too. Our clients include Google, Microsoft, etc…

Part-2: One of our clients is looking for a Technical Writer in his <some dept>so please send us your resumé in word format immediately.

Very few agencies are enclosing about their client’s market performance, website etc… What about the roles and responsibilities that this opening demands? What are the day-to-day activities involved for this position? Rarely very few professional agencies provide these informations in their emails.

Next is the funniest part.

Part-3: While sending your details answer the below questions:

• Current CTC
• Expected CTC
• Notice Period
• Reason for Change

Asking current ctc, notice period and reason for change are absolutely fine. What do you mean by expected CTC..? Is there any limit for human desires..? If someone getting 3 lakhs per annum mentions 10 lakhs per annum as expected ctc, how do you feel..?

In this case, I would really appreciate the western employment agencies trend they follow. They will quote their budget something like 25k pounds to 35k, they will give a range.

Few recruiters will set your notice period, yeah I am not joking.

Your notice period should not exceed more than 5 days.

OR

Those candidates who can join within five days need to apply.

Sounds funny..? I am really surprised what kind of work ethics it is..?

1. How can you expect someone to leave a company in five days and join a new one?
2. What about their experience certificate, relieving order, knowledge transfers, Exit interview and other HR formalities?

Who cares..? It may sound thrilling and exciting of joining a new company in 5 days but in the long run, your career will be under question. Always one should respect and follow these work ethics. 

All about Technical Documentation

1. Are you curious to know about technical documentation?
2. Are you planning to begin your career in TW area?
3. Do you have any plans in changing lanes from your development or academic field to TW area?

If the answer is YES for all the above questions, then you must check this website.  In this site, you can find some basic know-how, checklists, tools and links, which will help you to write create clear and concise user-friendly manuals, online help files, software demos, tutorials and other forms of user assistance.

There is a huge list of useful software, useful websites too. Hope you will like it.

I wish you all a happy NEW YEAR 2010 and may this year brings all happiness and prosperous in everybody’s life.

Learn English

 English is most commonly accepted language for business all over the world. (Chinese and Japanese won’t agree with my statement ). So learning English is vital for the people who are not native English speakers. There are many websites which teaches effective English. I came across one among these sites which is quite interesting.

Log-on to www.learnenglish.de where you can learn English basics, grammar, vocabulary, quizzes and games too. Moreover this site provides information on British culture, common mistakes in English, interesting facts, Homophones, pronunciations, dictations and a lot in their stocks. Check it out once and I am sure you will love it.

All-in-One

 

Yesterday (Dec 1^st) was my Birthday (don’t ask me how many candles were there on the cake..?).  Also incidentally or accidentally yesterday was the World AIDS awareness day. Sometimes it happens. Don’t link my birthday with AIDS awareness. 

Well, I came across an interesting info which I wanted to share it with you in this space. You may know very well how much time you need to install new applications (of course, one by one) in your new or formatted system/laptop. You may need many free installable like Web browser, messenger service, Flash Player, Word-to-PDF, Image capturing/editing tools and to name a few in your laptop forever.

http://ninite.com has come up with a solution for the above problem I mentioned. Here we go:

1. Go to http://ninite.com
2. Select your required or favourite applications  
3. Click the Install button and enjoy a cricket match or a cup of tea with your friends.

Select the applications from the ninite

Sounds simple, is itn’t..?

New Features in Captivate 4

As I mentioned in my earlier post on Captivate, I always enjoy using Captivate and admire its user-friendly features. Adobe has released Captivate 4 recently.

Here is the list of my favourite features:

• Panning While Recording
• Widgets
• Project and Design Templates
• Table of Contents
• Single or Multiple SWF Output
• Text-to-speech Captions
• Captivate Reviewer
• Photoshop Layer Support

To read a detailed review on Captivate 4, read Scott DeLoach’s article in http://writerua.com.

The most bothering drawback is Captivate 4 help system is not context-sensitive.

Technical Writer’s Role in UI Design

 

User Interface (UI) designing is no longer been a developers cup of tea nowadays. In most cases, it is the Technical Writer who becomes the first person to explore an application/product. As a result, a TW will be in a better person to tell his UI experience with the application/product in user point of view.

Being an individual contributor in my company, besides technical authoring, I almost wear multiple hats:

• UI Design Advisor
• Beta Tester
• Product Trainer for the Beginners/Fresher.

Recently, I happen to test one application. Surprisingly, I was not a part of the team in the UI designing phase. An UI designer inside me came out while testing that application. Besides functionality testing, I started listing down UI design suggestions (Please note that they are only suggestions not advice). Look out the below image which bothered me a lot.

Bad UI Design

What is the necessity of placing a Close button below the Close icon already available by default..?

To be honest, for me it doesn’t makes any sense. Any UI should be designed keeping the User in mind no matter he is an advance or novice user. UI design should be in such a way that it should guide the user to explore the product without making him to press F1 often. You need not to design a colourful UI but definitely not a clumsy something like this:

Complex UI Design

      (Picture courtesy: Tom Johnson’s http://Idratherbewriting.com)

Things to do before using the Captivate

 I always rely on Adobe Captivate (before it was Macromedia Captivate) for preparing training materials, tutorials and demos. It is simple to handle as well as effective in covering your clients training needs. Not only you can customize the call-outs and standard messages, but also it gives a real effect of exploring your product/application.

There are few pre-requisites before you start on with captivate.

Close your Outlook and Instant messenger services without any second thought. Whenever you get a new email, outlook will show a pop-pop alert. Captivate will capture those pop-ups also along with your regular actions in the application. So as a result, your client will come to know that your mailbox has exceeded its limit through your training demo.

Captivate captures your Outlook pop-ups

Never open or explore any applications, folders when you are capturing with the Captivate. Reason is same as mentioned above. Otherwise be ready to redo your capture. 

Working with Bookmarks in Adobe PDFs

 Recently, the same friend raised one interesting query. It looked very simple. Here we go:

I have included chapter names, heading level 1, level 2 and so on as book marks in a FrameMaker book and generated a PDF. When I open that PDF for the first time, I would like to see only chapter names as bookmarks not all the heading levels expanded. Should I do something with FrameMaker settings..? This was her query.  

                                    Expected:

Only Chapters as Bookmark

                                    Actual:

chapters Expanded

As per my knowledge, FrameMaker has nothing to do with this query, it’s the Acrobat Professional that you need to do with some settings change while opening the PDF.  (As I don’t have a copy of Adobe professional, I was not able to mention the exact menu to change the settings.)

Later she got the exact answer from www.allexperts.com posted by Mr. Wayne. Here is the exact saying:

“If you “Open” the document in Adobe Professional – and you are using Adobe 6.0 or higher. You might look under the preferences screen and see if there might be a setting that says something like – “remember last” and check or uncheck the box depending on how the text is worded.

You might also just try opening the document in Adobe Professional – and then “collapse” all the bookmarks then save the document and reopen it and see if the bookmarks stay collapsed.

Try the following: Open Distiller and then select Settings > Security and then make sure the following box is UNCHECKED – “NO CHANGING THE DOCUMENT.”

So the exact solution is:

1. Open the PDF in Adobe Professional and select Preferences
2. Select “’remember setting of last view” option.
3. Collapse all the bookmarks as you need.
4. Save the PDF and close the Adobe Professional application.
5. Open the same PDF again in the Adobe Professional.

You will find the bookmarks in same state as you needed.

It sounds so simple. Is it not..?