How do I create Note: and Warning: type styles?

[johnvarvatsis]

Hi Gurus!

Pretty sure I've seen a thread on this subject but I've been trying to find it for a few days now, and failed.

What I'm trying to do is create styles for notes, warnings and suchlike. You know the type:

Note: Remember to eat your 5 a day

Warning: Do not put underpants on after trousers!

type stuff, where the word Note: / Warning: appears automatically and the author just has to type in the note or warning text.

Any ideas/ hints / notes or warnings would be greatly appreciated

Regards

JV

[Willam_van_Weelden]

You can do this with CSS, but RoboHelp doesn't really like it. The quick solution is to create a style and use a background image to show the text/icon. You can use any image you want. By adding the background image and setting a left padding, you achieve much of what you want. RoboHelp allows you to set a background image for a paragraph style. But you'll need to dive into the CSS code to align it correctly and set a padding-left on the paragraph. More info here: CSS background property

Alternatively, you could opt for using a variable for the text. You still need to insert it manually. But you can maintain it easily. (And can also include images.)

For the sake of completion: If you really want text, you can use the ::before pseudo-selector to insert content before or in front of your paragraph. You will have to set the ::before manually in the CSS, including changes to your regular style to create a correct alignment. But RoboHelp won't display your content. (And the RH CSS editor will wipe away the ::before selector from your CSS if you try editing the CSS that way.) You can find more info on this here: CSS ::before Selector

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

What I do myself is to create a Snippet I can easily drop into a topic. I have a small table in the snippet with an icon and the basic Note or Warning. I drop it into the topic to get the basic framework in there, then I right-click the snippet and select the option to convert it to HTML. Then I customize it with the verbiage I want.

Hopefully others will chime in with different ideas.

Cheers... Rick

[johnvarvatsis]

Thanks fellas! I will be mostly setting this up and adding it to the countless "Notes" I have already hand written so far.

Coincidentally, on the subject of "variables" I created my first one this morning. it was

onehousing

I subsequently decided to change this to meet corporate style guidelines, by changing the colour of the variable to dark grey and unbolding the "one"

My variable now looks like this

onehousing (in dark grey, obviously)

I was expecting this to change all the existing instances of the onehousing variable, automatically. It didn't.

I guess I'm doing something wrong or I have missed a step. I looked for a control or an "Update all instances" option but I couldn't find one.

Could somebody explain how I update all instances of a variable automatically, as I am almost certain the branding people will want me to change it again

regards

JV

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Where were you expecting to see a change? IIRC you wouldn't see anything in the RH topic where it's used, but probably only in the output once generated.

[Captiv8r]

Actually, variables should dynamically update and be reflected in the topics using them as you edit. Unless, of course, you are using more than the initial variable sets. If you are doing that, it's been my own experience that only the primary values are ever shown. You don't actually see the second or other variable set values until you generate.

[Captiv8r]

LOL, I'm amused by the comment "(in dark grey, obviously)". Because it's not obvious at all in the forum thread.