Adobe announced yesterday the availability of a live demo of its Technical Communication Suite 2 [1] product. The demo lets Adobe customers try the core products in the suite including Adobe FrameMaker 9, RoboHelp 8 and Captivate 4. Prior to the availability of this online demo, it was difficult for customers interested in trying before buying to get the software because of the sheer size of the package, says RJ Jacquez, senior product evangelist for Adobe Technical Communication Suite.

"With six major Adobe software applications in Adobe Technical Communication Suite 2, plus 10 other smaller programs, evaluating the entire Suite has been a challenge for our customers because of the total file size of the software. Today our customers have to either order a shipped trial DVD, or wait for several Gigabytes to download before getting their hands on the software." The new online version gives potential customers instant access to many of the applications.

Jacquez explained that Adobe has been working with Runaware.com, a company which specializes in hosting full versions of software in a virtual environment, delivered via the browser. "This means," he says "that you can now get your hands on our entire Suite in literally minutes and without having to download the trial version of the software."

This provides a great way for users to sample the software quickly despite its huge size. Jacquez has created a video explaining how to use the demo software most effectively.

For more information:
- see Jacquez's blog post [2] at Adobe
- see the demo video [3]

Related Articles:
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Adobe Incontext Editing 1.5 lets users edit directly on the site [5]
Adobe releases Tech Comm Suite 2 [6]
Alfresco and Adobe continue relationship on Acrobat.com [7]