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jillk17440102
Participating Frequently
March 27, 2017
Question

Link .CHM to .CHM using FrameMaker/Robohelp

  • March 27, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 1367 views

I'm using the Adobe Technical Communication Suite 5. I've got two FrameMaker 12 books, each linked to its own RoboHelp HTML 11 project, and I'm generating two separate .CHM files.

I'm trying to figure out how to create a hyperlink from one .CHM file to a specific topic in the other .CHM file. The two .CHM files are going to be in the same directory, but customers have the option of installing both .CHM files in any directory they choose, so I need to use a relative path name.

Thanks in advance for any help.

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1 reply

Captiv8r
Captiv8r
Legend
March 27, 2017

Are you hoping for a solution that is handled in Frame that sails on into Robohelp? Or are you open to using RoboHelp to create the links?

Cheers... Rick

    J
    jillk17440102Author
    Participating Frequently
    March 27, 2017

    Hi, Rick,

    Thanks for your reply.

    I was hoping to add something in FrameMaker (a hypertext marker of some kind maybe?) that would get converted to a working link in RoboHelp.

    Any ideas?

    Jill

    J
    jillk17440102Author
    Participating Frequently
    March 28, 2017

    If you wanted to test it to see how it would end up in RoboHelp, you could use something very simple such as calc.exe. (would open the Windows Calculator from a CHM file)

    In that case, the code would look like this: (pasting text and not an image here)

    <!--Metadata type="DesignerControl" startspan

    <object classid="clsid:D5F92943-15DB-11d1-8EED-00DC929131C8" id="Shortcut"

      border="0" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;

      margin-right: 0px;" align="bottom">

    <param name="_Version" value="65536"  />

    <param name="_ExtentX" value="1651"  />

    <param name="_ExtentY" value="635"  />

    <param name="_StockProps" value="13"  />

    <param name="ForeColor" value="0"  />

    <param name="BackColor" value="15790320"  />

    <param name="UseButton" value="-1"  />

    <param name="UseText" value="0"  />

    <param name="ControlLabel" value="Shortcut"  />

    <param name="UseIcon" value="0"  />

    <param name="Items" value=",calc.exe,$$**$$"  />

    <param name="Image" value=""  />

    <param name="FontInfo" value="Arial,8,0,,"  />

    <param name="_CURRENTFILEPATH" value="C:\Rick\2017\willtest\NewProject\Third_Topic.htm"

      />

    <param name="_ID" value="Shortcut"  />

    <param name="Items" value=",calc.exe,$$**$$"  />

    <param name="Window" value=""  />

    </object>-->

    <object

      classid="clsid:ADB880A6-D8FF-11CF-9377-00AA003B7A11"

      id="Shortcut"  type="application/x-oleobject">

      <param  name="Command"  value="Shortcut" />

      <param  name="Button"  value="Text:Shortcut" />

      <param  name="Font"  value="Arial,8,0,," />

      <param  name="Item1"  value=",calc.exe," />

    </object>

    And you might even get away with the much shorter version:

    <object

      classid="clsid:ADB880A6-D8FF-11CF-9377-00AA003B7A11"

      id="Shortcut"  type="application/x-oleobject">

      <param  name="Command"  value="Shortcut" />

      <param  name="Button"  value="Text:Shortcut" />

      <param  name="Font"  value="Arial,8,0,," />

      <param  name="Item1"  value=",calc.exe," />

    </object>

    Cheers... Rick


    I tried fiddling around with putting the "hh.exe" command line into FrameMaker's Message Client hypertext marker, but it doesn't seem be preserved in RoboHelp.

    I did have a little luck with the Message URL marker, but I needed to specify a full path name to get the .CHM file to open. However, since I don't know the folder in which customers will choose to install the help files, I can't use a full path.

    Also, since Robohelp breaks each FrameMaker file into several topics (a heading starts a new topic), I don't know how to reference a specific topic within the .CHM.

    Any further suggestions of things to try would be greatly appreciated.

    Jill

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