Newbie vs Contitional Cross-References

[_Marjorie_Lynch-Freshner_]

I am working on a document which will be published to both PDF and HTML via RoboHelp. On the PDF version I want my cross references to say:

see "topic" on page x.

But on the HTML I want:

see "topic".

I know I can put both cross references in the document and then use conditional text to blank one of them out depending on the document, but is there an easier more elegant method?

Thanks,
Marjorie

[Guest]

Marjorie, in case there are differences in capabilities between versions (esp. with the new Technical communications suite) would you specify your versions of both FM and RoboHelp.

[Russ Ward]

Marjorie,

I haven't used it lately, but I'm reasonably sure this is something you can set up in RoboHelp. There should be some mapping feature that allows you to convert xrefs into a more HTML-appropriate format. You shouldn't need to account for this in your FM source.

Russ

[_Marjorie_Lynch-Freshner_]

A clarification on my question. " will be published from FrameMaker to PDF and from FM to HTML via RoboHelp".

Sheila,

To answer your question first:
I am using Tech Com Suite so
FrameMaker 8.0 (I think I am up to .04 by now. and
RoboHelp 7.0 with whatever updates I have been told about.

Russ,

I suspect that you were expecting me to keep the master copy in RoboHelp, not FrameMaker. Is there any advantage to bringing the PDF from RoboHelp rather than publishing it directly from Frame?

Thanks,
Marjorie

[Russ Ward]

Majorie,

That's not what I meant, and I hope I'm not misunderstanding your question. When you import your FM files into RoboHelp, one of the wizard screens has a "Style Mappings" area with an Edit button. That button brings up a dialog box where you can select "Cross Reference Styles" at the top and adjust how they appear in RoboHelp. This is the normal method of removing things like xref page numbers when you make help files out of your FM books.

Russ

[_Marjorie_Lynch-Freshner_]

Russ,

Thank you.

So I just set it up for PDF now, and change the formats over when I get it into RoboHelp,right?

When I got your reply, I looked at my question and saw how it could be misinterpreted. Sorry about the confusion.

Marjorie

[Tigdave]

If you want autogenerated xref text (and possibly other things) to be different then you should set up two stylesheets - one to be applied before generating PDF output, and another to be applied before generating HTML output.

There are bound to be other differences that you want to use in the different outputs; you won't be able to remember all the hacks to apply them manually, and a stylesheet is the correct place to store them all.