Skip to main content
A
Anonymous
June 29, 2012
Question

Linked Word doc with headings and the TOC

  • June 29, 2012
  • 1 reply
  • 1291 views

I'm relatively new to RoboHelp, so bear with me.

I'm linking in a Word document that is being maintained by others. The document uses Heading 1 styles for auto-numbered chapters, thus:

1 Some topic

  lorem ipsum, etc

2 Some other topic

  lorem ipsum, etc

To get the 2 chapters into my TOC I create a book from the page and configure my SSL to use that TOC. So far, so good - the TOC appears as I desire. WIthin the document, however (I'm generating PDF) I get both the book name and the heading that is embedded in the text, thus:

1 Some topic

  1 Some topic

     lorem ipsum, etc

I'm just not seeing how I'm supposed to set this up so that I can avoid the duplicates, given that I really want to stay linked to the original word document rather than just doing a one-time import and then manually editing the resulting html file.

I'm using v9 on Windows 7.

Thanks

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    Captiv8r
    Captiv8r
    Legend
    June 29, 2012

    Hi there

    So let me get this straight. You have a Word document. You suck it into RoboHelp to create HTML. Then you create a completely different Word document using RoboHelp that is then used to create a PDF.

    Why not simply create the PDF from the original Word document? Seems more straightforward to me.

    Your present workflow (using an analogy) is like this: You are baking a cake. You take the flour and eggs and milk and blend them and bake the cake. Then you take that baked cake and break it up to try and get flour and eggs and milk back out of it and you dislike the fact there are all these crumbs to deal with!

    Cheers... Rick

    Helpful and Handy Links

    RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form

    Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day!

    Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training

    SorcerStone Blog

    RoboHelp eBooks

    A
    Anonymous
    June 29, 2012

    Nope - I have a word document. I suck it into RoboHelp. I intended to produce multiple output types (pdf, html, maybe chm). In trying to get the PDF output to work I'm finding the TOC/Chapter feature to be confusing, since the results aren't what I'd like and I'm not sure how to get from Point A to Point B.

    A
    Anonymous
    July 2, 2012

    Well…there’s a few things in here – the first being that RH was developed (not by Adobe); so the integration to PDF creation we all know & love in Adobe products is very weak. The other thing is that RH was never designed for producing print output (as PDF is); it (RH) does a good job of creating online help output.

    Now to your situation – if you really need print as an output, you should invest in the Technical Communication Suite. Have your authors work in Word, pull that content into FrameMaker, produce beautiful PDFs from FM and also link the FM content to a RH project for the production of great help. That’s what I do for one of my product lines. The other has no requirement for PDF, so I author in RH and produce AIR Help for it.

    However, this ideal solution may not work for you. In that case I would go with what Rick says – use RH for the help and Word for the PDFs. Don’t mix the two.

    Frankly, if the government is your customer, I’m really surprised that you aren’t forced to use structured FM and crank out some DITA or SGML/XML to some obscure government standard ;>)


    Understood. I will look to generate the PDFs directly from Word and use RH just for the HTML for now.

    Yes, I'm surprised we have as much leeway as we have on the documentation standards - I must be working with a progressive branch. :-)

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices