Pdf layout - properties of page layout after migration to Update 5 only partially available

[NoWeM]

Hi,
I recently upgraded from RH 2022.3 to Rh 2022.5. When I open a project in RH 2022.5 that was originally created with 2022.3 I receive a notification that the project will be migrated. I proceeded with the migration by accepting the dialog, and so far, everything seems fine - except for one issue:
There should be new options available for the page properties of a PDF page layout templates (such as page size, orientation, layout, background, and footnote) but they are not showing up. Only the stylesheet option is availabe, just as it was in Update 3.
Interestingly, when I create a complete new project all these options are available.
Additionally, when I switch to the HTML view and simply copy the meta information from the new project (e.g. 

<meta name="page-style" content="size:A1 portrait;" />

) to the migrated project, it works. So, this could serve as a work around. However, it would be great to have these options available in the UI of a migrated project as well.
Does anyone in the community have any hints on how to enable or display these options for migrated projects?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

There should be new options available for the page properties of a PDF page layout templates (such as page size, orientation, layout, background, and footnote) but they are not showing up. Only the stylesheet option is availabe, just as it was in Update 3.

By NoWeM

What led you to think that there would be these new properties present in the update? I don't recall anybody talking about that...

[NoWeM]

The adobe help page gave me the hint that I could expect such a feature:
https://helpx.adobe.com/robohelp/using/design-page-layout.html
And it is there for new projects, so my assumption is that also migrated projects can use this feature.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Hmm, don't create PDF output so I haven't really looked at that bit - the fact that it appears on a new project, but not on an upgraded one, maybe indicates that if you create a new preset in the migrated project, it might appear. I think I've observed that the RH folks don't like monkeying around with pre-existing settings - they'd rather you create a new one to use whatever new thing they've created.

[NoWeM]

I thought so too and created a new template in the migrated project - but the option still does not show up. As mentioned - starting completely from scratch (with a new and empty project) does the trick.
I was also wondering what the migration does to the files in the project, but as far as I can see it only changes the project version number in the *.rhpj file (I compared the project folder before and after the migration) - so no changes to templates - but perhaps I miss something here....
We can use for now of course the workaround by just manipulating the HTML instead of using the UI, but it is not really nice and creating a new project from scratch and manually moving all topics, snippets etc is not an option for us.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

No, I agree that doesn't make much sense - I'd reach out & give the RJ folks a ping - see https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/enterprise-support.other.html#robohelp for your Adobe Support options. I'd recommend using the tcssup@adobe.com e-mail address as it reaches a team dedicated to Technical Communication Suite products including RoboHelp.

[NoWeM · Accepted solution]

After contacting Adobe support, it was determined that the issue was not related to the migration of the project but rather to a specific setting in the RoboHelp project file (*.rhpj). Enabling the 'Do not allow inline formatting' checkbox restricts the page layout options for the PDF template to CSS only, which prevents the page size and other settings from being displayed (although they can still be set in the HTML view).

Therefore, the problem was due to my misunderstanding. I had assumed that the 'Do not allow inline formatting' checkbox applied only to topics and not to PDF templates as well.

[Peter Grainge]

@NoWeM Thank you for coming back with the solution. That will be a very useful post.

________________________________________________________

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

[Peter Grainge]

@NoWeM I have been looking at this with a view to updating my site. As far as I can see, this is what changes.

With Do Not Allow selected, when I click in a page layout, the Content Properties will be as below.

Deselect the option and they extra options appear.

First of all, is that what you see in the project that started this thread?

Perhaps you could select the option when working on topics and deselect it to work on templates? As far as I can see, the option does not remove any inline formatting, it simply stops you applying further inline formatting. In one page layout with the setting removed I applied a colour to some text. Then I selected the setting again and the font colour was still applied. When I applied Do Not Allow again, the settings came back and showed the colour in the properties.

It seems:-

1. You can turn this setting on and off at any time.
2. It does not remove any inline styling applied when the setting was off.

Therefore, provided the setting was selected from the start when working with topics, they will not have inline styling but you can allow it when working with page layouts.

@NoWeM I would appreciate your confirmation of what I have found.

This issue also applied to Word templates.

UPDATE

1. Similar changes will apply to online templates with the Do Not Allow setting applied.
2. To remove any inline styling, select the content and click the Clear Formatting icon and then click Clear Inline Formatting.
   

________________________________________________________

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

[NoWeM]

I can confirm the behavior you described. In fact, it not only changes the content properties but also affects the page properties (see image below).

 

Additionally, I can confirm that the checkbox only impacts the UI and the displayed options there; it does not affect existing inline formatting nor does it prevent adding inline formatting via the HTML editor.

Given this information, our current approach is as follows:
- We keep the checkbox enabled to ensure that no new inline formatting is accidentally added.
- When we need to change a template (which is infrequent), we temporarily disable the checkbox, make the necessary changes, and then re-enable it.

[Peter Grainge]

Thank you for the correction.

________________________________________________________

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