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P
Panitzke
Known Participant
June 28, 2012
Question

Can I systematically update my UDVs after outputting to HTML?

  • June 28, 2012
  • 2 replies
  • 812 views

Hello All,

I am writing help content for software that is highly customizable. Users can change field labels and other labels very easily. However, if any of these labels are changed, users will no longer be able to identify the field descriptions in the help content.

I am trying to find a systematic way of updating these field names in the help content when the field label in the software is changed.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

A

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

Jeff_Coatsworth
Community Expert
Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 29, 2012

I’ve got some of the same issues in one of our modules – clients can change the “factory” terminology to suit their situation. I ended up using the “factory” defaults throughout my documentation with an explanatory note about the customization aspect. As Rick says, you probably don’t want to try going down the road of variables.

Willam van Weelden
Willam van Weelden
Inspiring
June 29, 2012

LOL. Didn't know that Rick Irish or that his alias is Colum o.O

Jeff_Coatsworth
Community Expert
Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 29, 2012

Oops – this is what happens when I try to read too many forum posts at once ;>)

I’m sure that come St. Patrick’s Day, Rick turns into O’Stone or O’Captv8r – don’t we all get our Irish on that day?

RoboColum_n_
RoboColum_n_
Legend
June 29, 2012

Ah yes. Developers love giving people the ability to customise their product. Of ourse that can have massive implications for information developers and end users alike. There is no easy way around this as there is no way you or anyone else will know what the user is changing these field names to.

RoboHelp has variables that you could use, but you'd have to know the value (field name) before you create your output. There could also be a lot of them. Another way, and a way I did many years ago when I had this problem, is to either use the default field names or keep the descriptions generic. Either way you'd have to have some topics on the customisation aspects that you could like to or highlight in some way.

If you knew 100% what customisation was to be applied, maybe you could tackle this programmatically. The issue here would be the sheer number of variables that you may have to use in your RH project. Personally I'd not go there.

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