Adobe has been at the forefront of media creation for years now. With the advent of Adobe Air, the release of their Creative Suite 4, and now the release of their Technical Communications Suite 2 Adobe is set to completely corner the market on media creation. But does the new Tech Comm Suite 2 measure up to the hype?

Let’s take a look.

Overview

Adobe’s Technical Communications Suite 2 is aimed at simplifying processes involved in technical communications media creation. With added programs, built-in workflows, and the combination of SaaS based services for collaboration Adobe strives to change the face of not only not only technical communications solutions but software solutions entirely.

Officially release January 20th, 2009 Adobe’s Technical Communications Suite 2 has seen fantastic response from the public according to information received from Adobe personnel.

Product Info

Vendor: Adobe Systems, Inc.
Product Name: Technical Communications Suite 2
Product Category: Technical communications media creation
What’s in the Box?: Photoshop CS4, FrameMaker 9, Robohelp 8, Captivate 4, Acrobat 9 pro extended
Typical Scenario: Used for creating items such as online training manuals, interactive help libraries, training videos, Adobe Air applications, technical document creation and collaboration, and much more.

Company History

Founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, CA, Adobe has made numerous contributions to the tech and computer industries over the years. Some of these include PostScripts, PDF formats, award-winning software, Adobe Air, and evolution of Flash and Dreamweaver after taking over Macromedia.

For over 25 years, Adobe has strived to provide quality solutions for a variety of problems. And with the creation of their suites of software they have pushed to make those solutions work together in ways that simplify end-users’ lives and result in better quality and more efficient production.

Marketing and Pricing

Adobe’s Technical Communications Suite 2 comes with a fairly hefty price tag and therefore may not be feasible for smaller business, but it is marketed to anyone with a desire to create technical communications media.

Price for the entire suite is USD $1899. For TCS1 users, upgrades can be purchased for USD$949. Both according to the Adobe site are available for download or by mail. Adobe is also offering a free trial of the entire suite for 30 days, but the trial is not available by download. It comes in the mail and can take up to three weeks to arrive.

Key Features

The new Technical Communications Suite from Adobe has a variety of new features including improved workflows across multiple applications. Below is a brief list of key features.

FrameMaker 9

• CS4 style interface
• Round-trip PDF commenting through Acrobat and Acrobat.com
• Full DITA 1.1 and 1.2 support
• SDL AuthorAssistant integration

RoboHelp 8

• XML based projects
• XHTML built-in editor
• Dynamic link support for Word docs
• Out-of-the-box Adobe Air support with Flex-based options

Captivate 4

• SWF commenting through Adobe Air
• Single SWF publishing
• Generate PDF documents directly

Photoshop CS4

• Round-trip workflow with layer support for FrameMaker/Photoshop
• Edit-with-Photoshop support in Robohelp
• Full layer support and individual layer animation when importing PSD files to Captivate
• “Share My Screen” support for collaboration using Acrobat.com

Acrobat 9 Pro Extended

• Added features for working with 3D images and video-to-Flash conversion
• Includes Adobe Presenter for online presentations
• Share PDF reviews using Acrobat.com

Review of Workflow Features

Starting with a document in FrameMaker we saved it as a PDF. The saved PDF was opened in Acrobat 9 and, using the Send for Shared Review under the Comment button in the tool bar, we were able easily upload the PDF to Acrobat.com for online collaboration. Using Acrobat.com we were able to track and manage changes using the online service. Collection and tracking is automatic.

The live collaboration tools built-in to Acrobat 9 worked seamlessly. We were able to comment and mark-up to PDF from within Acrobat and publish our comments to Acrobat.com so that other collaborators could see them automatically.

Once all the comments from everyone had been tracked and saved, we reopened the document in FrameMaker and were able to quickly implement changes using a variety of the edits and comments without the need to bounce back and forth between FrameMaker and Acrobat. It all took place directly in FrameMaker.

Once all changes were made to the document we were able to create some Flash based video media using Captivate 4 and some JPEG images using Photoshop CS4 and pull it all together in an XML based book in Robohelp.

One Minor Issue Encountered

Everything during the review of Adobe’s Technical Communications Suite 2 went flawlessly. The only issue encountered during the use of any of the applications included in the suite was associated with the graphics acceleration in Photoshop CS4.

Photoshop CS4 has the ability to provide graphics acceleration via your computers graphics card and drivers. While using this feature with Windows XP Pro, an nVidia 8600 GT with 512mb on-board RAM and fully updated drivers, Photoshop would periodically automatically disable the plug-in for graphics acceleration. No determination could be made if the issue stemmed from Photoshop or the hardware/driver itself

Future Plans

Unfortunately, Adobe is unable to discuss future plans for added functionality such as the recent inclusion of SDL AuthorAssistant via partnerships. Expect to see increased workflow capabilities as well as more directed at global authoring as productivity and the ability to reach nearly any audience easily are keys to successful technical communications.

Our Synopsis

Adobe’s Technical Communication Suite 2 fulfills its claims. Despite minor issues with the graphics acceleration in Photoshop CS4 the suite’s built-in workflows, multi-data support like DITA and XML, the addition of SDL AuthorAssistant for global authoring, and all the other features make this a standalone suite for the creation of technical communications media.

Overall Review Score: 9/10

Similar Solutions

While Adobe is one option, there are other solutions out there for a variety of technical communications media creation. Other solutions include HyperPublish and Hyper Text Studio for authoring various media as well as Author-it (formerly AuthorIT) that has a variety of solutions.

Aside from Adobe’s Technical Communications Suite, though there isn’t really a comprehensive solution that will take you from authoring to publishing and address nearly every scenario in between.

Conclusion

While other solutions are available for creating various technical media, one will be hard pressed to find a comprehensive set of applications that does not end up as a disparate mess of incompatibility and headaches.

The Technical Communications Suite 2 creates an inviting working environment free of complications, snags, and the need for additional applications outside the suite allowing users to focus on creating media for an ever shrinking world on a time scale to please their boss.

Look for Adobe to continue to add functionality and features to the Technical Communications Suite 2 in the future.

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