• Global community
    • Language:
      • Deutsch
      • English
      • Español
      • Français
      • Português
  • 日本語コミュニティ
    Dedicated community for Japanese speakers
  • 한국 커뮤니티
    Dedicated community for Korean speakers
Exit
0

FM insets - PDF images do not display in RH

New Here ,
Aug 30, 2017 Aug 30, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Using multiple versions of FM (10 and 2015), using insets in FM, inserting images in the FM insets by reference, inserting images as PDF files because the quality is good, linking FM book in RH....

The PDF figures do not display in RH and display as blank white spaces. So no PDF images are output to help files, such as Microsoft HTML help (CHM). Other formats can be used for images, such as PNG, but the quality degrades in RH.

The same applies to equations. They are blank in RH and have to be converted to PNG and inserted as an image/figure in FM in order to display with low quality in RH.

Is there any way to use PDF images when linking FM files with insets in RH?

Thanks.

Views

1.5K

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Aug 30, 2017 Aug 30, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I don't think PDFs are really considered to be an image format & as you've found out, they don't really survive the trip to RH and its output formats.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Mar 29, 2018 Mar 29, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hi:

This does not explain why native FrameMaker equations display as blank in RoboHelp. The software should be able to handle equations in insets.

Thank you for the response.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Mar 29, 2018 Mar 29, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Are the equations contained in anchored frames? That's probably the only way they would get into RH topics.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Mar 29, 2018 Mar 29, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hi:

They are inserted using Insert > Equations, which means that they are shrinkwrapped equations. They then appear to become anchored frames....which means that the software cannot handle anything in an anchored frame....

Thanks again for the response.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Mar 29, 2018 Mar 29, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Since I don't have any use for equations in any of my projects, I thought I would try to stick on it a new test page & see how it got treated when sucked over to RH. Using FM12 to insert it & importing it into a new RH11 project, it appears to comes across as a jpg reference in the HTML of the resulting RH topic. I told it not to use Distiller to convert any images in the Conversion Settings.

Just generated some HTML5 help and the equation shows up just fine.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Mar 29, 2018 Mar 29, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hi:

I experimented with the image settings in the past. Just now, I created a new RH project and told it not to use Distiller to convert images. I linked in the FM book that uses insets, etc, and generated. The PDF images and FM equations do not come into RH, so when I output to Microsoft HTML Help (CHM) or Responsive HTML5, they do not display. Any PNG screen captures do display. So still no joy. It took over an hour for RH to process the linked files. Using FM and RH 2017.

Jeff, that you very much for trying some output. Did you create the equation in an inset and then use File > Import > File > Import by Reference to bring the inset into a FM file?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Apr 02, 2018 Apr 02, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

No, I just did a straight insertion of the equation on a FM page. I just tested taking that page and using it as an inset and then bringing the inset into a new FM page. When I imported the new page containing the inset into RH11, the resulting topics had the equation in the correct location & it displayed fine.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Apr 04, 2018 Apr 04, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hi:

Results....New document....Output CHM file in RoboHelp....

Insertion of an equation in FrameMaker renders a low-quality/fuzzy equation in CHM.

Insertion of an equation in an inset and copying the inset into another FrameMaker document renders a low-quality/fuzzy equation in CHM.

Insertion of an equation in an inset and copying the inset in by reference into another FrameMaker document renders no equation and the low quality/fuzzy text above the equation in CHM.

I am using the third method, which is to reference in the insets. The equation does not display (and in fact displayed the text above it instead in this new experiment).

My methods....

Insert an equation as Insert > Equations, drop-down list New Medium Equation, create 1+1=2, right-click and shrinkwrap.

Import the inset using File > Import > File, Import By Reference, keep defaults (Body Page Flow, Reformat, Automatic update).

In RH, the Project Settings are left at the defaults, with Image conversion settings having the Use Distiller to Generate Image checkbox enabled.

Thanks for taking the time to test.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Apr 04, 2018 Apr 04, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Here's what I did in FM12 & RH11:

1. created equation on separate FM page:

equation_pg.PNG

2. added it into another FM doc as a text inset:

equation_inset.PNG

3. Put the new doc into a book; created a new RH project and imported the FM book - resulting in "Setup Steps" topic:

equationRH11.PNG

4. generated Responsive HTML5 output:

equation_responsiveHTML5.PNG

No issues from what I could see.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Apr 05, 2018 Apr 05, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hi Jeff:

I was able to get an equation to display when I turned off the Distiller conversion setting.

When I had more than one equation in the inset, it did not work (displays one equation three times and badly).

I tried changing the Distiller options as outlined at the bottom of

Re: Why are all my images blank in my RH 10 project?

and

Re: RoboHelp starts Distiller but cannot find TPS files, which prevents you from generating the proj...

but these did not work. (I copied joboptions into my local Users/<user name>/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/Adobe PDF/Settings folder, allowed Distiller to convert the images, and used a couple of the joboptions.)

The quality of your equation also appears to be better than mine, even though I see the software converts it to a JPG.

For expediency, I switched over to File > Publish in FM and generated Responsive HTML 5 files.

Can you please tell me what your Default Settings field reads in Distiller and what your image conversion settings window looks like?

Thanks for the assistance.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Apr 05, 2018 Apr 05, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hi Theresiaw,

I find the direct output from FrameMaker to be faster, easier, and less likely to require troubleshooting.

Did the direct output from Fm serve your needs?

Is there a reason you'd rather link to Rh rather than publish directly from Fm?

-Matt

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Apr 05, 2018 Apr 05, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Matt:

The deal-breaker with publishing from FM is the URL links that open within the CHM window and give you the script prompts. I could not figure out a way to fix that.

In RH, the search and replace to open the URL links in a new browser window takes just a few seconds. Overall, RH gives you lots of control over the user interface.

It would be nice to publish from FM.

Thanks for popping in.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Apr 05, 2018 Apr 05, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Sounds interesting...

Can you share an example of the code change you make in Rh?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Apr 05, 2018 Apr 05, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Matt:

It's the find and replace function in RH. It pops in a target="blank" tag into all HTML links. RH caches/remembers the fields so no retyping is required. Here is a screen capture.

replace.png

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Apr 05, 2018 Apr 05, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Now I'm getting even more curious!

For the Fm to Rh workflow, you can set the target to blank from your Fm marker per this thread:

Want HTML Help Link to Open in New Window

But things would still be smoother from the Fm Publish than the Fm to Rh publish process.

What about the link in Fm...is it a hypertext marker, an xref, or something else?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Apr 05, 2018 Apr 05, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

FYI, I'd used the following string in previous versions/builds (either late Fm 13 or early Fm 14 versions) to produce markers as you need them.

message URL https://forums.adobe.com" target="_blank

(Thus, that's how I wrote up the section, Setting links in HTML formats to open in new window, in FrameMaker - Working with Content)

I opened up a forum thread to discuss this, and also filed a bug to see if there's a workaround or bug fix needed.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Apr 05, 2018 Apr 05, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Think this is what you're looking for in RH11:

image_conv.PNG

Distiller settings:

joboptions.PNG

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Apr 05, 2018 Apr 05, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I just tried it again in a new project and left the "Use Distiller to generate image" flag on & the results are terrible - the equation image doesn't show at all (but the HTML says it's there as a jpg).

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Apr 05, 2018 Apr 05, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Gentlemen:

I tried all of the above. No joy.

The URL hypertext marker that gets output to CHM always opens within the same window for me. This is trying conditional text and the _blank tag in various iterations.

I still could not get the inset equations to work.

In case this helps someone else, using the File > Publish feature in FM, a couple of months ago I figured out how to turn off the script error prompt on links. I adapted and renamed the HTMLTemplate.htm template from C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe FrameMaker 2017\fminit\Publisher\Template\Document\PageTemplate and used it in the Use HTML Page Template option for Microsoft HTML Help. To eliminate the prompts, remove the breadcrumb navigation links as follows:

<!-- Breadcrumbs starts here-->

    <p  data-type="breadcrumbs" class="pt_breadcrumbs" > <!-- Label before Separator --> <a data-type="home_link" href="#">Home</a> <span data-type="separator"> &gt; </span> 

<!-- Label after Separator -->  </p>

    <!-- Breadcrumbs ends here-->

That worked for me. The answer to getting all links to open in a new window from a CHM file may lie in that template file, but nothing that I tried worked.

I bow to thank you both for trying to help.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Apr 06, 2018 Apr 06, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Are you able to share your source FM files and images? I'd be willing to have a look to see what's going on.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Apr 06, 2018 Apr 06, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hi:

I'd be willing to share. At my corporate end, uploading to a file sharing service, such as Dropbox or Box, and sharing a public link is not an option. If you have a place where I can drop it or send it, I'd be willing to do so.

Thanks.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Apr 06, 2018 Apr 06, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hmm, that could complicate things - if the files aren't too large you could try e-mailing them to me. Shoot me a Private Message & I'll give you my e-mail address you can try. Remind me what version of FM you were using?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Apr 09, 2018 Apr 09, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Ok, played around with your test files & I'm seeing the same thing happening in the newer version of FM. I think you should log a bug with the FM team - link is on the home page of the FM forum - Tracker

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Apr 09, 2018 Apr 09, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

LATEST

Bug logged.

Thanks for the link and testing!

Bottom line: FM and RH need to support use of equations and PDF files in insets for output to online help. The quality is great with PDF creation from FM. That needs to transfer to the online help creation. The workaround was to use PNG files for figures and equations, but quality degrades significantly.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Resources
RoboHelp Documentation
Download Adobe RoboHelp