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lauraj19373940
lauraj19373940
Participating Frequently
July 21, 2015
Question

Multi-User Environment And Style Sheets

  • July 21, 2015
  • 2 replies
  • 1155 views

I'm doing some prototyping with WebHelp in RoboHelp 11, but documentation on certain features seems to be a bit scarce (as far as I can find), and I have a few questions.

First and most important is Multi-User environment. I understand RoboHelp supports this feature, but I can’t seem to find much information about it, especially in regards to WebHelp. The ideal scenario would be to have the files on a shared drive, and have multiple users access it whenever needed. Is this at all possible? If yes, what would I need to do to set it up? If no, is there another alternative (preferably one that doesn’t involve SQL servers)?


Secondly, I have a minor problem with a style sheet. Once imported into RoboHelp, certain styles are categorized in the “Other” section, and do not appear in the “Styles and Formatting” pod at all. I can still call these styles in the HTML code, though their formatting is strange, and not what it should be.


Any help would be greatly appreciated.

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

lauraj19373940
lauraj19373940Author
Participating Frequently
July 22, 2015

In regards to my CSS problem, the styles that aren't being listed are Unordered lists (ul). RoboHelp says it should be listed under HTML lists, but it doesn't show up in the editor at all.

Peter Grainge
Community Expert
Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
July 23, 2015

There is a dropdown for some styles and the Styles pod that shows all styles. Where are you looking for the unordered list style?

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

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lauraj19373940
lauraj19373940Author
Participating Frequently
July 23, 2015

I'm looking In that style pod you mentioned, and it does not appear. In the CSS editor in RoboHelp, these styles are categorized in the "Other" section, and do not appear anywhere else. They can be referenced through the HTML code, and but the formatting isn't what it should be.

Captiv8r
Captiv8r
Legend
July 21, 2015

Hi there

I think you may be a tad confused with terminology as well as function. Apologies in advance if you feel I'm speaking down to you, but I'm making a bit of an assumption here based on what I perceive your understanding to be.

You seem to be confusing source with output. You use RoboHelp to create and edit source documents. You then tell RoboHelp to generate output files that all users can access. Only folks making changes to the documents need RoboHelp. For others, your users, all they need is a browser.

There is nothing special about the output files. No SQL server is needed. You simply copy the output files (and folders) to the location where you want folks to access them from and away they go.

Hopefully that helps clarify things a bit.

Cheers... Rick

lauraj19373940
lauraj19373940Author
Participating Frequently
July 21, 2015

Entry-level explanations are what I need, so no need to apologize.

The files I need to put on the shared drive are the source files, not the output files. Essentially, I need to know if RoboHelp has the ability to Lock files in the event that there are multiple users editing the same project. So if one user starts editing source files, then a second user accesses those same files while the first user is still editing, is there I way to lock one of them out from making changes?

johndaigle
johndaigle
Legend
July 21, 2015

Ok, thank you for clarifying. I was worried it was referring to the HTML5 output, specifically. It looks like RoboSource control requires creating a database and access to some kind of SQL or MSDN server, so that's out of the question for me, but I will look into my options.


Rick is right that Source Control (whether built-in or third party) is the most common way to "lock" a file when projects are open by multiple authors. And that requires some kind of database to make that happen.

However, you might want to look at something called the "Resource Manager" which, while it doesn't have the sophistication of full source control, may be "good enough" if you and your team have a good protocol for working together. Basically you can share common "assets" (css, topics, images, etc.) which reside on a share drive. Then as the files are dragged and dropped into each author's projects, the asset can become "linked". So that if another author changes the shared source file, all other authors who are sharing the same file will be notified of the change and offered the opportunity to update their projects with the changes.

I created a short video on this feature for Adobe TV here:
RoboHelp 11: Share Topics in Resource Manager | RoboHelp 11 Features | Adobe TV

(While the video refers to sharing files in "the cloud" that is only one solution. Note that you can use a common share drive on your network as well.)


John Daigle

Adobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate Instructor

Evergreen, Colorado

www.showmethedemo.com

John DaigleAdobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate InstructorNewport, Oregon
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