Bullets from Framemaker

[oscarl10989624]

Hi all

I'm importing some documents from FrameMaker 2019 and need to map bullet styles to Robohelp.

In the import wizard, I can map a paragraph style from FM to another paragraph style in RH with autonumber, but I need to map to a list style in RH because with autonumber, if the bulleted paragraph is wider than a single line, it seems that RH justifies the lines starting from the bullet and not from the text.

Is there any way to do this?

Thanks

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Wouldn't you just map the FM bulleted list to an unordered list style in RH?

[oscarl10989624]

Hi Jeff

Because it seems I can't do it 🙂

In RH 2019, when I import a Framemaker File, the wizard shows only the compatible styles. For FM, a bulleted list is a paragraph with autonumber and RH doesn't show any list style in the mapping section.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Been a while since I looked at it - you seem to be correct. The Style mapping isn't offering any of the List styles to map to. I wonder if your only option is to import the FM paragraph tag and then define it in the CSS as an ul.

[oscarl10989624]

Yep, It would be fine, but how could I define a paragraph as ul element in RH? 

In this case, the imported paragraph from FM is "p.FM_Bullet" and RH references it in html as <p class="FM_Bullet">house</p>. An "ul" element is very different, you know: 

<ol class="FM_Bullet">
<li>house</li>
</ol> 

The html changes a lot, not only the CSS. In RH is this type of transformations possible?

Thanks a lot for your time Jeff. I'm afraid this very simple case is not covered with RH 2019 (that could be very surprising).  

[Peter Grainge]

I know nothing about FrameMaker but I do know about the Import workflow in RoboHelp. My knowledge is more in the Word import area but the two are very similar. I can't answer the specific question but I can throw something out there for you to ponder.

The whole process is documented in the RoboHelp Reimagined sample project. A list in Word is given a specific ul/ol style during the import process. One style for every list. The appearance is usually correct and it can be left as is or you can convert it to list style set up in the css used for other topics.

It looks to me as if by mapping to an autonumber style, you are not following the correct workflow and that is where the problem is kicking in.

Also note that in the RoboHelp Reimagined topic, there is reference to minimum update requirements.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Looks like the New UI isn't behaving the same way as the RH2019 Classic version when it comes to mapping FM content to RH styles. Classic had that screen where you could choose the RH Style and gave you Autonumber options (like "Ignore Autnumber", "Convert Autonumber to - HTML List or Multilevel List" and "Convert Autonumber to Text") all on the same screen. I'm seeing the same screen as the OP when playing around with the New UI - all you get are non-list styles to choose from.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Looks like FM2019 is still using the "traditional" Style Mapping screen in the Publish settings - maybe you can go that direct route. OR use a Classic project as an intermediate step for importing, then convert it to a New UI project.

[oscarl10989624]

Unfortunately it's a requirement for me to output in frameless skin, so using FM2019 for publishing is discarted 😞 but your point with RH classic may be the right way in this case.

Also, I have some experience with python and html parsers like beautifulsoup. The topics rendered by RH are so simple that it will be easy to play around with this kind of solution to convert a p tag with FM_bullet class to a "ol" structure.   

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I would log a bug in the Tracker (https://tracker.adobe.com/) and post the issue # here for others to vote on it. I know a few other FM to RH fans are interested in the issue.