A

Anonymous

Question

Incorporating Powerpoint Slides and Sharepoint Files

Forum|Forum|14 years ago
May 4, 2011
2 replies
1156 views

Hello All,

I'm new to the board and to Robohelp, so please forgive me if this is an easy fix.

I have a process flow chart that consists of many hyperlinked Powerpoint files located on a sharepoint server. The files are broken up because there are multiple contributors, each with their own files which they update regularly. What I'd like to do is build a framework within Robohelp and have it look to each one of the Powerpoint files on sharepoint to populate the help file.

I'd like to utilize Robohelp's Sharepoint connection capability to streamline the process so that I could manage most of this without having to download or upload anything.

Is this possible? Please let me know if I'm trying to do something outside of RoboHelp's capabilities.

Thanks!

-- Steve

This topic has been closed for replies.

M

MeWrite

Known Participant

I have done something a bit different. In some cases I created a topic then linked directly to the .PPS file and in others I created a TOC page then linked directly to the .PPS file. This way, so long as the file name remains the same they content is always current and I don't have to worry about constantly mainting those topics or links.

Regards,

CJ

Captiv8r

Brainiac

Welcome to our community, Steve

I think you are possibly misunderstanding the "Sharepoint Functionality" RoboHelp offers. All it offers is the ability to publish a project to Sharepoint. And that sort of negates your comment of:

I'd like to utilize Robohelp's Sharepoint connection capability to streamline the process so that I could manage most of this without having to download or upload anything.

This is because even if you utilize this new capablity, you will still have to generate your project to create the output files that you will still have to publish to the Sharepoint location. That bit is unavoidable.

Certainly you may create links from RoboHelp topics to nearly anything you like. And that includes PowerPoint files. But these will be simple links. From what you have written, I'm inferring that you will be wanting actual PowerPoint content in your RoboHelp topics. I may be misunderstanding you on that.

Cheers... Rick

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A

Anonymous

Rick,

Thanks for the quick reply. For the sharepoint functionality, I may have mistyped. I meant the ability to publish directly to sharepoint.

And to the second point, you are correct, I'd like Powerpoint content in the help topic.

Basically I have 35 PPT files with strict naming conventions on a sharepoint server. I want to build the topic guide into RoboHelp but have the content pull from each of the files utilizing a link to the sharepoint PPT files. So to the end user, when they launch the help file, it is seamless, without jumping from document to document.

Then I'd like to be able to re-publish the index.htm file without having to download each of the 35 files, incorporate them into RoboHelp and then publish.

What do you think?

-- Steve

Captiv8r

Brainiac

Hello again Steve

Here's the thing. In order to get the PowerPoint stuff inside RoboHelp topics as content, you will need to take some other actions.

For example, you could save each of your slides out as an image, then insert the images into separate RoboHelp topics. So the end user will either use the TOC, the Index or a Search to locate the topics of choice and view them. But that's admittedly a bit of a painful process. And it doesn't lend itself very easily to handling updates should the PowerPoint slides change at a future point. Additionally it means creating a 1:1 relationship between RoboHelp topic pages and PowerPoint slides.

Another approach would involve converting the PowerPoint presentations into Flash SWF files. Then you would insert the SWF file into the topics. The advantage with this is that you have fewer RoboHelp topics to maintain. Basically a topic for each presentation as opposed to each slide in a presentation. Again, as before, if something changes with the PowerPoint down the road you would be saddled with re-creating the SWF. You wouldn't need to touch the topic any more as long as the SWF file name remained the same.

You might try this approach. I'm not certain it will work but is worth a try. In RoboHelp topics, you could insert an Inline Frame (IFRAME) and point the IFRAME to the respective PowerPoint presentation. If it will work this would seem to be the best overall approach as it would mean nothing further would need to occur. The IFRAME (if it will work) would simply present the PowerPoint within its area. You may find you need to save as a presentation (.PPS or .PPXS) for this to work as you want.