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Anonymous
July 21, 2008
Answered

Efficient way to create online help for different users

  • July 21, 2008
  • 1 reply
  • 568 views
Hi,

I'm using RH6 (RoboHelp HTML) on Windows XP to create WebHelp. I need to create online help for 3 different users, for example, student, teacher and principal. Certain features in the software are only accessible based on the permissions assigned to user. So, I've developed one main project file ("All.xpj") which contains all the topics. Then I create a new project for each user type and only import the topics which pertain to the user. Is this the most efficient way? I didn't want to have to create 3 or 4 conditional settings... because I would have to re-create the TOC, Index & Glossary for each project. Is this the most efficient way to use RH6 for my needs?

Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
FMnRH
    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Gravenstein
    The conditional build tagging would go like this:
    1. Tag user-specific topics as "Student," "Teacher," or "Principal," as appropriate.
    2. Leave untagged any topics that are common to all.
    3. Specify three different single source layouts (SSLs):
    - The Student SSL should have the build expression NOT Teacher AND NOT Principal.
    - The Teacher SSL should have the build expression NOT Student AND NOT Principal.
    - The Principal SSL should have the build expression NOT Student AND NOT Teacher.
    All untagged topics will be included in the output.
    4. The TOC might be trickier; it depends on your structure. Tag user-specifi books in the TOC as Student, Teacher, or Principal. Leave common material untagged. Do the absolute minimum tagging here that you can get away with, and try to keep the tags simple and high-level. It's too easy to lose them in a complex TOC. The thing to remember here is that if a topic in not included in the output, it will automatically be excluded from the TOC. This means that if you have tagged a topic as Teacher, it will not show up in the Student TOC, even though you did not specifically exclude the TOC entry.
    5. Following the reasoning in number 4 above, the index should take care of itself, and I think the glossary will, too, although I haven't played with glossaries much.

    -----------------------

    I think you have the right idea on how to do the merge. I don't have access to RH at the moment to check.

    If all three projects have the same glossary definitions, then you should put them into the common child project, not duplicate them in the user-specific projects.

    HTH,
    G

    1 reply

    Gravenstein
    Gravenstein
    Inspiring
    July 21, 2008
    I probably would have gone for the conditional build tags, but that's me. Another approach would be to create 4 projects: Student, Teacher, Principal, and Common. You could put topics that are common to all three projects in the Common project, and then use the mergedProjects feature to merge Common into each of the other three projects. Topics specific to the other users would go into the appropriate project.

    G
    A
    Anonymous
    July 21, 2008
    If I only had one project and 4 different conditional build tags, how would I maintain the 3 different TOCs, indexes and glossaries?

    I like the idea of a merged project but how do I add a reference to the sub-project(s) to the master project's TOC? Is this correct? ---
    I have the master project open to the TOC. Place cursor at location in TOC where I want to add the reference to the sub-project. Click File > New > Merged Project. Find sub-project (.xpj) on (local) drive.

    If this is correct and all 3 sub-projects have the same glossary descriptions, will the descriptions be triplicated in the final master project generated WebHelp?

    Thanks for the help; I didn't even think of merging... I thought I needed to have RH Server setup.


    Gravenstein
    GravensteinCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    July 21, 2008
    The conditional build tagging would go like this:
    1. Tag user-specific topics as "Student," "Teacher," or "Principal," as appropriate.
    2. Leave untagged any topics that are common to all.
    3. Specify three different single source layouts (SSLs):
    - The Student SSL should have the build expression NOT Teacher AND NOT Principal.
    - The Teacher SSL should have the build expression NOT Student AND NOT Principal.
    - The Principal SSL should have the build expression NOT Student AND NOT Teacher.
    All untagged topics will be included in the output.
    4. The TOC might be trickier; it depends on your structure. Tag user-specifi books in the TOC as Student, Teacher, or Principal. Leave common material untagged. Do the absolute minimum tagging here that you can get away with, and try to keep the tags simple and high-level. It's too easy to lose them in a complex TOC. The thing to remember here is that if a topic in not included in the output, it will automatically be excluded from the TOC. This means that if you have tagged a topic as Teacher, it will not show up in the Student TOC, even though you did not specifically exclude the TOC entry.
    5. Following the reasoning in number 4 above, the index should take care of itself, and I think the glossary will, too, although I haven't played with glossaries much.

    -----------------------

    I think you have the right idea on how to do the merge. I don't have access to RH at the moment to check.

    If all three projects have the same glossary definitions, then you should put them into the common child project, not duplicate them in the user-specific projects.

    HTH,
    G
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