Content-level tag expressions

[Lars Wilhelmer]

Being able to apply tag expressions to topic content is my #1 wish for future versions of RoboHelp. Our help project is relying heavily on the new Dynamic Content Filter feature of RH 2015, and while it is definitely a great addition, it would be so much more flexible and useful if only tag expressions could be applied to content.

Let's say we need documentation for a simple electronic device, e.g. a USB flash drive. The following options are available:

- Interface -

USB 2.0

USB 3.0

- Storage -

32 GB

64 GB

128 GB

All combinations are possible (USB 2.0 drive with 32/64/128 GB, USB 3.0 drive with 32/64/128 GB). We set up a HTML5 project with a Dynamic Content Filter, create two groups with the criterias, all seems to be fine.

But what do you do if there's some section in your topic that applies to all USB 3.0 devices (32/64/128) and USB 2.0 devices with 128 GB? Simple answer: You can't do that.

The only option would be to create a build tag expression and apply it as a new criteria to the Dynamic Content Filter window. That means the customer would have to click a seperate filter option like "USB 3.0 flash drive with 32/64/128 GB or USB 2.0 drive with 128 GB". But that's not a viable option in terms of usability.

Deciding which content should be shown under which (sometimes complex) conditions should always be in the hands of the help author, not the customer. Please give us the opportunities to do that.

There are lots and lots of other examples where content-level tag expressions would be a great help. For example, currently there is no way to declare "do NOT display this content when a filter criteria is met and display other content instead". With tag expressions, you could easily do that. And most of all, all of this functionality is already built-in - but it's stuck in the Conditional Build Tag Expressions which you can't apply to content.

I already posted this as a new feature suggestion on bugbase.adobe.com, but maybe some of you like to share some thoughts here.

[KimberlyO]

Couldn't you use a conditional build tag? (I'm on RH10 and eventually will be upgrading to 2015.) I use the build tags within help topics quite a bit as well as for specific topics.

[Lars Wilhelmer]

You can use Conditional Build Tags for simple conditions like "Display this paragraph if the device is a USB 3.0 device". But you can't say "Display this paragraph if the device is a USB 3.0 device with 32/64/128 GB or a USB 2.0 device with 128 GB". That's where expressions come into play (AND / OR / NOT logic). They exist in RoboHelp, but you can't apply them to content.