Can you have two active skins in RH 2020 in the same project? One for mobile and one for html5?

[jmcclaine]

I renamed the Azure Blue skin to two different names... one for blue_html5 and one blue_mobile.  So I have two skins in the same project, and it seems to pick up the mobile skin settings and mobile custom css fine, but when I try to apply styles to the html5 skin and upload a custom css for that skin it only sees the default, it will not pick up the "custom asset" css file I added to the html5 skin?  I'd like to know if this is just not supported or if there is a way to have two skins assigned to two differnt output types.

[Amebr]

You can definitely assign different skins to different outputs. You can't apply two skins to one output, though.

However, I'm unsure if you need two skins. The "responsive" part of the responsive html5 output means that the skin will adjust automatically for different devices (desktop, tablet and mobile). If you only really need one skin that will save you some work. 

If you post back with what you're trying to achieve and why you need two skins, along with an example of a customisation that works in one skin and not in the other, we might be able to provide more specific help.

Also, please always include the version of Robohelp you're using, including whether it's Classic or New UI, as the answers vary depending on the version.

[jmcclaine]

I'm working with the 2020 version. We have a different color schemes, one for mobile (dark) and another for web (light), so we need two separate stylesheet overrides.  I've tried removing and replacing the styles via add assets, I've tried editing them once viewable from layout and no matter what I do the HTML5 output picks up mobile when it shouldn't because there is no reference to it. The stylesheets are named differently so there is no confusion from that perspective.  Also, can you share any insight on why someone would have to remove/add the assets everytime they are edited in the original source css file that is sitting inside the asset folder?

[Peter Grainge]

Do you have separate presets for the two outputs? It sounds like you might be changing the settings each time.

[jmcclaine]

Yes, I have to separate presets that use to separate layouts and have thier own separate custom css.  I'm not changing settings each time I publish, I'm not seeing my css changes made to the custom css unless I remove the asset and add it again before each generate or publish.  This is quite cumbersome.  From the other reply it looks like I should be able to publish them separately without issues, they have different output locations and different publish folder locations, but the HTML5 output picks up style.css files from mobile and even has the original file from 5 days ago that doesn't even exist anywhere in the project anymore. It's like it won't update it's own cache so I removed all the output and publishing destinations and set it all up again without any difference in outcome.  Even more important than the "look and feel" styles is that the TOC listed in the left side doesn't highlight the right topic for every link when clicked. The first three and last three get highlighted correctly with what was clicked but the others do not.  If this link mis-match issue cannot be resolved we cannot use the product in a production environment.  I'm going back through the training videos and searching for answers, but in the meantime if you have ever heard of this problem send suggestions my way.  Thank you.

[jmcclaine]

I did find out that auto generating the TOC fixed my TOC mis-match highlighting issue. I had to check the box to remove existing TOC and the links are now correctly highlighting with what was selected/clicked.

[Peter Grainge]

You have posted I did find out that auto generating the TOC fixed my TOC mis-match highlighting issue. I had to check the box to remove existing TOC and the links are now correctly highlighting with what was selected/clicked as if it is a solution but it seems to be a different issue. Are your outputs now OK as far as this thread is concerned?

[jmcclaine]

Yes, there were a couple issues that I got resolution.  The output issues were related to us using One Drive to host the working set of project files and it was in a different ascii char coding on that drive than our local files so when we would try to publish or generate the files could not be read and failed.  Now that we used a different source shared drive they are generating and publishing without error except for the pdf format... and I think that needs a special TOC? Not exactly sure why that won't compile but I did some testing locally creating a new empty project to find the other issues so I'll try the same with the pdf output option, maybe there is a older corrupt css file or content pasted into the skin it uses that I didn't correct yet.  All in all, what is your recommendation for multiple authors to share one code base/working set and to generate/publish to the same output locations so that when we push our project file to github and then pull it back down the paths stay the same. The three of us were setting the paths to different locations on our local drives and that was causing an issue with output not working as well.  There should be a way to configure github repo for RoboHelp, and configure a remote share for generating the output and then one location for publishing to our server location.  I am scheduling a demo to go over some of the server options, but does our 3 author scenario sound like a use case for using RoboHelp Server?

[Amebr]

I can't comment on New UI, but many years ago with Classic I worked in a multi user environment, so maybe describing that setup will help you. I figure a lot of it will still be relevant.

We only added the source to (ahem) source control. We generated on our local PC and published to the production web server. Generating locally ensured we avoided network problems potentially corrupting the project, as well as very slow processing. Corruption problems were particularly bad because of the cpd file used in Classic. When we upgrade I'll continue to work and generate locally out of an abundance of caution and distrust of our network. 🙂

As part of onboarding we ensured the local folders were set up the same and NOT inside any user specific folders. This was both to keep the path as short as possible, and to avoid the underlying folder name changes using the "My Documents" folder (which is actually c:\Users\MyName\etc, and is an essay when it's directed to OneDrive (nightmare!)). Something like this, to keep everything together and organised:

c:\
  Help\
    Source\
      Project1\
    Output\
      Project1\
        Web\
        PDF\

(You can easily slot in version numbers if you need to maintain multiple version for each project, too.)

Once the folders were set up, then we would set up source control and get the files from source control to the pre-prepared folder locations.

(Protip: Don't forget to document your setup and config in your style guide, ready for when your PC explodes and you need to set everything up again. 🙂   )

[Peter Grainge]

RoboHelp Server is something you use to host your output. It is not a source control app. I'll leave you with Amber on source control.