Existing Word files into Robhelp 2022

[JenniR_12]

Hello.  I'm on the struggle bus and am needing some help and clarification.  I'm new to Robohelp.  I have hundreds of Word files that I need to bring into Robohelp.  Ideally, I would like to import all of the files and folders and subfolders into RH 2022 at once.  Is that even possible, I guess is my question?  If I right click in the contents panel, I see a menu that has import file, folder and Word Document options.  If I choose folder and go out and select my folder that contains all of the structure and subfolders and Word files, it brings it into my contents panel and I can expand all of the folders and see my sub folder and what looks like my "files" or topics, but when I double click on the file (or topic to use RH terminology) it is blank on the right hand side.  What am I doing wrong?  I don't know when to use import folder or import word document or link folder or link file.  I'm thoroughly confused because the way my brain thinks this should work is not the way it's working and I can't figure it out.  Any help would be so appreciated.  Thank you.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

You've had a look at Peter's site? https://www.grainge.org/RoboHelp_Tour/rh2022/authoring/importing_linking.htm 

[Peter Grainge]

@Jeff_Coatsworth has pointed you to how to import and you must use the Word Document option when you import to convert the document to a topic.

However, you have a bigger problem in that you have hundreds of documents to import. In Word, a style called Normal or say Heading 1 can and probably will be different in each document. That is why you can only import one document at a time so that you can map that document.

If all your documents were perfectly created Word documents after an import you would likely have a good topic with decent code. Now let's get back to the real world. Those documents will have been created by different people and the chances of them being perfect are in line with winning the lottery and being struck by lightning at the same moment. How many time have you applied a colour to a paragraph inline in Word rather than creating a paragraph style. That's just one example of a problem that will cause an issue when importing.

The cleanest way may sound time consuming but it will be better in the long run in terms of getting better code in the topics to ensure they work as they should. Quite simply you select all the text in a Word document and then paste it into a single topic or paste different parts into different topics. Do this a special way. When you paste in, use CTRL SHIFT V. That pastes the text in without any formatting. Then you apply the styles in RoboHelp.

There will be some tidying up of paragraphs but that part might surprise you how well it works. The downside is images and tables. Lists you will format in RoboHelp in the same way as paragraphs.

Images will need to be copy pasted one by one and tables will need to be recreated. Doing a similar exercise from Dreamweaver recently, I found it was obvious which text went into which cell.

What I suggest you do is import a few of the documents, one by one, using the Import Word Document method. If you are lucky and it all works as it should, keep going. I suspect though you will soon find it is down to the quality of the documents and that you will be giving the above a try. 

Do let us know how you get on.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[JenniR_12]

Actually, the first part sevearl months of this project was spent creating our styles and applying them to each Word document so all of the documents are formatted exactly the same so that when we performed our mass dump into Robohelp, it would go smoothly.  It never dawned on us that Robohelp didnt' have the capability of doing this.  There are only 2 of us working on this project and touching these files, so we are certain that they are formatted properly.  From what I'm gathering from your answer, is that there is no way to mport these files into Robohelp other than 1 by 1?  That is the fastest suggestion that you have for us?  I just want to be clear before I take this news back to my group and let them know this isn't going to work.  Thank you in advance and I certainly hope there is a quicker way that hasn't been mentioned to accomplish this task.  

[Peter Grainge]

Just to be clear, this is a user to User forum. 

Using Import Word Document (note singular) I couldn't select more than one document at a time. You can try that for yourself. 

Before making final decisions, you can try Support but I think they will tell you the same. 

See https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/enterprise-support.other.html#robohelp for your Adobe Support options. The email link tcssup@adobe.com is recommended as it reaches a team dedicated to Technical Communication Suite products including RoboHelp.

________________________________________________________
My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[JenniR_12]

Hi Peter.  Yes, I understand this is user to user.  Sorry if that came across as me being testy or blaming you for the answer.  I find so many usueful answers on this forum.  I've been battling this for quite a few days and I'm just trying to come up with a resolution.  I, too, only have the option to select one Word file at a time.  While it's not the answer I was looking for, I am confident that it is the right answer.  It simply can't be done.  I just find it odd that it is doable in other versions.  Not sure why that capability would have been removed.   Seems counterproductive.   Anyway, thank you for all of your suggestions.  Looks like we will be utiliizing one or both in getting these files moved into RH.

[JenniR_12 · Accepted solution]

Importing multiple Word files in Robohelp 2022 cannot be done.  Robohelp 2019 Classic and prior versions had this cabpability and they removed it in the new UI.  Thank you all for the information.  I stepped away from the project for just a little bit and am now back to trying to figure it all out again.  Peter, your Robohelp 2022 help files has been extremely valuable.  Thank you.

[Peter Grainge]

@JenniR_12 I incorrectly unmarked this as correct. I can't reverse that action so I have now remarked it. I misread the first sentence.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Amebr]

I would also recommend putting in a feature request, as importing multiple Word files was possible in Classic, but does not seem to have made it in to New UI. 

You can request features and report issues here: https://tracker.adobe.com/

Post the item number in the discussion so people can easily vote if they want the same functionality.

Aside: In Classic I always cleaned up my documents in Word first (with the help of some Word macros, but also some manual tidy-up), then bulk imported them into a temporary "import" project and ran a few RH scripts to do some more tidy-up on Word crud. Finally I imported the cleaned up topics into my proper project. (If it was a brand new project I would skip the temporary "import" project step.)

[Peter Grainge]

I had a late thought that might help in your case. When you have configured the import settings for a document, you can save them. As you have worked on standardising the Word documents, that could be very useful.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[JenniR_12]

Hi.  So, I have been saving my settings on the import.  I'm not 100% sure how to use or apply those settngs, for future documents, though, but I know I'm saving them each time I import a document.  I figure that  is the next thing I have to figure out.  I have this file with all my settings and now what do I do with it to make this a little bit faster?  Any suggestions you have would be amazing.  I'm jumping back and forth on different topics.  Right now I'm just looking at publishing to sharepoint online info because somehow I have to make that work.  We have a gal that has tried prior to my arrival, and she was having issues.  Instead of publishing it kept downloading a random txt file.  Do you  have any pointers on that piece?  I appreciate you taking the time and getting back to me.  Thank you.  Jen

[Peter Grainge]

When you start the import process, the first field let's you choose the document. The next one lets you choose the settings you have previously saved. When you select that, a lot of the settings will get applied rather than you changing them every time.

Sharepoint is a very different question so please start a new thread on that. Otherwise this thread will get messy and it will be difficult for other Sharepoint users to find.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[JenniR_12]

Hi.  I will start new thread for my Sharepoint question.  Thank you again for your help and advice.  

[Amebr]

I'll see if I can make some time tonight to try to write a little script to make it possible import multiple Word docs at once. Unfortunately Adobe changed the scripting in RH New UI and didn't really document it, so I can't guarantee I'll have success.

[Amebr]

I've done my best with my limited knowledge, but I can't see any way of accessing the import function and passing file paths to the import dialog box.

Do submit a feature request; I'll definitely vote on it.

[JenniR_12]

Hi Amebr.  Thank you for trying.  You have no idea how much I appreciate your effort.  I will submit the feature request today.  

[Paul-Hanson]

Why not select "Import > Folder" and navigate to the folder with the Word files and import the Word files that way? There's an option under "Word Documents" to "Update All" that seems to generate HTML files from the Word files. I'm using Version 20022

[Peter Grainge]

I understood Update All is for linked files, not importing.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Paul-Hanson]

That’s true – in RH 2015, when I want to update the HTML file(s) for linked Word file(s), that’s the option I choose.  Still testing this out…

[OLDJenniferDONTUSE]

Peter is right.   Update All is only available if you link the topic to your Word file.  It's not there if you import your Word file.  I ended up just importing my files one by one.   I created a Word file with every style that I used in my Word documents to be brought into RH and then that was the first Word file I imported into my project so I could get all of my styles from Word into RH in one fell swoop.  Then I went into Source and copied all of the styles from the topic.css file into my main CSS file that I wanted to use for the entire project.  Set my main css file under Project Settings and from there, I didn't have to mess with mapping anything bc it was all set up from the beginning.  I also created a CSS folder (not the one under Assets) and I moved each topic CSS into the CSS folder just in case I needed to refer back to them at some point so I wouldn't have to import again to see the styles.  Like if I messed up one of my styles I just copied it again from one of the topic css's into my main css.  I just hid the CSS folder and the Styles document that I brought in first from the TOC so it doesn't show up in the output.  I'm sure there are better ways of doing this, but this worked for me.   Make sure you back up.   I learned that the hard way despite Peter's many warnings to do so.

[prhmusic2]

What is the tracking # for this request so I can vote for it to be done? I am really shocked that they took this functionality away. If the idea was to make RoboHelp be a tool to migrate authoring in Word to authoring in HTML, importing Word files one at a time is very time-consuming. In my situation, if I were to go down that road, I would have 2000+ Word files to import as the SMEs in my dept use a Word file with standardized headings to write disaster recovery info, which is then linked to my RoboHelp project. In the traditional role of a TWer, I would be responsible for that content [and would probably be authoring in HTML to take advantage of RH's snippets & UDV functionality (which I can't if the HTML from the linked Word file keeps getting changed as I wouldn't want to touch the generated HTML)] and would be faced with importing all of those Word files one-by-one. Even if I never reach the point in my career where I need to import multiple Word files at the same time, I see the value in being able to for other TWers so I will gladly vote to have this functionality restored - I just need the tracking # to vote!

[Peter Grainge]

You refer to importing and then say the documents are linked, which is it?

With linking you would see a different icon where the document has changed and would update individually or all at once, depending on your workflow.

Yes importing is one at a time but because of the workflow in the new UI, I rather doubt that can be changed. However, that is for Adobe to rule on.

This appears to be the bug report. RH-12390 | Tracker (adobe.com)

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[prhmusic2]

My current scenario is to link to 1000s of Word files from a network drive [though RH 2022 now copies those linked files to my local c: drive, which I think is [snip]...

The reference to importing Word files was speculation about a different scenario [aligned with the traditional role of a TWer "owning" the content. In that different scenario, I wouldn't choose Word as my primary authoring environment - I would choose HTML so I could take advantage of snippets & UDVs.

[Peter Grainge]

There appears to be two Jennifers in this thread who are twins, go to the same optician and the same hairdresser. 

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[OLDJenniferDONTUSE]

Yes.  It does appear that way.  I didn't realize I had 2 pictures.   I feel like I noticed the circle thatholds the picture was blank and so I added a new picture.  I'm not sure what happened there.