Using Contributor with an SME

[TechWriter85]

We are pretty sure that life will be easier and more enjoyable if our SME can work directly in the .htm files using Contributor. Going back and forth with Word files is time-consuming.

Our help has these characteristics:

1. TOC going 3, even 4 levels deep, although we try to avoid level 4
2. Images with image maps
3. Use of drop-downs and pop-ups
4. Many graphics
5. We may eventually use conditional text and make the help context-sensitive. Not there yet.

If you have someone using Contributor for a similar kind of help system:

-- How do you share the files? How do you prevent two people from working in the same file simultaneously?
-- Were there any unexpected glitches between Contributor output and full Flare use?
-- How hard was it for your SME to learn to use Contributor?

If you have any helpful admonitions, lay them on us!

Thank you!

[devjoe]

We faced extreme resistance from developers to install contributor on their machines. In fact, the only one who ever did install it was that guy who makes overly specific suggestions about how to write content in documentation when he doesn't know how to write documentation well enough to make good suggestions.