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gagang90623551
Known Participant
March 1, 2021
Question

Resources for generating PDF from Robohelp

  • March 1, 2021
  • 7 replies
  • 757 views

Hi,

 

We are moving towards single sourcing through Robohelp to generate online help and PDFs and are trying to find the best way to set the PDF to show as it is generated from FrameMaker. Robohelp does not seem to give any control over how the bookmarks are generated from Robohelp. Also, can't find an easy way to create chapter title pages with topic links and style the TOC to look good. Basically the PDF from robohelp no where close to looking like what it does from framemaker.

We have spent hours playing with options in the tools and have searched for content online, videos etc. but can't find a good resource we can use to get started. We find videos like these which show possibilities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjMGJdsyfjQ

 

If anyone out there has something that they can share, and point to experts that can help with this, we will be greatful.

 

thanks

Gagan

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    7 replies

    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 5, 2021

    @gagang90623551 I sent you a comprehensive reply to your offline questions. Have you received it? If so did it answer your questions?

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    G
    gagang90623551Author
    Known Participant
    March 9, 2021

    I have been out of office. just got back today. give me a couple of days to try the suggestions you made.

     

    Thanks again for your help and sorry for the delay in response!

    Gagan

    G
    gagang90623551Author
    Known Participant
    April 13, 2021

    I have been able to resolve the bookmarks problem using this plugin https://www.evermap.com/buy.asp?family=2

     

    it was a very simple plugin to setup. We are finally able to setup robohelp to single source for help and PDF and have the complete PDF now, with all the features.

     

    @Peter Grainge thank you so much for all the help you provided with this as well.

     

    thanks

    Gagan

    johndaigle
    johndaigle
    Legend
    March 2, 2021

    Hi, Gagan and Jeff

    We are working offline on this and I'll report back to this forum when we have resolved the situation. 
    Thanks!
    John Daigle

    John DaigleAdobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate InstructorNewport, Oregon
    Jeff_Coatsworth
    Community Expert
    Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 1, 2021

    Want to post some screenshots (use the image icon in the web interface) to show where you're having problems? Maybe others can chime in with suggestions (I'm not much help because I create PDFs via FM and online help via RH for one of my projects & for the other authored solely in RH, I don't need PDFs at all).

    Jeff_Coatsworth
    Community Expert
    Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 1, 2021

    Have you tried following how @johndaigle did the PDF generation in that video? 

    G
    gagang90623551Author
    Known Participant
    March 1, 2021

    Yes, we followed the steps and are able to generate the PDF. The problem is it does not look as nicely done as shown in the video and we are not able to figure out a way to do it even after spending many hours on it 😞

    Jeff_Coatsworth
    Community Expert
    Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 1, 2021

    If your content is in FM, then the best solution right now is to create PDFs out of FM and import your content into RH to create frameless HTML5 help in RH. I say right now, because the FM Publish route is creeping up on what RH can create & I suspect that the next few versions may start incorporating the newer version of RH under the FM hood (right now it uses the RH Classic engine with fewer of the knob & controls exposed than what you would see in RH Classic).
    I haven't enough time lately (go figure) to test the import FM to RH route, but there have been some reported issues. The RH team keeps working on improving the import mechanism each release.

    G
    gagang90623551Author
    Known Participant
    March 1, 2021

    OK. We are setup in Robohelp for new product documentation, so going from Frame to Robohelp is not an option. Anyway, thanks for your help. Will wait and see if anyone out there has already setup robohelp to generate better PDFs and may we are just not aware of those options. like this video shows things done way better than what we can: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjMGJdsyfjQ

    Jeff_Coatsworth
    Community Expert
    Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 1, 2021

    You don't mention what version of RH you're running - it's not that surprising that the PDF output out of RH doesn't match what FM is capable of - it was never designed to create high-quality print material, whereas FM's whole existence revolved around book publishing. RH is getting better in more recent versions - you no longer have to go through Word to get to PDF. But some tweaking may be required post-production.

    [Edit - just saw your version - that's up to date - what method are you using for PDF creation?]

    G
    gagang90623551Author
    Known Participant
    March 1, 2021

    Thanks, Jeff. we use Robohelp version we are using is: 2020.3.32

    Robohelp is so close, except for these glitches. If we have to single source with Adobe products, these are some basic things which would make our lives so much easy, as without good navigation and break of chapters clearly, the PDFs are hard to scan and navigate.

    I also tried the reverese of generating Robohelp output from Framemaker, but we did not find the frameless output in framemaker as an option.

    The Frameless output in robohelp is perfect of modern looking help and we love that feature 🙂

    G
    gagang90623551Author
    Known Participant
    March 1, 2021

    Robohelp version we are using is: 2020.3.32

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