Converting interactive PDF or PPT file with hyperlinks into Framemaker to Robohelp for publishing

[HARISH34042353owiz]

hi all, I am on FrameMaker 17 and would like to know if anyone has converted an interactive PDF from PPT (essentially a PPT file with master pages and hyperlinks) into FM that can be then published online via RoboHelp? If anyone has any bit of experience in this it woud be super helpful.

My source document is in Word with styles identified for headings and paragraphs. I have a Proof of concept in PPT that shows the interactive links I would like to have to link to content. 

Is it easier to convert from PPT to FM to RH or do I convert from Word (my source content) and build all my interactions from scratch in FM using Master Pages? thanks in advance

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

What kind of interactivity are you talking about? And what does getting it into RH via FM give you? Why not try generating directly out of FM? More info required before anyone here can make suggestions on the best route to go.

[HARISH34042353owiz]

thanks kindly Jeff 

My end goal is to have a website like buttons menu system that presents my topics and subtopics like a website. This will ultimately be published and hosted on Sharepoint for enterprise wide access and use. 

My source for all content is now in word with styles and formatting with body text, screen shots, tables and callouts. 

How best do I make this happen? Let me know if this is adequate detail. 

Re: Interactivity: Before using framemaker, I built such complex content in PPT with master pages enulating various menu pages and submenu pages all hyperlinked - so that when I published it in PDF it became an interactive PDF all built from PPT. 

Many thanks in advance for helping...

[HARISH34042353owiz]

I am happy to generate it in FM and RH if I knew how best to set that up...

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools]

If you want to work in Fm, you may find it easiest to publish directly from Fm, rather than setting up the linked project simply to publish the HTML.

(At least, that has been my experience)

If you want to publish from Rh, I'd suggest importing the Word directly into Rh.

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools]

Since you mention that your source document is in Word, you will want to import the original file (DOC/DOCX)  into either FrameMaker or RoboHelp.

This will be much more elegant than importing either a PDF or PPT file.

Whether you bring into Fm or Rh depends on which application you're most comfortable with as you go forward.

-Matt

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Ok, so your interactivity is just links to topics via the TOC or from searches. You'd want to create Responsive HTML5 as the output. This can be done in a couple of routes - Word source content imported into FM and then published to HTML5 directly out of FM (broken up into individual topics via the "pagination" settings you choose). OR you could import that Word content into RH, breaking it up into many separate topics on the basis of the pagination settings you define - H1, H2, etc. and then generate HTML5 output from there. RH currently has more "templates/skins" than FM does for HTML5 with an extra configurable one called "Frameless" that you or your web folks can customize.

[HARISH34042353owiz]

Thanks @Jeff_Coatsworth and @Matt-Tech Comm Tools!  

I am new to both FM and RH so I will give these a shot and give you updates as I go. I have worked in the past with Quark (aplogies lol) and other Adobe Products including InDesign.  So every bit of help helps!

[HARISH34042353owiz]

I think I will start with RH and then see how far I get... with thanks. 

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

A great resource for RH is Peter Grainge's site - grainge.org 

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools]

Never apologize for working with quality software!

FrameMaker is closer to QXP and InDesign than is RoboHelp.

The "book" paradigm might suit you better than the topic-based RoboHelp projects.

RoboHelp, however, is nice because it's an HTML editor, and thus closer to your final output.

Jeff brings up a good point about the outputs...RoboHelp does have a couple of elegant output formats that just a touch more contemporary than the ones available in FrameMaker. 

[HARISH34042353owiz]

Thanks!! 🙂 happier camper now!!! I will dive deeper into RH then. WIll keep you posted here... if you both dont mind. Still a babe in the woods!

[FrameMaker-dk]

It sounds to me like you have your eyes very much set on producing a help file in HTML or HTML5. There is  a question which I can't see you have mentioned. Are you going to maintain this document? Is the information going to evolve, and IF it is, who is going to do the maintenance? Are you developing the solution on behalf of a client, and are you ready to skip mainentance in Word/PPT in favor of FrameMaker or RoboHelp?

If you choose to do the development for the HTML5 solution on the basis of FrameMaker, I would absolutely suggest using a premade template. Designing an HTML5 version out of a FrameMaker document is pretty time consuming if you want to maintain the same look and feel of the source.

[HARISH34042353owiz]

Thanks @Jeff_Coatsworth I will be checking out Peter's site. Appreciate your insight on RH @Matt-Tech Comm Tools 

Thanks @FrameMaker-dk re maintenance. All maintenance will be managed by my client once I have published the online help.

I am proceeding with RH for a proof of concept for now and will update on my progress. Its a secondary option as am awaiting to see if we can design and publish directly in sharepoint. I hope this helps. Much of it is depending on my client's environment requirements. 

Sorry for the tardy response - had to speak to other departments for final output environment. My source docs are word. Final output is an online help experience - all help content currently is in Sharepoint. So am going to test my proof of concept (linked TOC menus).   

[Jeff_Coatsworth · Accepted solution]

RH also supports generating HTML5 output to hosted on SP - I think it gives all the pages a .aspx extension.