RH Suggestions relative to RH-2022

[kathym59953264]

Robohelp Suggestions, RH-2022 context:
Add a Preferences or a right-click to set default for #1 and #2:

1. Allow a user to set a default output preset generate
2. Allow a user to set a default for Content Properties: Collapsed or Expanded
3. .rh folder: Provide an option to Delete or Purge .rh when doing Generate Frameless or provide a checkbox in Output Sidebar to purge .rh; (For Frameless it regularly introduces output bugs - one example is that the generated help shows the help FILE name in the generated help's topic name, including the underscores). The fix is to delete the .rh folder. Hint: it doesn't take long for the buggy output to crop up. At release time I am at risk of forgetting to delete the .rh folder so it would be very helpful to have a default option to delete .rh at generate time.
4. Image Height and Width - Does not work consistently, is buggy. Fix UI so that if you click in one of the fields, the existing entry is cleared, and user can easily enter new number (or revert). With Maintain Aspect Ratio in force, clicking in or tabbing to the other field should automatically fill once you enter the first value. Currently (RH 2022, but behaved the same in RH2020), it works the very first time I insert and size an image with Aspect Ratio in force, but with subsequent images, wilth Aspect Ratio in force, when I enter the first number, say for Height, and locate to the Width field, the prior number in the Width field does not adjust to respect the ratio - it stays the same. Often it takes 4 tries before it works.
5. When user clicks a style, retain the user's style selection and when the user clicks in a topic, pop up "Apply selected style here? Yes/Cancel/Show Currently Applied). (rather than grabbing the style of the topic content they click).
6. Allow user to right-click to hide individual top toolbar options in Author. For example, there are 6 that I would likely never use (Expanding Text, Drop-down text, Placeholder, Special Characters, Variables). It's clutter if the user doesn't use them. Provide a way to show them again if desired (right-click in an empty toolbar region and a pop-up of toolbar options that can be added display).
7. Update the documentation to be current (keep up-to-date documentation sets per major release, e.g., 2019, 2020, 2022); make it good. It's almost useless as it is (and has been for years).
   Also, for any configurable field, make sure the UI has hover help at a minimum, and preferably fully document where it fits (this could be a link from the hover help or a tooltip that loads the relevant online help, please note the qualifier "relevant", i.e help that is specific to the item from which the user clicks the link). The Skins component is confusing, and finding what you need is very difficult.
8. Provide means of searching ONLY Robohelp 2022 documentation from the Adobe site (the online Robohelp help), so that it doesn't search the entire Adobe site-wide product help set. The only way I've found to search, even with the Robohelp help URL shown, is to enter the search as if you were issuing it from outside Adobe. Example, site:helpx.adobe.com robohelp (enter search term here)
9. Provide means of easily ascertaining what the current RH 2022 release version is using numerics at your website. Before I upgraded to RH2022, when I did Help > About, My version said 2020.8.34 but if I did an update check Robo said a New Update Is Available, and the update it showed as available was Robohelp 2020.8.0. That made no sense, and someone else commented on it - please acknowlege and publish bugs. Adobe does not give users a way to associate an update (Robohelp site will say Update 1, for example) with the numeric release version that appears on Help > About.
10. Keep the "What's New" in Robohelp current and accurate.
11. Notify users that a new release is available within the updater screen. Example: User clicks About Robohelp; the Update panel displays and says, "You currently have 2020.8.3.4, but 2022.0.346 is available and requires a new installation. Projects will be upgraded as you open them.
12. When you introduce a new release, and you present a document purportedly describing "what's new", it would be helpful to have details available. Example: You say output presets are now called templates. But there is way more that has changed, and I don't see where it is documented.
13. Sample projects for RH 2022 for upgrades: If I open the 2020 sample projects in 2022, they are upgraded and the user can't compare the original against the upgraded sample models. At least offer a prompt to backup the originals (I manually copied the 2020 projects to a different folder).
14. When I issue a search on "Robohelp 2022" at Adobe Support, I should see results only containing Robohelp 2022. I have specified the version, used quotes, yet I get mixed and extraneous results.

[Peter Grainge · Accepted solution]

Very nice but not the place to make those requests. The forum is supported by other users and occasionally someone from Adobe. However, requests such as this need to be posted as feature requests. They will not get attention from Adobe here.

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.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Thanks for this wall of text - however I think it would have been more effective to send an email to the RH folks directly at tcssup@adobe.com rather than posting on this user-to-user forum.

[kathym59953264]

Thanks Jeff (and Peter) - I'd posted here because there was a post suggesting to post at the community. I apologize.

Regarding emailing it to Adobe, they haven't replied to the last email I sent, and also have been tardy with replying to another user.  That said, I will send it to their email addy.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

It might be more effective to bust this up into separate Tracker requests & post the links back here for others to vote on - issues can get more traction that way with the devs if they see interest expressed about an issue/suggestion.

[Peter Grainge]

Emailing will not help either. That is to Support, which is not the link I gave.

I agree with Jeff there is no harm in posting here to gather opinion but a single long post like that will get messy. Some of the points I can answer, such as the first one is part of of Update 1. However, to post to that list means I can only address some and when others do the same, it will become an unholy mess and lose all traction.

Hence advising you to put things in single feature requests where others can add relevant comment and Adobe can pick them off over time.

________________________________________________________

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

[kathym59953264]

Thank you Peter and Stephan - 

If and when I get time I will try to create tracker tickets. It may be months depending on our work cycle.

Thank you all for your guidance, Kathy

[Stefan Gentz]

As Peter said, Adobe Tracker is the best way to file in bug reports, feature requests, and enhancement suggestions etc. (one ticket per issue, please). This way it goes directly into the ticket system the developers are using and they can discuss them and plan them out. Also, as Peter said, other users can vote and help prioritizing.

For direct support, tcssup@adobe.com is the right address.

For more general feedback (like perhaps on RoboHelp's user documentation), techcomm@adobe.com is the best place to go.

That said, it's totally fine, to put such ideas here as well, and discuss them with other users, best even before creating a ticket. An active discussion among the users also helps Adobe to understand an issue and it's relevance for the broader user community and it's impact on the user base better. Something along the lines of "Hey peers, I have this idea and consider to create a ticket for it. What do you think about this idea? Any comments? Something I might need to add?" is a good start.

[gbr_555]

Well, yes, I used the Bug Tracker for 4 years, often with fast answers and great help. But now that we needed to change to enterprise accounts to be able to use the Review feature in RoboHelp after February 2024, the Bug Tracker tells me my account is not allowed for entry any more.
Is there another platform for enterprise clients now? The Support sources are for our IT admins only, and they don't give a $"(/&# on our complaints about features and issues within a software.

[Peter Grainge]

You will have an Enterprise Admin. Support has to go through them.

________________________________________________________

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

[gbr_555]

Well, no. As I wrote: the IT guys in a 22.000+ employees enterprise are busy with managing all the hardware and network stuff. They give a damn about bugs and issues with out-of-box software, and they don't know anything about the features and issues. That's why subject matter experts in Technical Documentation should talk to the Adobe staff.

[Peter Grainge]

A nominated Enterprise Admin. I don't think it has to be an IT Admin, just one nominated person.

Perhaps @Stefan Gentz can confirm.

________________________________________________________

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

[Stefan Gentz]

If you have an enterprise account, you also have an Adobe Account Manager assigned to your company, depending on your team size maybe even a dedicated AM from the Technical Communication team. If you have no way to figure out internally (e.g., IT, purchasing) who your assinged AM is, you can reach out to tcssup@adobe.com and they will be happy to assist you.

Might also work for you: If you cannot file tickets in the bug tracker, you can also just simply create a free Adobe ID on https://account.adobe.com/ which would then enable you again to create tickets on https://tracker.adobe.com.