Default Search path in RoboHelp HTML (in RH8, WebHelp)

Question

I'm editing several Help projects...and the default search path seems to remember the last search path/folder from PREVIOUS project settings, but doesn't SHOW the full path. So I've got some errors lying about.

Is there any way to set RH to a 'generic default' for all projects rather than storing some path from a previous project (and I'm uncertain that any given module sets it's own default path, or remembers yet a different default path)?

In a similar mein, I'd like to use "a common" skin, but with product branding. This is also a problem, I don't know how RoboHelp resolves the default folder for Skins, Master Pages, or the Images folder in Project Manager. This is a big problem with importing .jpg files into a project....if I "search" for a .jpg image, it MIGHT WELL be in the Image folder of a totally different project, not the Image folder of the current project.

Here's a few examples:

I use a bulleted list style for Notes with a "note" image. Oftentimes this needs to be individually fixed for a given note. I think I may have 3 or 4 note.jpg files in a given project, some may be pointing to a DIFFERENT project in some cases, some to the Images folder, others to the Skins folder, still others to the root project folder.

My common "company" skin for projects is "more or less" standard, but with different product names embedded in

Navigation> Label Region > Background image and

About > Company Information > Title Image

This makes importing the skin from one project to the next quite problematic: If I use different names for the product icons differently, then importing the skin imports the other product icon. If I use a common name (i.e, "product_banner.jpg), but with different screenshot for project A and project B, I have no visibility (esp. not on the project setup) of which product logo is actually IN the project.

Ultimately, I'm trying to make sense of how RH "remembers" folder locations, and it's behavior in the .css settings as wellas the project setup has completely undermined my ability to guess...do some modules save absolute file paths and others save relative file paths? Only the "file name" (no path) is shown in the project setup dialogs.

Any ideas?

Peter Grainge · Answer

It took a while to tumble what you mean by search path as I was thinking about the search functionality for users. I think what you are talking about is when you are working in a project and want to browse to another file or image in the project, correct? If so, no you cannot change that. It is by design and very useful when you want to repeatedly go to different files in the same folder. If RH reverted to one location every time, such work could get very tiresome. What RH stores is the last folder accessed.

Images will always be in the current project. If you browse to an image in another project, RH imports it into your current project. By default they are in the root of the project but you can move them within Project Manager.

When you create a project and want a skin from another project, you have to browse to the other project. RH then brings back all the files it wants and puts them in the skins folder. You do not use those images in your topics.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

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