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pixiesparkles13
Known Participant
January 12, 2012
Question

Styles and Formatting issues! Styles are not staying when published

  • January 12, 2012
  • 1 reply
  • 589 views

Hello

I am helping create an online help system in Robohelp.

The content we are using to populate the online help, are Word documents.

These documents have a large amount of styles applied to them already, so

we have been removing all the styles before transferring them to RH.

Then we are attempting to re-format them in RH correctly.

Originally, I set up custom styles for our project, and they were very inconsistent.

There would be a header, with a custom Header style, so we would click the header text and apply

the style to it... Sometimes the font would show up different color, different sizes... very inconsistent,

but I am using the same style. hmm.

So we removed all the styles and put them back to the default.

Now, we are clicking on all text, making sure it is set to the Normal style,

and setting the properties we want to each bit of text. i.e. font, color, size.

This is quite time consuming... and sadly its not keeping the formatting once the project is

published.

(When building and reviewing all is well)

Can you please help us figure out this style/formatting issue?

Its very frustrating and we need to build our help system in a timely matter (instead of wasting hours struggling with formatting issues)

Why would publishing cause such drastic changes?

I truely appreciate and help or advice!

Thanks

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 12, 2012

    Can you hear any police sirens wailing? It is because you have failed to read the sticky topic Before You Post where we ask that all threads start with the version of RoboHelp being used. You can avoid jail by paying an on the spot fine.

    Joking apart, the import process has changed with different versions so knowing what you are using is important. Take a look at Importing on my site, hopefully one of the topics there will help you.

    The process you are using will always give best results but, as you know, it is horribly tedious and you should not have to go to such lengths.

    See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

    @petergrainge

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    pixiesparkles13Author
    Known Participant
    January 12, 2012

    Opps!! soo sorry about that!

    I am using RoboHelp 9.0.1

    & I have searched forums and read alot of information on your website...

    I really dont want to "import" a word file per say

    Im wondering if this issue has anything to do with the default css ( which we are using)

    or with some crazy inline styling...

    Also do you think will go smoother once whe have our RH server place?

    Thanks for your response and your advice

    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 16, 2012

    "we are clicking on all text, making sure it is set to the Normal style, and setting the properties we want to each bit of text. i.e. font, color, size. This is quite time consuming... and sadly its not keeping the formatting once the project is published. (When building and reviewing all is well)"

    OK - you want to do it the hard, time consuming way.

    The first observation is that approach is going to be prone to more error if I have understood you correctly. Making proper use of CSS is so much quicker and ultimately gives more consistent results but inline formatttiing, which is what I think you are describing, should work. The pain will be when you want to change the appearance in the future. Instead of a simple CSS change, you will have to manually change it all.

    If the help looks right locally but not on the server, the first thing to check is that all your files are making it to the server, especially the CSS file. If that is not it, then check if things are different in different browsers.

    Some screenshots of source and output would help. Use the camera icon to add them.

    See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

    @petergrainge

    Use the menu (bottom right) to mark the Best Answer or Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.
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