Problem when importing "empty" chapters (with titles only)

[Rsfl]

Hi all,

in this import project all title formats result in topic splits. However, each time there is a chapter in Framemaker that has no text content, Robohelp fails to create separate topics and packs both title lines into one topic. They are both linked from the TOC via bookmarks. The result in the online help are two TOC entries with apparently identical content (alltough it actually is just the same topic being referenced twice).

I know that empty chapters like this are bad style, but it would be no problem to simply receive corresponding emtpy topics as they will be never displayed by a context-sensitive call.

Is there a possibility to force Robohelp to apply the topic splitting rules as defined in the import settings, even if a resulting topic will be empty?

Robert

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I’d be tempted to add a conditional body paragraph tag in the FM content so that the Headingxxx isn’t really “empty” and the see how it comes over to RH. I’d condition it in FM so that it doesn’t mess up how the content looks in your PDFs – but if that’s not a concern, then skip the conditioning.

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools]

Hi Robert,

Your experience is different than mine with regard to topic splits.

In my (and client/student) projects (in the US version of Fm), the topic splits as expected, resulting in Schlussel verwalten as its own topic, with no content. And yes, this is bad.

However, there are 2 points to make here:

1. I believe the "mistake" is in the Fm doc, where there is no content within 4.1, only a title. Yes, this was accepted in linear, print documentation, but conversion to hyperlinked text reveals the limitation of writing in this style.
2. By writing an introductory sentence in 4.1, you will eliminate the problem. If you really don't want to write such a paragraph for each widowed heading, write a "dummy" paragraph, conditionalize it as "Online Only" and paste it after each of the widow headings. It won't appear in print, and your help topics will still paginate appropriately. 

-Matt

Matt R. Sullivan
co-author Publishing Fundamentals: Unstructured FrameMaker 11

[Rsfl]

I tried to things now. Inserting "PageBreak" markers does not change anything. Inserting a dummy paragraph works, but only when there is at least one space in the paragraph. If the paragraph is emtpy then the topic is not spilt. I'm not sure if this is a feature or a bug.

Of course I agree that there should not be emtpy chapters like this without any indtriductory text. However I am stuck with converting a text that I did not write myself.

So thanks for the ideas, I will probably get it to work one way or another.

Robert

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

It seemed from reading Matt’s post that his US copy works, but your DE one doesn’t – you should report that to Adobe - https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools · Accepted solution]

Refer back to my first suggestion above...

1. Create a paragraph whose content is:
   "This paragraph will never print"
2. Then apply a Conditional Text style to it in FrameMaker. Use existing Print, Online, Comment styles, or create your own. It doesn't matter.
3. Copy this paragraph and paste it after any location where you wish to remove the issue that exists between 4.1 and 4.1.1
4. Update your Rh project
5. Set your Single Source Layout to exclude the condition applied in step 2.
6. Process your file
7. Mark this comment as Correct to help others find it and resolve this problem!

Best,

Matt

[Rsfl]

I'll mark as correct and just want to add that I solved it a bit different to avoid working with conditions.

I inserted paragraphs with spaces and used a certain format that has a height of 2pt which does not mess up the PDF print directly from FM. In the import settings in Robohelp I excluded this paragraph. This works for me, even though the paragraph is dropped in the import the topics are still split correctly.

Thanks for the ideas!

Robert

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools]

Interesting...

That certainly would do the trick, and have the advantage of allowing a Next Paragraph setting to automate new content.

I am somewhat surprised that the "dropped" paragraph got you over the hurdle of splitting those headings into separate topics, but, hey...whatever works!!