RH2017 Import style mapping buggy???

[maureen1524]

I have used Robohelp for 24 years, and I've worked with virtually every version since then. So I speak with experience when I say that RH17 is acting weird.

I import Word documents into Robohelp. These documents have Word styles applied to all the content. Typically, I slap the Robohelp style sheet onto the imported topic, and all is well - the Word styles map to the style sheet styles and assume their attributes in Robohelp. However, when I follow my time-honored steps in RH17, nothing works right.

It appears as though RH17 is renaming my styles so they don't map to the style sheet. Then it picks random attributes (like replacing Verdana with Calibri and making the font size smaller) and applies them to the content. I have to manually go through the topic to reapply the correct styles from the Robohelp Styles pod.

I tried clicking "Edit conversion settings for Word documents" in the Import dialog during the import process, and selected Automap Paragraph Styles > Select All to map to the same name in the style sheet. (By the way: This is something that used to be automatic, and in the background - if Robohelp found a match between a Word style and a style sheet style, it simply applied it. So I object to having to do this, if that's what's going on.)

But when I DO do this, it's not 100% accurate anyway. For instance, my Num1 numbered style doesn't make it across the divide at all. Ever. No matter what I do. The style name changes to NUM1CxSPFIRST, even when I take that extra step to manually map style names during the import process. I have checked, double-checked, and triple-checked the style in Word. It's applied correctly that text. Num1 is a paragraph style, so it wasn't excluded from the mapping step.

If there's a second numbered item in the list, that one takes on the style name NUM1CxSPMIDDLE. The last one becomes NUM1CxSPLAST. Other styles in other topics did the same thing, so I have a project filled with a whole slew of bogus style names containing CxSPFIRST, MIDDLE or LAST clogging up my style pod window.

Is Adobe aware of this? Has someone reported it?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Are you all patched up? Are you using an .isf settings file to save your import settings?

[maureen1524]

I just downloaded the software yesterday. It should be current. Thanks

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Ah, as the fish-head Admiral in Star Wars says, "It's a trap!" - you've fallen for it too - just because you downloaded a fresh, mint-in-box set of Adobe software today, it doesn't mean that they have applied all the patches that have come out since they invented that version. You'll discover, via Help > Updates, that there's been 2 patches issued for RH2017 so far. Slap them on & try your import again with a fresh squeaky-new project and see what happens...

[maureen1524]

So the Updates option is grayed out. Apparently I have all the updates. Who do I report this to? Thanks

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

What version is being reported now? That will give us a better idea of whether updates have been applied.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I think the current RH2017 post-patch 2 version is 13.0.2.334.

[maureen1524]

13.0.0.257, so it's not the latest. Why can't I download updates though? Thanks

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Could be corporate firewalls/restrictions, licensing plans, etc. Check out the direct page for RH updates - Adobe - Support : RoboHelp Support Center : Service Releases

[Peter Grainge]

The usual reason for not being able to apply updates is not having local admin rights.

Follow Jeff's link and if that was the cause, whilst you will be able to download the update, you will not be able to apply it.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring information. $£0.00

@petergrainge

[Peter Grainge]

You do need to apply the updates.

[Peter Grainge]

Is it possible this document has not come from the usual source and they have not applied styles correctly? I have seen people create a paragraph style and give it the name of HeadingX, that doesn't make it a Heading style as Word understands it. Before import, the workflow uses Word's Save as Web Page to convert the DOC to HTML. If styles have not been applied properly, that can have an impact. I am not saying that is the cause, just a possibility.

When importing, the process will show many styles in the Word document that are simply not used, they just exist in it. This is explained in more detail in Printed Documentation on my site. There is a link either there or in Word  Macros to a macro that trashes unused styles before you start the import. (Use a copy of the original document.) That might clean out some styles that are causing confusion.

The odd names for numbered lists are also covered and there's a method that worked for me in the Printed Documentation pages.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring information. $£0.00

@petergrainge