RoboHelp 2017 - Help in a sidebar

Report · Oct 11, 2017

Hi there,

For our project, we need to create a context help, not in the separate window but in the sidebar of the web app itself.

The output generated by RoboHelp (Responsive HTML5) consists of HTML pages with <header>, <body>, some scripts, etc., while we need just the page body to render it in the sidebar.

We also tried to generate the XML output, hoping to parse it somehow, but it doesn't differ from the HTML for some reason. There are NO .xml file and a bunch of .htm pages with headers and scripts.

Any suggestions?

Report · Oct 11, 2017

I have amended the title of the thread as it was pretty meaningless to anyone who might have a similar problem in the future. The best place to put your version is at the beginning of the content.

To do what you want will need something created by your developers and an XML output is probably their best option. The folder you generate to should only contain XML files and some JS files, certainly no HTML files. Are you sure you are generating to a folder that has no content. RoboHelp should empty that folder anyway but I am wondering if it is not for some reason.

Generate XML from one of the sample projects to see what you get there. Click Open on the RoboHelp Starter page and then click Samples in the ribbon on the left.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring information

@petergrainge

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Report · Oct 11, 2017

Hi Peter,

I've tried generating XML output out of EmployeeCare sample project. I tried all 3 available export handlers :

1. Export Project to DocBook

2. Export Project to XHTML

3. Export Topics to DocBook

Here is what I received:

Again, in all of the above outputs, htm file are generated, e.g Employee_Care folder:

Report · Oct 11, 2017

In the same folder, this is what I see and I don't see HTML files no matter which of the three handlers or the setting within Advanced.

Do you have the Updates applied? You should see 13.0.2.334.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring information

@petergrainge

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Report · Oct 11, 2017

Hi all

As I see it, the file extensions shown in olkkka's example don't really give us a clue as to what extension is applied to them. I suspect we may discover that even though we see a Google Chrome icon representing that file type, they are indeed XML files. And if so, perhaps at some point someone using that computer double-clicked one and elected to open it using Chrome and the check box for "Always use this application" was selected.

To confirm this, can you please right-click one of the files and choose properties? Then screen capture that dialog and share here?

Thanks... Rick

Report · Oct 11, 2017

Well, they were .htm files indeed...

Report · Oct 11, 2017

Installing the latest updates did the trick, wow!

Thanks!

Report · Oct 11, 2017

Peter, the XML output works great after the update, thank you!

The other thing that would be really helpful is the possibility to generate the HTML output, but only per-page, without the <header> and <script>? Just the contents. Is it possible?

Or, are there any best practices to achieve our sidebar context help goal?

Report · Oct 11, 2017

I think what you are asking is can the content in the body tags only be generated. I haven't seen any HTML editor that will do that as it would not be a working page. Perhaps you mean something else?

Maybe a find and replace tool would do that. I'm not sure why you would want this anyway.

Developing help to work in a sidebar is a development issue outside the scope of this forum and I don't know anywhere to point you.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring information

@petergrainge

Help others by clicking Correct Answer if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.