Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) announced Adobe RoboHelp 6, a system to create, manage and publish software help systems, knowledge bases and documentation for desktop and Web-based applications. As a key element of Adobe’s technical communications product line-up, which includes Adobe FrameMaker, Adobe Captivate and Adobe Acrobat, RoboHelp 6 provides all the desktop functionality that authors need to create Help content, including table of contents, index, glossary, graphics, special effects and context-sensitive Help. Adobe RoboHelp Server 6, also introduced, provides server features that ensure the delivery of up-to-date online content, with real-time tracking of how end-users engage with the help system that provides feedback to Help publishers. With this release, Adobe has consolidated the Adobe RoboHelp product family into two choices – Adobe RoboHelp 6 for authoring and Adobe RoboHelp 6 Server for the delivery of online content. Users of RoboHelp 6 also benefit from the integration of Adobe Captivate 2 for improved workflow and more engaging content with simulations and demonstrations. In addition, users can automate the building of their help at a predetermined time using command line compilation. Conditional Table of Contents (TOC) allows for greater control and customization of table of contents. With User Defined Variables, changes can be made just once, but seen everywhere in Help. Updated Adobe RoboSource Control provides a source document and version control system for Windows and Web development for both individual users and collaborative teams. Adobe PDF creation generates support for hyperlinks & bookmarks and enables accessible PDFs. RoboHelp 6 and RoboHelp 6 Server are available for purchase for Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Support for Windows Vista will be added in 2007. The estimated street price for Adobe RoboHelp 6 is US$999 and US$1999 for Adobe RoboHelp 6 Server. Previous users of RoboHelp and RoboInfo can upgrade to Adobe RoboHelp 6 and RoboHelp Server 6 for an estimated street price of US$499 and US$999, respectively. http://www.adobe.com
Category: Publishing & media (Page 44 of 53)
One of the most important trends in technology over the past two years has been the emergence of Wikis. Like many newish technologies there is a lot of controversy and confusion about Wikis. To many people the word Wiki is linked primarily to the Wikipedia and to the other projects of Wikimedia. To others, Wiki technology is open source collaboration technology. And more recently, Wiki technology has been developed to provide easily installed, high value solutions to a number of enterprise level workflow problems. Over the next week or so, I’ll be writing entries on a number of key questions concerning Wikis and their role in the strategy for forward looking publishing organizations.
One of the themes that we’ll be stressing on this blog is cross-media publishing strategies and we’ll als be offering several sessions on this topic at the SanFrancisco Gilbane Conference in April. We’d like to hear your nominations for examples of products that started life in a traditional print format but have now evolved to successful product offerings with multiple media options. We’ll also like to know about successful new product offerings that were created in a media-neutral approach. To respond, please e-mail me Steve Paxhia at steve@gilbane.com.
Quark Inc. announced the release of QuarkXPress 7.1, the new Universal upgrade to the desktop design software. The latest upgrade adds performance enhancements, making the design software more responsive. Quark made performance improvements in several areas — including text selection, clipped images, and flattening features. Each feature has received a performance boost, resulting in faster production times. In addition, the Universal upgrade has provided performance improvements throughout the application. A fully functional 30-day evaluation version of QuarkXPress 7, including the new Universal release for Intel-based Macs, is available. To purchase or upgrade to QuarkXPress 7.1, visit the Quark Web site at http://www.quark.com/71update
Dick Harrington is the CEO of Thomson. During a December investor’s conference presentation, he clearly described Thomson’s future strategy. Their vision is to be the leading provider of workflow solutions to business and professional customers. Their goal is to develop “must-have” products with high utilization and renewal rates. I would assume that a recurring revenue model is also preferred. As they create technology to leverage their content, they find that they achieve greater leverage and higher margins. This is a very sound strategy.
His decision to divest Thomson Learning aside, it would seem that there are excellent opportunities awaiting College and Educational publishers who employ similar strategies. Students, professors, teachers, and parents could all benefit from tighter integration of enabling technology and multimedia including simulations with more traditional text based materials. Many publishers are already finding success with next generation products that offer customers their choice of media options combined with technology that helps this group of professionals do their jobs better. The key is to focus on customer needs and creating innovative new products rather than creating new media versions of existing products. These new products also have the potential to be licensed for specific terms and usages rather than be sold outright. This model would likely accelerate revenue growth and yield better margins.
We’ll strive to provide examples of successful ventures in later posts…
Welcome to the Gilbane Group’s new Blog on the Publishing Industry. Our team of Analyst/Consultants will be offering their thoughts a variety of topics including:
- Opportunities and Challenges presented by new technology and media options
- Key new technologies to watch in the coming year
- Case studies demonstrating current best practices
- News and commentary about Publishing Companies and their technology partners
Think of this Blog as a perpetual iteration of the Publishing Track at our Gilbane Conferences. To that end, we welcome your questions and encourage your comments…
At this year’s fall conference, the CEO of Art Plus Technology—Elizabeth Gooding—gave an excellent presentation concerning her firm’s approach to providing the customers of financial firms with improved statements and communications. She and her clients set very tough targets. The statements must be highly individualized, be attractive in both electronic and print formats, be produced in a timely fashion, and of course, cost less to produce. In meeting these goals, Elizabeth and her team found ways to break down long established practices that had become limiting factors in improving the delivery of information to customers.
What does this have to do with publishers in general? Most publishing enterprises have their own long established practices that have made them very successful through the years. We think that the publishers who will gain market share in the next decade are those who are most willing to re-examine those practices to enable new product offerings that will appeal to the demands of today’s customers. Over the next week or so, we’ll look at some examples of different strategies and tactics.
Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) announced the immediate availability of the Adobe Acrobat Connect software product line for communicating and collaborating instantly through real-time, interactive web conferencing. The Acrobat Connect product line addresses online collaboration needs from casual to intensive web conferencing users. The entry-level Acrobat Connect hosted service provides users with essential collaboration tools, such as screen sharing, whiteboarding, chat, video conferencing, and audio conferencingall for unlimited usage for up to 15 participants for one low monthly fee. Additionally, with one-button “Start Meeting” access from Acrobat 8 and Adobe Reader 8 software, users can launch Acrobat Connect directly from a document to start collaborating immediately. The entire Acrobat family consists of Acrobat 8 Professional, Acrobat 8 Standard, Acrobat 8 Elements, Acrobat 3D Version 8, Acrobat Connect, and Acrobat Connect Professional. The Acrobat Connect hosted service is currently available as a free trial version through the end of the current calendar year. The commercial release of Acrobat Connect, initially available in English, is expected to be available in January 2007 for a subscription price of US$39 per month, or US$395 per year per personal meeting room. Acrobat Connect Professional is available in English, French, German, Japanese, and Korean, starting at US$15,000 depending on configuration, and is licensed on a named user, as well as concurrent port basis. Existing licensed customers of the Macromedia Breeze solution with up-to-date maintenance plans may be eligible for updates to Acrobat Connect Professional and new versions of the Adobe Connect servers. Adobe also released Reader 8, which features a new, streamlined interface with user customizable toolbars. Adobe Acrobat Professional users can now enable Adobe Reader users to fill and submit forms, save data and digitally sign documents. Adobe Reader 8 also has graphics processing unit (GPU) acceleration, which boosts performance when viewing graphics-intense PDF files, such as 3D content. A free trial version of Acrobat Connect Professional is available at http://www.adobe.com/go/tryconnectpro, http://www.adobe.com/go/getreader/
In an October 27th entry on Dave Mainwaring’s Publishers’ SIG at www.printplanet.com/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=publishers-sig, someone named Chet Ensign wrote: “I have just read the press release at
Editions.html for Adobe’s beta release of Digital Editions. It is an eBook reader that uses PDF, XHTML, Flash and includes digital rights management support, subscriptions, ads, etc.
He continues: “I have not seen anything like a groundswell of excitement in publishing around eBooks so I don’t see this as a major development. In a review on ZDNet, Ryan Stewart wrote: “Users have been slow to take to eReader solutions, but I think technologies like the New York Times reader and Digital Editions are going to change that.” I don’t agree. I think people are not adopting ereaders because they add nothing new; they still just move print to the screen – where I personally just turn around and reprint so that I can read it in print. “What do others think? Is there more excitement around eBooks than I have been seeing?”
I wonder the same thing…
Somehow I think iPod when I read in Adobe PR of the new software:
“With native support for Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) as well as an XHTML-based reflow-centric publication format, Digital Editions delivers an engaging way to acquire, read, and manage content, including eBooks, digital magazines, digital newspapers and other digital publications. Initially available as a free public beta for Windows®, Digital Editions will support Macintosh systems as a universal binary application, Linux® platforms, as well as mobile phones and other embedded devices in future versions.”
I’ve always thought that the big problem with eBooks was/is the name, with the implicit connotation that we should be reading lightweight paperbacks on heavy digital readers… I now refer to ‘e-content’ rather than e-books. There’s a lot of digital information — most of it much shorter than book-length — that makes more sense to be consumed digitally than it does to be printed before consumption.
Somehow I also think about pending competition between Adobe and Microsoft on file formats, the long rumored battle of the PDF versus the XPS (although Wikipedia informs us: “XPS is viewed as a potential competitor to Adobe’s portable document format (PDF). XPS, however, is a static document format that does not include dynamic capabilities similar to those of PDF.”)
Microsoft doesn’t seem too hot on eBooks right now. Microsoft Reader was last updated in November, 2002 (the Tablet edition), although I was surprised to find today on the MSoft website: “Microsoft Reader Catalog of eBooks: search over 30000 free and retail ebooks, with direct links to downloading free content and samples…www.mslit.com/default.asp?mjr=FRE
However, looking more closely at the site, one finds that most of the eBooks are for sale, not free at all.
The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF, formerly the Open eBook Forum), the trade organization that speaks for the eBook “industry” (if that is not too grand a term) reported earlier this year that eBook sales increased 23% in 2005. Not bad, until one realizes that this represents under $12 million in revenue, and that unit sales were flat. As in all things digital, the result led publishers to increase title output by 20%, year over year.
The Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia Library does offer 2100 free eBooks (old titles, out of copyright — http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/)
Still, it turns out I hadn’t bothered installing Reader on this 6-month-old computer — I’m doing it now — to find out if I get any more pleasure out of reading Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities on a computer now than I did (not) four years ago (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/lit/DicTale.lit).
As my friend Crad Kilodney once wrote: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way — in short, it was a Monday.“
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