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rachaeladams
rachaeladams
Participant
July 20, 2015
Answered

Conditional tagging,single sourcing and reducing the project size

  • July 20, 2015
  • 2 replies
  • 942 views

Hi all,

I am using RoboHelp 10, and trying to figure out a solution to some problem areas in the project I am working on,  like:

  1. The RoboHelp project that we work on is quite large. As a result, generating outputs takes a lot of time. WebHelp output takes more than 15 minutes at times, whereas PDF output gets stuck, and ultimately, we need to cancel it. We have some sections in our project that are extensively used by all authors. So we do not want to split the project into multiple child projects and then merge it back again as that would mean unequal distribution of work among our team members. How can we reduce the project size to increase efficiency? Is it something to do with file corruption or the number of pages?
  2. We use two separate projects for CS Help and WebHelp. We are also planning to conditionally tag the WebHelp project for CS content, so that we can create the CS Help and WebHelp using single-sourcing. One solution that I think might work is to create a new ToC for the CS Help within the WebHelp project, and generate the tagged output. On trying it out, it didnt work though. Also, can I use a different stylesheet for both WebHelp and CS Help? if yes, any suggestions as to how I can do that? 

I would really appreciate any help from all the experts here.

Thanks,

RA

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Eager Beager

Hi all,

Thanks for replying. I have used the term "CS Help" for Context Sensitive Help.

Okay, maybe I should give more details.  I have tried PDF generation on other RoboHelp projects for our organization's products. No issues there. This particular project that I am talking about has more than 2000 pages, and is yet to grow more, as we need to keep adding details for all new developments. Also, we use a lot of graphics, which also increase the project size considerably. Is there any threshold for the number of topics our project should have for it to work smoothly or with minimum issues?

Let me put down the steps I have taken to generate the Context Sensitive Help out of my main Project (I used a similar approach in Adobe Framemaker to conditionally tag content):

  1. Created a new ToC for CS Help, with the same book level-structure (path) as required in the output.
  2. Created a new tag for CS content, and tagged the content in a few topics for testing.
  3. Selected WebHelp in Single Source Layout.
  4. Selected the new ToC and also selected the new CS tag in Conditional Build Expression, in the WebHelp Settings> Content Categories> Content window.
  5. Generated the WebHelp.

Should I also select " Exclude Unreferenced Topics from Output" ?

I did not see any change in the webhelp even after applying the new tag to my topics. It gave me the same old output.

Thanks!


Thanks for the additional info, Rachael.

With respect to, "Exclude Unreferenced Topics from Output," something to keep in mind that several output formats will include topics that aren't explicitly listed in the TOC. So this checkbox is used to exclude topics that you otherwise haven't referenced.

However, another approach uses Conditional Build Tags that are applied on the Topic-level.

For example, of your 2,000 pages, suppose that a significant portion of those were not included in the TOC, but you want a handful of reference pages available through the Search function. Do the following:

  1. Create a Conditional Build Tag along the lines of, "Exclude From All."
  2. In the Topic List, select all the topics, right-click and choose Properties.
  3. On the Advanced tab, tick your Exclude From All checkbox, ...tick this once...then wait for RoboHelp to update (this will be a long wait for 2,000 topics.
  4. Once you have visual confirmation that the checkbox is ticked, click OK to close the dialog. Again, there will be a lag.
  5. In your TOC, right-click each chapter and use hotkeys [y + n] to access the conditional build tags.
  6. For each chapter in turn, clear the Exclude From All checkbox. There will be a slight lag, per the number of topics in each chapter.
  7. In the Topic List, locate the topics that, though they aren't in the TOC, you want them to be compiled with the project. Clear the Exclude From All checkbox for each of these.
  8. In the Conditional Build Expression for your project, confirm that your Exclude From All tag is in the Exclude from output column.

2 replies

E
Eager Beager
Inspiring
July 20, 2015

From your descriptions, you have quite a bit going on, which I'm having trouble wrapping my mind about.

However, with respect to complation time. Have you considered constructing a high-end machine, including an SSD, to help ramp down the compilation time?

With respect to the PDF generation hanging, are you able to perform the PDF as a separate compilation? I'm thinking your computer is getting bogged down (i.e., getting low on resources), and compiling the PDF in addition to other output formats is contributing to excessive compilation time.

Peter Grainge
Community Expert
Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
July 21, 2015

PDF hanging could be a resource issue but assuming you have tried allowing it to run overnight, it could be a more common issue where some users simply cannot generate directly to PDF but going to Word first works just fine. From there creating the PDF works just fine.

Some years ago there was some research into the right PC for technical authors. The conclusion was that the overriding feature was disk access speed.

As using different CSS for each output, in the output dialog you will see you can set any CSS to override what is defined in the topics.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

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rachaeladams
rachaeladamsAuthor
Participant
July 22, 2015

Hi all,

Thanks for replying. I have used the term "CS Help" for Context Sensitive Help.

Okay, maybe I should give more details.  I have tried PDF generation on other RoboHelp projects for our organization's products. No issues there. This particular project that I am talking about has more than 2000 pages, and is yet to grow more, as we need to keep adding details for all new developments. Also, we use a lot of graphics, which also increase the project size considerably. Is there any threshold for the number of topics our project should have for it to work smoothly or with minimum issues?

Let me put down the steps I have taken to generate the Context Sensitive Help out of my main Project (I used a similar approach in Adobe Framemaker to conditionally tag content):

  1. Created a new ToC for CS Help, with the same book level-structure (path) as required in the output.
  2. Created a new tag for CS content, and tagged the content in a few topics for testing.
  3. Selected WebHelp in Single Source Layout.
  4. Selected the new ToC and also selected the new CS tag in Conditional Build Expression, in the WebHelp Settings> Content Categories> Content window.
  5. Generated the WebHelp.

Should I also select " Exclude Unreferenced Topics from Output" ?

I did not see any change in the webhelp even after applying the new tag to my topics. It gave me the same old output.

Thanks!

Willam van Weelden
Willam van Weelden
Inspiring
July 20, 2015

What is CS Help?

1:

  • How many topics does the project have? Speed does depend on the number of topics but 15 mins. is not unreasonable for a mid size project.
  • Can you generate a Word document ok? Or is it only the PDF. Does the PDF creation succeed with one of the sample project.

2:

  • This seems to counter your first point. Single sourcing is avoiding breaking it up to allow better content management.
  • Yes, you can use conditional tags for this. What exactly did you try out? There is probably something amiss in the steps. If you provide more details, we may know where it is going wrong. Also take a look at the sample projects. They show how you can apply tags.
  • For the CSS: In the Single Source Layout, you can assign as CSS to all topics on generation. Check the content page.
Captiv8r
Captiv8r
Legend
July 20, 2015

Just guessing here that CS help meand Context Sensitive?

Jeff_Coatsworth
Community Expert
Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
Community Expert
July 20, 2015

@Rick – that was my guess too, but the comment that the OP had one flavour for CSH and another for WebHelp didn’t make too much sense. I guess we’ll need some more clarification from the OP ;>)

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