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PDF bookmark hierarchy is incorrect using RoboHelp 2019

Explorer ,
Aug 19, 2019 Aug 19, 2019

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I am generating a PDF from RoboHelp 2019. The TOC seems to correctly reflect my defined Table of Contents. However the PDF bookmark hierarchy is incorrect. It seems to be a straight listing of topics regardless of the TOC hierarchy or heading levels. This is especially problematic because the PDF defaults to opening the bookmark panel. Has anyone else seen this or have a fix for this issue?

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Enthusiast ,
Aug 19, 2019 Aug 19, 2019

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I am having the same issue. Also, many of my Robohelp bookmarks are not displayed in the PDF bookmarks panel. Some are, but here mainly, the topic header is not displayed (thus, I get a > without any text, and upon folding up, the RH bookmarks are displayed). Unfortunately, I have no idea how to fix this.

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Community Expert ,
Aug 20, 2019 Aug 20, 2019

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I have brought this to Adobe's attention.


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

@petergrainge

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Adobe Employee ,
Aug 20, 2019 Aug 20, 2019

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Hi Karin/JC,

Do you have bookmarks created at every heading level in the topics, or at the heading levels which are missing or shown as a list in PDF?

Regards,

Vikas Singla

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Enthusiast ,
Aug 20, 2019 Aug 20, 2019

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Hi Vikas,

I just ran a quick test. Apparently, the behaviour is as follows:

Structure in TOC / Project:

Folder 1

     Header 1 without bookmark

     Header 2  without bookmark 

          Header 1.1 with bookmark

          Header 1.2 with bookmark

               Header 1.2.1 without bookmark

Result in PDF bookmarks:

empty

     Header 1

     Header 2

          empty

          empty

               Header 1.2.1

--> Folders and headers with bookmarks are NOT displayed in PDF bookmarks. Only headers without bookmarks are displayed in PDF bookmarks, no matter on which level they are (see screenshot). In my opinion, ALL headers up to a definable level should be displayed, no matter whether they have a bookmark or not. Also, folder names should be displayed as separate levels, as they also serve structuring purposes. If I do not want to use them, I can remove them from my TOC in RH.

Best regards

Karin

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Community Expert ,
Aug 21, 2019 Aug 21, 2019

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Adobe have identified the cause and it will be fixed in a future update. Unfortunately it cannot be the update planned for this month.

Am I right in thinking that within the PDF content, there are links to those bookmarks?


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

@petergrainge

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Enthusiast ,
Aug 21, 2019 Aug 21, 2019

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Thanks Peter!

Yes, in the PDF, there are links to the bookmarks. The links are even working if the text is not displayed

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Community Expert ,
Aug 21, 2019 Aug 21, 2019

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Bizarre as it may seem, if you didn't have bookmarks, as I understand it, the PDF engine would create them based on the heading text and levels.

The issue is that when the PDF engine sees the RoboHelp bookmarks it is working in a different way resulting in the issues you are seeing.

At the moment your headings will be like this.

<h1><a id="bookmarkname"></a>First Topic</h1>

If you rewrote it as below, I believe it would fix the problem.

<h1><a id="bookmark">First Topic</a></h1>

How practical it is to do that is another matter and I don't know whether that would cause any problems with whatever fix Adobe come up with.

Not the answer you want but it is an answer. Sorry.


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Community Expert ,
Aug 21, 2019 Aug 21, 2019

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Adobe will be transitioning this forum to a new forum on September 9th.

Any posts made here between August 22nd and September 9th will not appear in the new forums so please save the contents if you will need to refer to thread later. Threads started before August 22nd will get transitioned but without the posts added after that date.

If you post between August 22nd and September 9th and the thread has not been fully answered by September 9th, you should start the thread again in the new forums with all relevant information.


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

@petergrainge

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Enthusiast ,
Aug 21, 2019 Aug 21, 2019

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Yes, I can confirm that rewriting the code would solve the problem. Still open is the issue with the folder names that are not displayed. I will wait for any solution Adobe will come up with.

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Explorer ,
Aug 21, 2019 Aug 21, 2019

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Hi, again,

I am not using bookmarks and I am still encountering a problem. The PDF engine based on heading levels isn't working correctly. For example, Settings, Edit mobile, and Mobile dashboard links are all separate topics with heading level 2. They should appear as a child to Advanced, which has a heading level 1, but it looks like they are all the same heading level. I just want to point out that there is also a problem when not using bookmarks.

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Community Expert ,
Aug 21, 2019 Aug 21, 2019

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Sorry, I had read "same issue" but it wasn't.

Try with the pdf master page and ensure that is linked to the pdf.css.

I assume TOCs in online outputs are showing correctly.

If that doesn't make a difference, create a new project and copy both of those files to your project, then try again.

Any change?


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

@petergrainge

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Explorer ,
Aug 21, 2019 Aug 21, 2019

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I'm not sure what you mean by "try with pdf master page and ensure that it is linked to the pdf.css." For my output preset, I have selected a master page that I created for printing.

This General_print page uses a custom css that I created for PDF printing.

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Community Expert ,
Sep 17, 2019 Sep 17, 2019

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With the change to the forums, this thread has lost some of its posts. Also Update 9 has been released.

 

I suggest that if JC2 and Karin are still having issues with Update 9 applied, they pick things up again here.

 

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Enthusiast ,
Sep 17, 2019 Sep 17, 2019

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Hi there,

I just checked into these issues again with update 9 and a fresh sample project that I adjusted slightly. This is what I found:
1. the bookmark code is still wrong (saying <h1><a id="bookmarkname"></a>First Topic</h1>)
2. Folder names are still not shown in the PDF bookmark section
2.a) they are shown correctly in the PDF's TOC
3. Headers with bookmarks are partially displayed, but usually on a wrong level in the PDF bookmark section. So, something seems to have changed in the behavior here, but it is still wrong.
Example:
Topic structure
H1 without bookmark
H2 with bookmark
H3 with bookmark
H2 with bookmark

Display in bookmark section of PDF (- means one level down)
H1 without bookmark
- H2 with bookmark
Empty (H3 with bookmark)
Empty (H3 with bookmark)
Empty (???)
- H2 with bookmark
Empty (???)
- H3 without bookmark
- H3 without bookmark
4. JC2's issue also still exists. The header levels are only considered correctly, if they are all within the same topic. Across multiple topics, the header level is ignored in PDF both in the TOC and the bookmark section.

I created some screenshots of how it is displayed:

Image 1

RH TOC StructureRH TOC Structure

 

Image 2

PDF TOCPDF TOC

Image 3

PDF Bookmark SectionPDF Bookmark Section

 

Image4

RH Topic with bookmarksRH Topic with bookmarks

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Community Expert ,
Sep 17, 2019 Sep 17, 2019

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Karin

I have edited your post just to add some references to the images.

If I create the same bookmarks as in Image 4, I see the same gaps as you in Image 3. Did you keep a copy of the old thread and am I right in thinking that Adobe acknowledged the bookmark issue where you are saying the code is still wrong?

Please clarify what you mean by Item 2 in your last post. I am not getting what you expect to see or where.

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Community Expert ,
Sep 17, 2019 Sep 17, 2019

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I found the exchange with Adobe and unfortunately the bookmark issue could not be addressed in Update 9 so the gaps will still be there. With that in mind, it would be helpful if you could clarify what else is not working as you expect.

 

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Enthusiast ,
Sep 17, 2019 Sep 17, 2019

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Hi Peter,

Thank you! Issue 2 refers to the folder names that can be seen in images 1 and 2 ("outputs" and "further outputs"). These are not displayed in the bookmark section of the PDF, but should be. Folders are used as structuring elements either directly in the project or just in the TOC of the project, so they should also be shown as such in the bookmark section, shouldn't they? 

The other thing besides the code being wrong that does not work is the consideration of header levels in the bookmark section (the issue that JC2 reported initially. Header levels are only considered within the same topic. If you are having a topic with header 2, it is displayed on the same level as the "parent" topic with header 1.

I hope I could clarify my post.

Best regards
Karin

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Adobe Employee ,
Sep 17, 2019 Sep 17, 2019

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Hi Karin,

For the point#2 related to toc hiererachy of book>bookmark not showing in bookmarks tab in PDF, I think it is as designed. Bookmarks are like minitoc, they are mostly Heading based. Please explain your usecase of seeing TOC structure in Bookmarks tab. We will log a feature request after investigation and understanding the usecase.

 

Thanks and Regards,
Surbhi Maheshwari

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Community Expert ,
Sep 18, 2019 Sep 18, 2019

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Karin

Folders in your project structure (Project Manager in Classic and Contents in 2019) have nothing to do with the structure of any printed output in 2019 or Classic Versions. Printed Output structure is entirely down to the TOC used, that has always been the case. Am I misunderstanding you on that point?

 

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Community Expert ,
Sep 18, 2019 Sep 18, 2019

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Karin

In Classic if you had some topics with H1 and some with H2 you got different results according to whether or not you ticked Maintain HTML Heading Levels.

Without any books and the checkbox ticked, the bookmarks would be indented for H2 topics.

Without the checkbox ticked, they would all be at top level, not indenting.

I think your issue is that there is no such option in 2019 and that is causing your problem.

 

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Enthusiast ,
Sep 18, 2019 Sep 18, 2019

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Possibly you are right, Peter.

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Enthusiast ,
Sep 18, 2019 Sep 18, 2019

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Hi Surbhi and Peter,

hm, I'm not quite sure if maybe I am working the wrong way. I use to structure my projects in folders for e.g. User Manual, Parameters, Procedures. For these "folders", there is no file with a H1 saying "User Manual" ..., its the folder name. They only contain the respective topics, starting with H2 or H3 or whatever.

I agree that the folders in my Project Manager have nothing to do with the output, but folders or books in the TOC, which work in the same way, should be considered in the output. I would expect the bookmark section in PDF to work the same way as the navigation in the HTML help. There, the books / folders are considered as expected. The user should be enabled to quickly navigate through the PDF without having to jump to the TOC every time.

I am also almost sure that the books have been considered for printed output in RH 2015 as H1 in the Word documents.

I am open for any suggestions as to how to adjust my workflow 😉

Regards
Karin

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Community Expert ,
Sep 18, 2019 Sep 18, 2019

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Karin

I think the best way forward here for all of us would be if in 2019 Classic you could set up a simple project with a few topics that need no content just different heading levels that works the way you expect. Run the Classic project with the Maintain HTML Heading Levels checkbox selected and cleared. Save the two PDFs created.

Then upgrade it to 2019 to see what is different. I am expecting that the PDF generated in Classic without the checkbox selected will be the same as in 2019.

If it is, that will tell Surbhi what is needed in an update.

 

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Enthusiast ,
Sep 18, 2019 Sep 18, 2019

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Good idea, Peter! 

First, the result in Word (PDF-output fails, so I created Word documents) always is the same, with the checkbox Maintain HTML heading levels ticked and cleared (with respect to what I am talking about). However, in classic the result is as I would expect it. I created some screenshots that hopefully show what I mean:

Image 1 (Project Manager in RH):

Project ManagerProject Manager

 

Image 2 (TOC in RH):

TOC in RHTOC in RH

 

Image 3 (Navigation bar in Word / expected bookmark section in PDF):

Navigation Bar in Word (should look the same as Bookmarks in PDF)Navigation Bar in Word (should look the same as Bookmarks in PDF)

 

The checkbox Maintain HTML heading levels takes effect, if I put the "First Topic" with H1 header into Folder 1. With checkbox cleared, it will become a H2 in the output, with checkbox ticked, it will remain H1. But this is not what is causing me problems.

I hope I could clarify everything. If not, please continue asking me. I am trying to explain the best I can 😉

Regards
Karin

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