RH2019.0.7 - Can't format or apply UL and OL lists as expected

[Nick27]

Not sure where I'm going wrong here.

Recently upgraded RH 2017 projects to the new 2019. The 2017 project had css with OL, UL, and LI styles set up. Example CSS is below.

This has copied over to my new 2019 project OK in the CSS. But when applying these styles it is not applying the CSS in the same way in 2019 and as such my styles are not formatted. I've tried to create new styles in RH2019 but there is a li-rad_normal style being applied which just does not exist in my style sheet. But I can't understand why this is being applied at all.

Any ideas?

2017 CSS and 2019 CSS for respective styles. Both exactly the same.

OL {

margin-top: 0px;

margin-bottom: 0px;

}

UL {

margin-top: 0px;

margin-bottom: 0px;

}

li.Number {

font-family: Calibri;

font-size: 11pt;

list-style: decimal;

line-height: Normal;

margin-bottom: 6px;

margin-top: 6px;

}

p.Rad_Normal {

margin-bottom: 0pt;

line-height: Normal;

text-align: justify;

}

li.Bullet {

list-style: disc;

font-family: Calibri;

font-size: 11pt;

}

Example HTML from 2017 project where all I applied was li.Number style to an existing paragraph that has p.Rad_Normal applied.

<ol style="list-style: decimal;">

<li class="Number"><p class="Rad_Normal">Pick Rate updates allow you to change the pick rate...

Example HTML from 2019 project where I Try to do the same thing:

<ol>

    <li class="Rad_Normal">and the invoice date is printed on the actual.

As you see in 2019 I am not getting the LI 'Number class being applied, and instead Rad_Normal is being set as an LI class and no P class to actually format my text.

[Peter Grainge]

Is it the same if you create a new list and then apply another style?

[Nick27]

Yes. I'm trying with completely new styles and still getting the same issue. I do not have a li class for rad_normal and it is continuing to create one in my HTML.

I'm also unable to even format the text of my list in anyway. Changes to OL and LI do nothing.

Are lists handled differently in the new RH compared to previous versions? Or am I going around creating lists in the wrong sequence?

I type out my text, apply my P style and any span styles I need then I select the text block and apply my list style. At this point the span stlying is maintained, a numbering is applied but the P style is removed and LI style which is applied has the same name as my P style rather than the LI style I have selected.

[Peter Grainge]

Create a new project and using the default.css see if that works in the way you expect.

If that doesn't help, can you share your project? I can't figure out how that style is getting created so I need to play with something that will do that. You could add one of your topics to the new project and check it does what you have described there. I don't really need the whole project.

See the Contact page on my site and send the project as instructed there. Do make sure you include a link to this thread and please do not email the project direct.

---

See www.grainge.org for free RoboHelp and Authoring information.

@petergrainge

[Nick27]

I've sent it over to you. Thanks.

[Amebr]

I can reproduce as you say:

1. Type out list items.

2. Apply paragraph style 'Rad_Normal'.

3. Click the Numbered List Style icon and select Decimal.

The paragraphs are converted directly to list items, but the paragraph class (rad_normal) is not removed. Probably it should be.

Depending on what Peter comes back with, the quickest (but not necessarily best) way of getting the 2017 and the 2019 New methods working together might be to add a new style to your stylesheet that combines the li.Number and p.Rad_Normal properties together. So you'd keep your existing styles but add the following new one. I've noted the duplicate properties you want to remove using strike-through - you want to use the p version, as that is applied last due to the 'cascading' part of cascading style sheets (CSS).

li.Rad_Normal {

font-family: Calibri;

font-size: 11pt;

list-style: decimal;

line-height: Normal;

margin-bottom: 6px;

margin-top: 6px;

margin-bottom: 0pt;

line-height: Normal;

text-align: justify;

}

This should mean you can keep your existing workflow the same.

Give Peter a chance to check what you sent first though, and if there's no imminent solution, do test this change thoroughly, just in case there are odd side effects.

(Side note: the workflow you use is probably a relic from RH versions earlier than about RH8 or 9, where it was necessary to include a paragraph style when creating list. It's not really necessary now, but I think quite common because people need to maintain legacy code, which can be time-consuming to change. The new code introduced by RH2019 (which follows standards more closely) is probably going to give a lot of people trouble. )

[Amebr]

Oh wait, the cascade part is going to cause complications, depending on what you have defined in the vanilla p (normal) style and vanilla li style.

Basically, anything mentioned in plain p that isn't defined in p.Rad_Normal and anything defined in li that isn't defined in li.Number needs to be copied in to your new style.

If there are duplicate properties with different values (e.g. margin-bottom), keep the following preference order (most preferred is 1.)

1. p.Rad_Normal

2. p

3. li.Number

4. li.

Hopefully Peter comes back with a better suggestion.

[Nick27]

Thanks.

I'll wait to see what Peter suggests. I'm just very confused as to how RH is defining its HTML in 2019 vs how it has in previous version that I've upgraded from.

In the older RH8 or 2017 (whatever the last version was) I would do as I described above. Write out my text, format it up with span and p styles as needed then throw a list style at it. And RH built the HTML with ol, li and p tags.

Now it looks to not include the P tag anymore. OK I can deal with that. But how should I be dealing with this as far as a historical project and HTML goes?

Where is this li-radnormal style even coming from when I try to apply my li.number style. It is so confusing and I still can't format either the OL or LI tags to give me the font and size I want.

I feel like I'm doing something really obviously stupid because lists are such a commonly used feature that this can't be how RH deals with it.

[Amebr]

I assure you, you aren't doing anything stupid.  In my opinion, there's a conceptual change involved, which has a flow-on effect for people using a particular method of applying styles, which dates back to a really old version of Robohelp (it may even pre-date Adobe's ownership of Robohelp). The method you're using hasn't been required by RH for a long time, but I'm sure there are lots of people still doing it this way because it's always worked.

As an example, at my current work I found a funny formatting quirk implemented in a new project.  We'd originally applied it at a previous workplace as a workaround for a problem in a really old version of RH (maybe X5?) and then never changed it because time, resource, it's not causing any problems, etc. But because my colleague had been used to working that way, they'd just replicated that formatting at a new job, even though it was no longer necessary.

Robohelp 2019 is also a work in progress, so there are some hinky things happening, which I suspect is part of the problem you're experiencing.

Peter has a sample to work with, so I'll leave off until his timezone wakes up and he can provide advice based on reality, rather than CSS theory and ancient history.