Well I used to use RoboHelp (back in the VERY early .hlp days) when I worked for a company that used it as standard, too expensive for what I want now.
I've downloaded and tried both Innovasys HelpStudio 3 & Help & Manual - they are about the same price here in the UK which complicates things because whilst I get the feeling that HelpStudio has a more comprehensive feature set I founf their system non-intuitive and their help didn't help much, I had a crash which always puts me off, it hogs loads of memory and seems quite slow BUT whilst Help & Manual answers all of these negatives you do get less for your money! If their pro version was priced like the standard one it would be a no brainer for me but...
I also tend to develop on both a laptop and desktop depending on where I am and where as I feel I could get away with installing Helpstudio on both machines (I cannot use both simultaneously) I get the feeling the Help & Manual install will uniquely be tied to your hardware so I will have to decide which one I am going to edit all my help files on - there is no way I can justify buying two copies or a single networked license. It really bugs me that way of thinking - theoretically I could use on both byuninstalling and installing everytime I swap machines but this doesn't make sense time wise. I wonder if I virtualise a machine and have a virtual host on both pieces of kit whether I could run it like that....
I get the feeling I will probably end up going the Help & Manual route but will always wonder whether I should have gone the other way...
I don't suppose anyone knows whether any major improvements to the help system in Windows - just so I know whether I should go for a subscription or settle for the package as it stands...
Steve