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Adorable_Flutter16B7
Adorable_Flutter16B7
Participant
May 11, 2017
Question

Do I need Robohelp with FrameMaker 2017 to generate CSH

  • May 11, 2017
  • 5 replies
  • 1906 views

Hello! I searched this forum for a while, so sorry if this has been asked before. If I'm using FrameMaker 2017, do I need Robohelp to generate Context Sensitive Help (CSH)?

Thanks,

This topic has been closed for replies.

5 replies

R
rlauriston
Inspiring
May 14, 2019

FrameMaker's subset of RoboHelp functionality does not include the ability to generate a map file (a basic feature of help authoring tools). While it's technically possible to create and maintain the map file manually in a text editor, I would strongly recommend getting the Technical Communication Suite and linking the FrameMaker source to RoboHelp to generate help.

Linking (rather than importing) FrameMaker source is not covered in Adobe's documentation, so I created this sample project and doc:

http://lauriston.com/fm10_link_to_rh9.zip

The correct way to write help calls is documented here (which is referenced in Using FrameMaker):

https://help.adobe.com/en_US/robohelp/2017/robohtml/#t=book%2Frob_createhelp_ch%2FInformation_for_developers-.htm

    A
    Adobe Employee
    Amitoj
    Adobe Employee
    May 15, 2019

    With next release of FM, the plan is to continue to improve HTML and other output types and work is underway on  a new publishing engine.

    thanks

    Amitoj Singh

      Robert_^_W
      Robert_^_W
      Inspiring
      February 18, 2019

      Unless you have a really complicated output requirement, the built in publishing system with FM should be just fine. If you need to tweak all the details of the output, then maybe RH would be a good compliment. We have found that using the CSH system without adding RoboHelp to the mix works just fine.

      Hezy A
      Hezy A
      Inspiring
      February 17, 2019

      I would like to add that I have been working on this, and submitted a HTML 5 context sensitive help file based on Frame 2017 only to R&D, and it works really well.

        Hezy A
        Hezy A
        Inspiring
        February 18, 2019

        The code that worked in the end for the programmer to call the CSH was

        index.html?rhmapid=<code>

        when she used the CSH_topicname

        and not the number from the .h file

        If you need the full instructions that we used for the whole procedure, i can copy them from here, but they were taken from the Frame Help files, and from posts here.

          Matt-Tech Comm Tools
          Community Expert
          Matt-Tech Comm ToolsCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          February 19, 2019

          My only concern in using the CSH_# is that if you introduce/delete a  marker, your mapping may increment/decrement, which might throw off the numbering of markers after the new/deleted marker.

          -Matt Sullivan, FrameMaker Course Creator, Author, Trainer, Consultant
          Matt-Tech Comm Tools
          Community Expert
          Matt-Tech Comm ToolsCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          May 12, 2017

          (teasing Jeff in this first part)
          No, but you'll find that the Fm>Rh setup has challenges, and the direct Fm publishing has challenges as well.

          A personal choice, to be sure; I choose the Fm route over the Fm>Rh route.

          -Matt Sullivan, FrameMaker Course Creator, Author, Trainer, Consultant
          FM_Sockies
          FM_Sockies
          Participating Frequently
          May 31, 2017

          Hi Matt,

          my team just switched to FM 2017 and we would like to generate CSH using Framemaker (not Rh). Could you let me know how you handle the help map file? As far as I have understood, you need to manually adjust this file everytime you generate the output, right? Is there any other way? This just doesn't seem feasible...

          Thanks and BR

          V.

          Matt-Tech Comm Tools
          Community Expert
          Matt-Tech Comm ToolsCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          June 2, 2017

          Unless you're adding CSH markers, you shouldn't have to touch the map file. But as with Rh, if you need to add new markers or adjust IDs, you need to adjust the .h file. The difference is whether you do this in a text editor (easy enough) or in Rh's UI (even easier).

          Jeff's right, in that the .h interface makes it easy to do this in Rh, but then again, there's a lot of overhead in managing and setup of integration, not to mention a heavy processing load each time you update Fm content in Rh.

          Bottom line: You need to travel down each road to see which is the more rational choice.

          -Matt Sullivan, FrameMaker Course Creator, Author, Trainer, Consultant
            Jeff_Coatsworth
            Community Expert
            Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            May 12, 2017

            No, but the interface is much easier to work with (IMHO) in RH than it is inside FM.

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