Responsive HTML5 creating your own gallery to use in multiple books

[laughingsquirrel]

Hi all,

Using FM12 on Windows 8 (for good measure). So .. I want to created my own "gallery" to create a responsive HTML5 output for all of my books. Here's what I did:

1. In C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\FrameMaker\12\ResponsiveHelpExt\Layouts\ I copied Theme1_Standard.slz and renamed it MyCompany.slz

2. In C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp\TPUBTMP\!ScreenLayout! I copied the Theme1_Standard folder and rename it MyCompany.slz

3. In FM12, I did book>Publish>Responsive HTML5>Edit Settings>Gallery and selected the MyCompany gallery.

4. I edited the gallery with the look and feel I wanted, and published the output. At that point I did notice that the C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp\TPUBTMP\!ScreenLayout!\MyCompany folder miraculously disappeared. I copied back in from the template folder in the output.

But then I opened a new book and set the gallery to MyCompany. When I clicked Edit I noticed immediately that it showed the Theme1_Standard gallery. Sigh.

My best guess is that it's because when you edit the gallery, the SLZ is not updated. So it does not appear that you can edit the gallery and save them in any kind of way, which makes this feature somewhat useless as most of us need a look and feel across all our manuals.

Has anyone dabbled with this? The only solution I can think of is to install a trial RH11 version and create the SLZ there?

Thanks much for your input!

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Is your FM12 all patched up? There were a couple of updates that exposed more of the publishing innards.

[laughingsquirrel]

I just found out from a chat with support that indeed you cannot save you Responsive HTML5 layout design. You literally will have to edit the layout settings for each book, which is a huge pain in the derriere. What a tremendous feature gap.

I haven't used RH in years but installed a trial version to see if I can create the SLZ there ...

[Arnis Gubins]

Make a copy of the Theme that you want to modify in the folder that you found it (#1). i.e. MyCompany.slz Leave it there.

The slz file is just a zip container.

In FM, when editing the sts file for the Responsive HTML5, select Layout > Gallery... on the Outputs tab and pick the MyCompany from the Gallery list. Ignore the warning when you click OK.

Then proceed to edit the layout using the Layout > Edit... and create test outputs until you're satisfied with the customized layout. Step (#4) in your original posting. All of the changes are stored in the TPUBTMP folder wherever you've defined your system TEMP file to be (this can vary by user and installation).

Within this TPUBTMP folder, there will be a !ScreenLayout! folder that in turn contains a folder named after the slz file, e.g. MyCompany.

Simply zip this MyCompany folder with all contents preserving the internal folder structure and rename the MyCompany.zip to MyCompany.slz.

Now replace the old MyFolder.slz in the C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\FrameMaker\12\ResponsiveHelpExt\Layouts\  location with the new one that you just renamed and all your changes will be available for future use.

[laughingsquirrel]

Thanks Arnis, it is very useful to know that the SLZ is just zip file. Sadly though, things became worse when I updated to the latest update (12.02.389) ... I created the SLZ as you suggested. When I click Edit in the Layout area, it now complains it cannot find the MasterThemeSchema.xml file, even though it's there ... maddening.

[Arnis Gubins]

At what level did you zip the folder? The SLZ file should be starting in the within the theme-named folder not having that as the first level of the slz. Perhaps that's why it says it can't find the MasterThemeSchema.xml file - it's one level down. Unpack and re-zip.

[laughingsquirrel]

Thanks for the reply Arnis. It's at the right level - for the Edit it's pulling from the layouts folder, not the SLZ. I just had support confirm the bug. Waiting to hear if there's a workaround. It does it in RH11 also. Except that the error message doesn't have a typo there .

[laughingsquirrel]

Just in case someone runs into this - I chatted once again with support and, my luck, I got someone who really knew his stuff! We deleted the TPUBTMP folders (there was more than one in my case). It seems that all you need is the SLZ in the C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\FrameMaker\12\ResponsiveHelpExt\Layouts\ folder; no need to create the unzipped folder in the TPUBTMP folder. Frame does that I guess. I am up and running and can now use the customized theme across books it looks like.