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Participant
September 17, 2008
Question

Conditional Tables & Paragraphs

  • September 17, 2008
  • 1 reply
  • 834 views
The conditional tag for anchored tables does not convert in RoboHelp to tag the entire table. This seems like a major flaw, unless I am missing something. The condtion tags for anchored frames work fine.

Also, the table title blocks are not conditional at all. They convert in RoboHelp to an entire new table with the caption text.

With conditional paragraphs, RoboHelp keeps a space for the parapraph line even if the condition is hidden. This is a big problem when using automumbering as the number still shows up, even if the rest of the conditional text in the paragraph does not.

I also find cross references in the middle of a conditional paragraph do not get conditionalized in RH and the format of the xref extends to the end of the paragraph.

In the TOC imported from FrameMaker, subheads are created at the top level if they are the first heading in a FrameMaker file. In other words, the first file has a Heading with an indented subhead and translates to RH fine. The next file starts with a subhead, but does not indent under the previous Heading but instead starts a new top-level entry. You can manually fix this in RH but you will lose these settings the next time you update the project.

I also experienced the problem others are stating after installing the latest FM and RH updates. RH no longer can import Frame files. I followed another poster's suggestion and did not open FM before opening RH and that worked.

Anyone have the same experience with these situations?
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1 reply

Inspiring
September 18, 2008
Irowls

You can apply the condition text settings when you import the content from FrameMaker. That is, define a conditional text expression in FrameMaker, set up show/hide and when you import in RoboHelp, select the "Apply Conditional Text Expression" checkbox.

Unless you are merging FrameMaker content with other content in RoboHelp (which is also conditionalized) and generating more than 1 output from RoboHelp, this should work.

For TOC, make sure Heading is bigger in font size or bold or indented to left as compared to subheads. If there is a problem, reduce the font size of subheads, and increase the indentation further.
lrowlsAuthor
Participant
September 18, 2008
Thank you for your response.

I tried your suggestions with the conditional text and that seems to work. I set the FM files with the conditional setting desired, then imported into RH with the Apply FM Conditional checked. The condition tags from FM don't come over and the resulting pages just show the text as set in FM. I was importing all of the conditional text settings from FM, expecting to be able to turn on and off to control the view as in FM.

Concerning the TOC: All of my headings and subheads are formatted as you suggested. They work fine if they are in the same FM file. Our FM books are made of small files divided by subheads. When RH encounters a subhead from a separate FM file, it doesn't indent the subhead under the previous heading. I can move the text from the separate FM file into the first file and the subheads will indent properly. I don't know why RH is doing this if it is generating the TOC from the FM TOC. The two subhead entries are identical in FM.
lrowlsAuthor
Participant
September 19, 2008
Please check if you have patches RoboHelp 7.0.2 and FrameMaker 8.0.4.
If this problem persists, please mail me a sample FrameMaker book at vivekj AT adobe dot com.

regards
Vivek

Yes, I do have the latest versions of FM and RH. I have emailed the files to you. Thanks.