Hyperlink tags inserted improperly when selected text contains bold

[KC_in_Colorado]

This problem showed up in RoboHelp HTML Version 6 and continues to happen in RH7 so I thought I'd mention it here. Should I file a "bug report" of some kind?

If you attempt to make a link out of text that includes both bold and non-bold characters, the <a href> tag is improperly inserted after the opening bold tag <b> and causes the rest of the current paragraph to be bolded in the [FlashHelp] output. (Note that the extra bolding does not show up in the WYSIWYG editor). For example:

Here is my code prior to adding a hyperlink to "Status tab":

<p>You can filter the list of schedules that appears on the <b>Status</b>
tab and the list of clients that appears within an expanded schedule.
</p>

Here's what it looks like after I select the words "Status tab" in the WYSIWYG editor, click the Insert Hyperlink button on the toolbar, and link this text to another topic:

<p>You can filter the list of schedules that appears on the <b><a href="SsVcbHelpGUI_StatusTab.htm">Status</b>
tab</a> and the list of clients that appears within an expanded schedule.
</p>

Because the <b> and </b> tags are now improperly separated, all text from the word "Status" to the end of the paragraph now appears as bold in my FlashHelp output. But I don't notice it right away because it oddly looks fine in WYSIWYG (by "fine, I mean the word Status is bold, the rest of the text is not, and both Status and tab are blue to show that they are a hyperlink.

This is not a style issue. It appears to be a bug and did not occur in previous versions. I always bold the title of a window or dialog box but not the words "window" or "dialog box" and they are frequently hyperlinked to other topics.

The workaround is to go in and manually update the HTML code to mode the <b> tag back in front of the word Status. Corrected code looks like this:

<p>You can filter the list of schedules that appears on the <a href="SsVcbHelpGUI_StatusTab.htm"><b>Status</b>
tab</a> and the list of clients that appears within an expanded schedule.
</p>


kc

[Guest]

What happens if you apply the link and then the bold?

[KC_in_Colorado]

The same exact thing.

[MergeThis]

Seems logical that one would avoid repeating the same detrimental actions.

In your initial example, why couldn't you use "list of schedules" as your link text, avoiding the HTML/RH issue altogether?

<p>You can filter the list of schedules that appears on the <b>Status</b> tab and the list of clients that appears within an expanded schedule.</p>


Good luck,
Leon

[KC_in_Colorado]

I'm directing them to the topic that describes the features of the Status tab and is titled as such, not just a description of the "list of schedules." Call me crazy, but I tend to design for usability rather than misdirect the user to accommodate limitations of the authoring tool. :*)


kc

[MergeThis]

Well, exCUUUUUUSE ME!

Then, why do you include the "tab" or "window" as part of the link? Why not just <b>Status</b>? Some might say that there are plenty of limitations to go around, here.


Good luck (and I really, really mean that),
Leon