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cry4blood
Known Participant
June 4, 2009
Question

A strange layout problem...

  • June 4, 2009
  • 1 reply
  • 1409 views

Hey everyone

I have to make a small  accompanying site with Robohelp, and there seems to be some problems. No matter how many times I generate and compile, the result I get in the browser isn't the same as what I see in the WYSIWYG. Any suggestions?

I added the screenshots so you can see what I mean...

thanks in advance!

greets,

C4B

This is what it should look like. As you can see, the image is far more to the right so the text isn't forced into some tiny little box. The text just flows along aside the image and stops just about near the edge of the image...

this is what it looks like in the browser. I know the quality of the screenshot is pretty crappy, but I hope you can tell the difference: the text has obviously been forced into a text box with an a lot smaller width than the one that was shown as a preview in Robohelp...

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    A
    Anonymous
    June 4, 2009

    I can't tell from the images quite how you laid out the text with the graphic, so bear with me.

    I have found tables to be the best way to control column sizes in published WebHelp. If you are not in a table, I recommend it.

    If you are already in a table, do you have your text in one column and your image in the next column? If you haven't, I would try that - you can specify the sizes of the two columns in pixels, or as a percentage of the window, and you can (I think) specify that the table is x% of the window and the image is y pixels, leaving the text column to spread out or condense based on the size of the window. These are all things HTML can do, but RH does sometimes play with your table formatting, so I can't guarantee results.

    If you are already in a table, what is going on with the paragraph that is centered under the text/image block? Don't put that paragraph in a table row with merged cells. End the table and put in that paragraph as centered text. I have my doubts about merging HTML table cells - I know it's possible, but I get hosed up badly every time I try.

    Just some things to start with - and BTW, I adore your cartoon!

    C
    cry4bloodAuthor
    Known Participant
    June 5, 2009

    hi,

    @Elisa: thx for your reply and the compliment Yes, I've been using tables for the site layout. The problem is, wether I change it in WYSIWYG or in the True code section, Robohelp just stubbornly ignores all the changes I make. Sure, you can see the changes in WYSIWYG but it doesn't change when I see it in a browser. It just seems Robohelp just refuses to be useful. >.<

    About the lower centered paragraph: it isn't made out of merged cells: I just made the layout with a table in the main body shape, so it is outside of the table. It truly isn't the problem, trust me, I deleted every sinlge part of code to see why the shoe doesn't seem to fit, and I am out of options

    @captiv8tor: thx for your reply. Adjusting the width of the table - unfortunately - doesn't work.

    And the most enfuriating thing of it all is: if I open the page without the TOC in a normal browser window, it DOES make the changes!!! >.<

    thanks for your reply, I'll just try to force my boss to allow me to make the site with notepad or something...

    greets,

    C4B

    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 9, 2009

    Hi everyone

    thank you so very much for all your very helpful replies. I managed to work out the problem. The site isn't on yet, but at least now in the prototype it looks alright

    greets,

    c4b


    For the benefit of anyone else hitting this problem, what was the answer?

    See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

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