Table Heading Format for WebHelp - FM to RH

[TimLMun]

We are using Tech Comm Suite 4.0 (FM 11 and RH 10) on a Windows 7 platform.

I usually set up a RoboHelp project for online help, and then the writer responsible for it publishes to WebHelp from within FrameMaker, and just points to the RH project I create.

We are getting inexplicable results in the heading row of our tables in WebHelp output.

This is the style information in the published WebHelp for the heading row in a table:

<th style="width : 122.250pt; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 2px; border-top-color: #0066a8; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-right-color: #0066a8; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-bottom-color: #0066a8; vertical-align : top;padding-left: 6.00pt; padding-top: 3.00pt; padding-right: 6.00pt; padding-bottom: 3.00pt;">

We would like to put shading in the heading row for WebHelp (but not in PDF output, which is usually printed in black/white). So, in our custom style sheet, we have added the following line item:

p.th {

background-color: #ddeaff;

}

(I have omitted all of the irrelevant style information.)

We point RH to the custom style sheet when we set up the RH project. However, the published output seems to totally ignore this style information.

Does anyone have an idea as to why the WebHelp seems to be ignoring the style information we provide in our custom style sheet?

Thanks in advance,

Tim

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Let's figure out if it's publishing straight from FM that's the culprit or if it's something else. Do you get the same results if you run the FM content through RH in the "normal" ways? If so, then it's something going on in the FM to RH integration; if not, then you've probably uncovered another limitation with the direct Publish route.

[TimLMun]

Hi Jeff,

OK, I just imported the FM book into RH, made certain RH pointed to the correct custom CSS file, and republished to WebHelp.

It does not shade the heading row.

Note, as you know, there is no real FM paragraph style or table row style named "heading row" to which you can assign attributes. In the table designer, on the third tab, you can set shading for the heading, but it still doesn't allow a person to format a "heading row" style per se.

Tim

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I've got a table format made up of a HeadingCell para tag that has a dark blue background with white lettering on it and the rest of the table consisting of CellBody para tag with white background and black lettering & they both make the transition through to WebHelp so I know that something can be done. I don't explicitly map the FM table tags to a RH one in my Conversion settings (I guess they'd be set to [Source]). If you want more info, I could send you a sample.

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools]

You'll want to map the Fm table format to an Rh table format, then mod the Rh table format by editing the RHStylemapping.css file. (or your conversion css of choice.

The style info is generated from Fm, and generally a Very Bad Idea.

[TimLMun]

Hi Matt,

I do not know how to do what you describe, so this is what I did as a work-around. We simply added the shading in FrameMaker, and put up with it in printed books. Somehow the shading is communicated successfully from FM to RH to WebHelp. So, we are going with that solution.

Thanks for the response!

Tim