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How to automatically create topics from imported Word files - RH9

New Here ,
Jan 24, 2013 Jan 24, 2013

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I've used RoboHelp before, but not this version (RH9). In the past (version 6 or 7?), I've been able to import Word docs and RoboHelp has referenced the styles to automatically create and organize help topics and make a nice TOC. Now, when I import files, it's creating a single, long topic and creating a TOC that's a train wreck. What do I need to do to have it recognize that there should be a separate topic for anything with a Header 1, 2, or 3, and organize them properly under each other so when you look at the TOC, Header 2 items are indented under Header 1, and Header 3 items are indented under Header 2? There has to be a simple way to do this. Manually dragging and dropping items that come from about 1500 pages of Word docs is ridiculous. And even when I do that, I can't make the Heading 3 items indent enough; the arrow's grayed out. Any guidance is much appreciated. Thanks.

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Community Expert ,
Jan 25, 2013 Jan 25, 2013

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First you might want to consider registering a new user name. Email addresses are not a good idea unless you like spam.

It looks like you need to set pagination against the styles to be used to create new topics. See Importing on my site.


See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

Help others by clicking Correct Answer if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.

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New Here ,
Jan 25, 2013 Jan 25, 2013

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Peter –

Thanks for your help. Sadly, I’m no better off this morning. Here are a few details that may help clarify what’s going on:

- I’ve inherited my dilemma from a technical writer who took a few days off and apparently decided not to come back. I didn’t create the Word files, but they appear to use styles correctly.

- The project involves 16 Word files totaling about 1600 pages, so doing anything manually is… not fun.

- After double-checked the Word files this morning, I started over by creating a new project and importing the first 11 files. This is what RoboHelp looks like now:

Hmmm… what’s wrong now? Let me count the ways.

- The folders you see at the top of the Project Manager pod are empty and the topics that I expected to see within each folder are listed below. If I had all day and more patience than I have, I could drag the topics one by one into the folder where they belong. (Insert heavy sigh here.)

- You may also notice that there’s no folder for Chapter 1. I don’t know why. The topics that belong in Chapter 1 are buried in the list somewhere so it “saw” the file during the import.

- To add to the fun, when RH was just about finished with the import, it said that the default.css file used by each topic was outside the project/couldn’t be found/something like that. When I started the import, I told it to just use the default css, so it shouldn’t have that problem.

Sorry if I’m a bit punchy. I thought this was going to be a relatively simple assignment and it’s keeping me from another assignment that needs to be done yesterday.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Karen

Karen Cwalinski

Sr. Technical Writer

Data Computer Corporation of America

5310 Dorsey Hall Drive

Ellicott City, MD 21042

(410) 992-3760, ext. 3318

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Community Expert ,
Jan 25, 2013 Jan 25, 2013

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Karen - your screenshot got stripped off by the forum software - use the camera icon on the web interface of the forum to include screenshots

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New Here ,
Jan 25, 2013 Jan 25, 2013

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Sorry, here's the screen shot... hopefully visible.

Project Ick.png

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Community Expert ,
Jan 25, 2013 Jan 25, 2013

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Yes, that's better. I'd throw this one away & start again pulling 1 doc at a time. Did you read Peter's help on importing?

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New Here ,
Jan 25, 2013 Jan 25, 2013

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Yes, I read Peter's help and tried all of the recommendations. I just started a blank new project and imported 2 of the Word files separately. And once again, when I imported the Chapter 1 file, it didn't make a sub-folder for it and just dumped the topics within the import folder I had created. When I imported the Chapter 2 file, it did make a sub-folder (?!?) but still put the topics within the import folder. It's evil and I think it requires chocolate to fix!

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Community Expert ,
Jan 25, 2013 Jan 25, 2013

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So there's obviously something different between the Chapter 1 and 2 docs then - you'll need to dig into that to get a handle on what's happening.

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New Here ,
Jan 25, 2013 Jan 25, 2013

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Yeah, but it's not my main problem. I don't mind creating 1 folder manually. I do mind rearranging who knows how many topics one at a time.

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LEGEND ,
Jan 26, 2013 Jan 26, 2013

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If it helps you can use the Topic List pod to move multiple topics in one shot.

http://www.cmcandrew.com/robocolumn/archives/1487

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New Here ,
Jan 28, 2013 Jan 28, 2013

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That does help quite a bit, thanks. At least I can get the topics back into the correct folders, if not in the correct order, so that's a big timesaver. But there must be a setting somewhere that I'm missing -- I'd like the topics to be imported in the order they're in the Word docs. Instead, they're listed alphabetically. Any ideas? If not, I might cheat and use a numbered heading style to get them in the right order, although that isn't the way my customer would prefer it.

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Community Expert ,
Feb 01, 2013 Feb 01, 2013

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The default sort order in Project Manager is alphabetical. If you click the A-Z icon on Project Manager, you can then rearrange things as you wish.


See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

Help others by clicking Correct Answer if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.

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