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A
Anonymous
May 14, 2009
Question

Text formatting, errant/missing spaces, misleading preview and streamlined editing.

  • May 14, 2009
  • 1 reply
  • 1301 views

Hello,

I've read up a bit on this forum and at http://www.grainge.org/. I'm still very new to Robohelp (I've only been using it for about 2 months).

I'm currently using Robohelp 7.03.001 and editing a help file created in earlier versions (Robohelp 5 and older - the project started in 1993/4).

I understand that Robohelp will sometimes add-in extraneous bits of code, which will affect the format of the text, and that this problem is exacerbated by altering the text format multiple times. To fix this problem I've either retyped the offending text or tried to edit the html code (removing unnecessary tags).

So far I've been using the preview function to check for formatting errors. But I've gotten to the stage where I need to show the project to someone else and therefore generated the pages. The generated pages, however, contain mistakes that didn't previously show up in the preview function.

I've had some success going back into the html and digging out the problematic code by checking the generated page. But this is very cumbersome, is there a better way?

Specific Questions:

1) The incidence of Robohelp-caused formatting problems seems to be lower in the original project files. Could part of the problem be that I'm editing pages created using older versions of Robohelp and that just by opening the pages in Robohelp 7, the code is being altered? And if so are there automated converters or a better way of editing than just by eye.

2) I'm having problems locating dropdown and expanding text in the html. I try to look up the ID numbers but this doesn't always yield results. Any hints and tips?

3) Generating the pages to check for individual formatting errors is very time consuming. Is there a way I can generate just one page?

Many thanks in advance.

Andrew

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1 reply

Peter Grainge
Community Expert
Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 14, 2009

1] The conversion is automated each time you upgrade from one version to another. If there are problems after that, then it is a case of cleaning up by eye. That said, I have not encountered problems in a project that goes way back. Maybe your topics include Word imports? They can give some pretty awful HTML. Import one or two of these topics into a new project and generate. Problem still there?

2] You should find them near the top of your code.

3] Only in the Print layout. See if that encounters the same issues.

See if the problem topics contain these meta tags.

<meta name=Originator content=ImportDoc>

<meta name=OriginalFile content="filename.doc">

If they do, delete them and see if that changes things.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

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A
Anonymous
May 14, 2009

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your response.

1] The topics I have been editing don't contain any word imports.

2] Thanks =).

3] I don't seem to have a print preview function. Do you mean something else?

I'll try the importing idea tomorrow.

Andrew

Peter Grainge
Community Expert
Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 14, 2009

I was indicating generating a printed document is the only layout that lets you include specify exactly what you want to print without the use of build tags.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

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