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A
Anonymous
April 1, 2010
Question

TCS2/RH 8 HTML PDF List Indent Problems

  • April 1, 2010
  • 1 reply
  • 1235 views

Hi,

We are in the process of converting a; number of projects from RH X5 HTML to RH 8 HTML (installed as p/o TCS2). We use Windows XP and Word 2002. Things have gone 'reasonably' well, but we are having problems getting to the desired point with PDFs.

With RHX5, we use custom CSSs and a custom *.dot file. It works exactly as expected, controlling indents, bullets, and numbers properly.

For theRH8 conversion, we modified the CSSs, using 4 RH 8 multilevel lists to define a number list and 3 levels of bullet lists. The CSS styles are mapped to the equivalent styles in the original *.dot file, which we did not modify at all. The CSSs and *.dot are stored at the root level of the project directory.

When we generate PDFs:

  • We receive a number of error messages saying that Word cannot save normal.dot b/c it is open somewhere else.
  • Bullet lists are not indented, all levels of bullet lists are aligned to the left margin.
  • In the generated Word document, the bulleted list items are in the Normal paragraph style, but bullets are included. They should be in ListBullet1, etc. It appears they were changed to Normal and inline formatting was applied.
  • In the Word file, under Tools -> Templates and Add-ins, under Document template, our *.dot, with the expected path, is listed as the template. Under Global templates and add-ins, PDFMCustom.dot is listed. We don't know where that came from, and if we delete it it comes right back when we generate.

Do you have any ideas about why the CSS + *.dot method is not working as expected?

We have the same problem using other configurations for PDF outputs, such as using project styles, and using the RH style mapping dot file.

Thanks,

Mike

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Peter Grainge
Community Expert
Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 5, 2010

Take a look at the topic on lists in the RoboHelp Tour on my site.

You say

The CSS styles are mapped to the equivalent styles in the original *.dot file

I'm curious how you did that because the last page of the print wizard does not allow you to map list styles.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

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A
Anonymous
April 9, 2010

Peter,

Thanks for your response. I did some additional research and testing, and I don't see an answer to the issue that doesn't involve inline formatting. I didn't test that, because inline formatting is not acceptable to our team - we need the consistency of defined styles.

There is a terminology error in my original post:

"For theRH8 conversion, we modified the CSSs, using 4 RH 8 multilevel lists to define a number list and 3 levels of bullet lists. "

We are not using multilevel lists, we are using paragraph styles with bullet or number formatting included.

The print wizard seems to allow mapping the paragraph-based list styles:

However, in the Word doc that is generated as part of the PDF process, the associated paragraphs are styled 'Normal" instead of the the selected list styles.

Below is a CSS snippet of two list styles and their associated rh-list statements.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Mike

p.ListBullet {
font-size: small;
list-style: rh-list;
x-list-class: rl-P-ListBullet;
/* x-list-level: 1; */
font-family: Arial;
text-indent: -25pt;
margin-left: 30pt;
background-color: Transparent;
}
P.ListBullet2 {
font-size: small;
text-indent: -12pt;
margin-left: 48pt;
font-family: Arial;
list-style: rh-list;
x-list-class: rl-P-ListBullet2;
x-list-level: 1;
}

}
rh-list.rl-P-ListBullet {
x-level-count: 1;
x-lvl-1-format: "<x>";
x-lvl-1-type: disc;
}

rh-list.rl-P-ListBullet2 {
x-level-count: 1;
x-lvl-1-format: "<x>.";
x-lvl-1-type: square;
}

Peter Grainge
Community Expert
Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 13, 2010

RH8 does not play nicely with lists that are created from paragraph styles, see other posts on this forum.

The only reason the print wizard seems to allow list mapping is precisely because the "list styles" are not based on OL UL and LI tags as they should be in HTML, you have based them on the P tag.

Take a look at the RoboHelp Tour on my site and look for Lists. See if the way I work that is explained there helps with your scenario.

Lists in printed documentation have long been a problem, as covered in some other pages on my site.

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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