Ordered List formatting after Word import

[Alan27002724asmo]

Our main issue is the numbering of ordered lists.

Here is more or less the work process that we used trying to figure out how numbering and lists work in this tool.

1. Imported Word document, a User Manual, which, of course, has thousands of lines of ordered lists, at Level 1 (decimal) and Level 2 (lower-case alpha).

2. When we imported the file, we selected (checked) the option of converting lists to HTML lists; we thought that this would convert the Word numbers to the ol, list, /ol HTML syntax so the ordered lists would work in Robohelp.

This did not work. The option "Convert to Autonumber" also did not work.

3. We therefore proceeded to try to make new ordered list styles to manually replace the imported Styles. 

4. Unfortunately, in our experience, the numbering functions of Robohelp simply do not work for us. We do not know what we are doing wrong. Here is what we are doing:

a. In the top Toolbar, click on "Multi level List Styles" and select 1 >a > 1.

The system generates an AlphaNumeric style. 

b. We format the numbering for Level 1 and Level 2 with indents, etc.

When we apply this format to existing lists that were imported it changes, but only at one Level. When we do Indent from Properties, the number fails to change to a letter.

Anyway, this is only a short summary. I personally am wasting hours trying to get the numbering to work doing all kinds of endless variations and nothing seems to help. We get new styles created like "Decimal" and "ol" and others. These styles seem to disappear suddenly. The Levels do not work. When tried to make individual styles, this seemed also to corrupt the content.

[Peter Grainge]

You haven't said which version of RoboHelp you are using. Please always start a thread with this information.

• Please go to Help > About and include the full version number.
• If you are using 2019 also state whether it is 2019 Classic or 2019 New UI.

It's important to understand that so called Lists in Word are in fact autonumbered styles. That makes importing into HTML a difficult task so I'm not surprised you are having issues.

Personally I would be starting from the point of expecting it to not work smoothly. What would I try?

Do this in a new clean project until the process is working.

FIRST

1. After import, select one list and go to the Multilevel toolbar and select None.
2. Check the source view and see what styling is applied.
3. If anything other than <p> select the P tag and then None. That should what was styled as a list now showing as simple paragraphs.
4. Next select all the "paragraphs" and choose one of the supplied multilevel list styles. Do not customise at this point even if the styling doesn't exactly meet your requirements.
5. Now every paragraph should show as Level 1 in your list.
6. Individually tab a paragraph that should be shown at Level 2.

Does that work?

SECOND

Save the Word document in Web Page Filtered format and try importing that as an HTML Topic. It will not give you the page split or mapping options but see if it helps with the list formatting.

I am dubious this method will work OK but it's worth a shot.

****************************************

Let me know how you get on.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Alan27002724asmo]

Hi Peter. Thanks for the reply.

Version 2020.8.34.

I will try your method and see what happens. Thanks again.

[Alan27002724asmo]

Hi again. Alan here. (V. 2020.8.34)

The first procedure seemed to work until I reached another impasse. 

Our procedures generally follow this sequence:

1. This is first step. (ol)

Result line (p) class

Figure

2. Thisis step 2.

    a. This is sub-step a. (ol, level 2)

        Result (p class)

        Figure

    b. This is sub-step b.

        Figure

3. This is step 3. And so on.

However the interstial Result, Figure creates a problem. Cannot tab the b step and stays a number. Also creates extra "phantom" paragraph marks. Attaching a capture of the problem.

The two "Step 1s" are supposed to be "b." and "c.". Cannot tab these lines to the second level.

Hope it is understandable as I presented here. 

Thanks

[Peter Grainge]

You need to create another level for the results where the bullet is set to None.

Then you will get the number at level 1, the letter at level two and just text at level 3. Technically level 3 is part of the list but without a bullet or number, it will look like an indented paragraph.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Alan27002724asmo]

Hi Peter. Thanks again. (V. 2020.8.34)

So the same with the Figures and the Figure Captions. 

Every Result, Figure and Figure caption that comes after a step in an ol has to be part of that ordered list (each another Level), meaning that all lines in the ordered list must be contiguous for the list numbering to work? 

Thanks.

Alan

[Peter Grainge]

I don't know about Figures and Captions. That will be a bit of trial and error.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Alan27002724asmo]

Hi Peter, (V. 2020.8.34)

I succeeded in formatting the "Result" to Level 2.

However, this is not really a solution because different ols have different patterns, some with and some without a "Result". There could be a figure: caption, or down to second-level numbering (a., b., c., etc.).

There must be a way to "interrupt" the ordered list with <p> class styles (add content between list items) and then return to the ol without losing the numbering sequence. Is there a workaround for Robohelp? I think this is a critical feature.

Thanks.

[Peter Grainge · Accepted solution]

I helped someone with virtually the same problem.

The first thing we did was create a few list styles that covered a number of combinations. Then I found a way of introducing exceptions. See RH2022 Lists and Autonumbering (grainge.org) > How to Add an Out of Order Level.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Alan27002724asmo]

Thanks. Your response time and content are truly amazing. I shall give it a try and will get back to you later. 

[Alan27002724asmo]

Correct answer yes, but with reservations. I had to define single-level lists. Then when adding content between ol steps, had to manually go to Content attributes and restart numbering at whatever up to 11 or 12 steps.. The number does not jump to automatically to the correct sequence. Works, but very cumbersome and time consuming.

Maybe can open an issue for resolution and upgrade of the application

Thanks for your efforst. Much appreciated.

[Peter Grainge]

It is the only way at present. Please follow this link to report bugs or request new features. https://tracker.adobe.com. Post the link to your bug report / feature request in this thread and others can vote for it. The more people who do so, the higher it gets prioritised.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.