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Make index entries hot links in Word version?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 14:23:38 GMT

I'm using RoboHelp 9 (yes, we're behind the times here). I have a question about something that's never worked, but it's been a low priority, so I just kept ignoring it.

When I generate a Word version of my project, it has an index, but none of the index entries are hyperlinked. The TOC entries are hyperlinked, so why aren't the index entries?

Environment:

RoboHelp 9

Word 2013, but it never worked with Word 2010

Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit

Project Settings:

Add New Keywords to Index File (HHK)

Binary Index

What do I need to do to make the index entries hyperlinks when I generate the Word doc?

Searching for special characters in RH 9

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 16:44:23 GMT

Occasionally I get broken links because when I add a hyperlink, I must be at the wrong level or something. I haven't figured out exactly when this happens, but it's never bothered me because I can just do a Find and Replace to find it and replace it.

Here's an example from the Broken Link Report (Tools > Reports > Broken Links):

Missing topic 'MyHelpProject\Editing_Trade_Show_Codes.htm' is referenced by the following...

In the past, I would open Find and Replace (Edit > Find and Replace in Files) and paste in the following string in the Find box:

MyHelpProject\

Notice that I included the backslash. I'm pretty sure that this worked; that is, it would find any string beginnging with MyHelpProject\, but now it won't find anything at all unless I leave off the backslash. Of course, that doesn't make sense because the backslash is an escape character. Maybe I'm just mis-remembering.

So how do I unescape it so that I can find MyHelpProject\?

I know that I can search for it without the backslash, but there are a few instances where I don't want to delete MyHelpProject.

I'm using RoboHelp 9.

Index entries missing in .chm but are present in the printed version

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 19:25:28 GMT

This is strange.

I have a number of index entries as follows:

troubleshooting/file problems

troubleshooting/login problems

troubleshooting/printer problems

These appear in the .docx (Word) version, which is what I've been using for the review cycle. Today, though, I had the .chm open and I noticed that the entire group of troubleshooting\ entries aren't in the .chm!

I recompiled the HTML Help, just in case I was looking at an old version and no, they're not there.

I searched for them in the Index tab, thinking maybe they were somehow out of order, but they're truly not there.

Any idea what could be causing this? I'm using RoboHelp 9.

Search capabilities in HTML Help

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 18:56:12 GMT

As I roll out the help to the users, I notice that many (mostly me, LOL) are frustrated by the primitive Search tab: no searching for phrases, no stemming or wild cards, no Boolean operators, and so on.

So I did some research and discovered some ways I can improve it, but I can't get it to work. (I'm using RoboHelp 9.)

Searching for Phrases

This, I discovered, after searching Peter Grainge's excellent site, is easy: Just use quotes! Okay, I should have tried that before I went looking, but thankfully Pete not only included that tip but a tip (in 8 - Navigation Pane) on changing the search prompt so that you can tell users that that's how to search for phrases. He says (and the RH 9 help says something similar) to do this:

To change the string from the default go to

File > Project Settings > General Tab > Advanced > LNG File Tab

and change FtsInputPrompt to your own string.

I tried that, closed it, recompiled, and no, it didn't change from the default. I closed the project, restarted RoboHelp 9, and tried again. Nope. What am I doing wrong?

Stemming

By "stemming", I mean typing part of a word and finding words that contain that part. Pete's site (in 10 - RoboHelp HTML - Features and Use) cites a question from someone who wants to "search on 'beam' to find 'beam', 'beams' and 'beaming'."

Pete's site says this:

Pete Lees responded with this:

You may need to check the language setting for each help file as only US English files support "stemmed" searches of the type that you described.

As I understand it, you can't set the language of an HTML Help file from within RoboHelp. Instead, you must open the project (.hhp) file in Notepad or HTML Help Workshop and add a line like this to the [OPTIONS] section:

Language=0x409 English (United States)

I tried that, editing the file with Notepad++, but once again, no luck (or, as they say across the pond, "No joy.") I closed the project, restarted RoboHelp 9, and tried again. Nope. What am I doing wrong?

Advanced Full-Text Search

On the Microsoft MSDN site, there are instructions for adding advanced full-text search that "allows a user to search using Boolean, wildcard, and nested expressions. A user can also limit the search to previous results, match similar words, or search topic titles only. When advanced full-text search is enabled, the Search tab in the Help Viewer is enhanced."

The instructions, of course, are for Microsoft's HTML Help Workshop, not RoboHelp. Here are the instructions. Does anyone know if you can do this manually? That is, add some lines to the .hhp file or something without using HTML Help Workshop?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms670157%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

Can I add multiple linked documents to an existing project?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 19:26:48 GMT

Can I add multiple linked documents to an existing project without breaking the project?

The project I'm working on is due to go live in just a little over a month. I've recently acquired some training materials that contain information that needs to be merged into the help file. The problem is that there is not enough time to do it, get it reviewed, and so on.

So I had this idea of linking to the Word docs (there are 3) for now, then cleaning things up as we go along.

Is that a stupid idea this late in the game?

Would it be better to create a separate help file with just those docs and then merge the projects into a master project?

I am using RoboHelp 9 and Word 2010.

Best way to create output with only topics that are not finalized

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 06 Aug 2013 20:58:01 GMT

I'm nearing the end of a project and I need to isolate the topics that still have questions. I keep trying things, but nothing gives me what I need. Any suggestions? Here's what I tried.

I'm using RoboHelp 9 (RH9).

Status

I can get a report of the topic names and their status using Tools > Reports > Topic Properties and then setting the Options to include only Topic Status, but this isn't useful; that gives me a list of 396 topics, in alphabetical order.

For each topic, you end up with 3 lines. For example:

Adding Customers - Adding_Customers.htm

Status:

Status: Ready for Review

I saved the report as TXT and opened it in Word and did a global replace of Status:^p (that is, Status, colon, new line) and then Status, colon, tab. That reduced it to 2 lines for each topic:

Adding Customers - Adding_Customers.htm

Ready for Review

So that's still not very useful. I would have to write a macro or something in either the Word file or once I got it into Excel to concatentate those two lines.

And even then, I could sort the data and get rid of the lines that show Complete (using an Excel formula), but how would I print out just those topics? If there are only a few, that's no problem, but there are at least 30. (Things changed and topics changed and now some need re-review, and some still have questions.) Could I make an index out of those lines? No, that would involve a lot of work to write out the XML.

Okay, so I tried another approach...

Conditional Text

I created a duplicate Table of Contents and applied my Questions condition to three topics. I then created a Printed Doc output and specified an Advanced condition saying to include only Questions. That gave me more than the three topics, but not all of the topics. The help says that you can use an Advanced Conditional Build Tag Expressions, and that if you want just those topics with a specific tag ("All topics to which one tag has been applied"), just include that tag.

BUT it also says: "Topics and topic text to which you have applied no conditional build tag are included in the output."

So, if I want only those topics to which I've applied a TOC condition of Questions, I need to create another condtion (for example, DONE), and apply that to all the topics that I don't want to print.

So, assuming I have 30 topics with the condition Questions, I would have to apply my new DONE condition to 366 topics. Yes, I know you can apply a tag to more than one at a time, but I would be wary of doing more than 5-10 at once.

Still, that looks like the best solution so far. I'm going to back up my project and then start doing that. In the meantime, does anyone have any other way of doing it?

I'm using RoboHelp 9 (RH9).

How do you use the Author field?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 06 Aug 2013 21:01:16 GMT

How do you use the Author field (in Topic Properties). I always thought that it referred to the author (writer) who was assigned to write the topic, but now I'm looking at it differently.

I have 8 subject matter experts (SMEs), but only one writer. I was thinking of using the Author field for either the name of the SME or the functional area (for example, Accounts Payable).

Has anyone used it this way? Are there any drawbacks?

If you haven't used it this way, do you use another method to separate your topics out for the SME?

I'm using RoboHelp 9 (RH9).

Index entry changes capitalization

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 14:43:08 GMT

This drove me crazy for a few minutes this morning and I couldn't find anything in the help or the forum. Eventually I figured it out and thought I'd share. I'm using RH 9.

The entries in my index begin with a lowercase letter unless there's a good reason not to. So, for example, for the entries for a topic on sales inquiries, I had this:

inquiries\sales

sales\inquiries

When I entered the second one (sales\inquiries), RoboHelp changed my entry to

Sales\inquiries

I deleted it and tried again. It did the same thing. So I deleted both entries and tried again. Same thing. I tried this with two other topics. Same thing. Why was it making the first letter a capital letter for sales\inquiries, but not for inquiries\sales?

I looked at my index and discovered that I had an existing entry for Sales (starts with uppercase S). So, apparently RoboHelp was changing sales to Sales so that I wouldn't have the two variants in my index. This makes sense when you think about it, but it stumped me!

The solution was to go to the index pod and edit the keyword Sales to be sales.

Broken Links report - TOC references

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 15:57:31 GMT

I'm cleaning up my broken links and there are quite a few that puzzle me. This is what they look like in the Broken Links report (Tools > Reports > Broken Links):

Missing topic 'Adding_Vendors.htm#vendor_status' is referenced by the following:

TOC references:

vendor_status

If I double-click the link in the Project Manager pod (Project Manager pod > Broken Links), the Topic References window opens.

For Topic, it says Adding_Vendors.htm#vendor_status

For References, it shows what looks like a TOC book and then AutoCreate: vendor_status

What does this mean? What's broken, and how do I get to it to fix it? Or should I just click the Delete button at the bottom of the Topic References window?

Is RH10 Compatible with Windows 8

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 19:03:49 GMT

I'm just beginning to think about Windows 8.

Has there been any further news on RH 10 support for Windows 8? Also, when developing help for Windows 8, do you need to output as WebHelp, or is HTML Help (.chm) supported, too?

Some hyperlinks not appearing in generated Word doc

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:57:56 GMT

When I generate a Word document, some of the hyperlinks show up, but not all.

I looked at Peter Grainge's site under Printed Documentation and issues, but didn't find anything that matched my problem. I also looked here on the forum, but didn't find anything.

I have a feeling it's a problem with style mapping because the links that aren't showing up are those that appear in lists (both ol and ul).

In other words, if I put a link in a paragraph that's a regular <p></p> paragraph, it appears in the Word doc and the link itself works.

If I put it in a <li></li> paragraph, the link does not carry over; there is no blue underlining and if you mouse over what should be a hyperlink, the cursor does not change to a hand icon.

Can anyone provide any suggestions?

I'm using RoboHelp 9 and Word 2010.

Can't add synonym that contains a hyphen

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 17:58:04 GMT

The software I'm documenting refers to both email and e-mail. I was searching for something using the Search tab (in the compiled help) the other day and couldn't find it. To my surprise, searching for email versus e-mail produces different results.

I figured I would work around it by mapping a synonym. (File > Project Settings, then click Advanced, and then click the Synonym tab.)

I entered email, and then tried to add the synonym e-mail. I got this error message:

"Synonym editor cannot map phrases. Please provide single word."

Is there any way around this? The only thing I can think of is to do a global search, find all the topics with either, and enter index entries for both email and e-mail.

I am using RH 9.

added RH9 to the tag list.

RH9 hangs while generating printed doc

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 24 May 2013 21:57:40 GMT

I was generating a printed doc and left my desk. When I came back, the laptop had gone to sleep. When I woke it, it was stuck on the last part, Updating Index.

I let it go for a while (the progress bar was showing that it was almost done and still processing topics). After 20 minutes, I tried to cancel by clicking Cancel. It ignored me. I killed it with Task Manager.

I waited a minute, then restarted RH. I tried again. It said the document was in use. I shut everything down, restarted Windows, and tried again. Got the same message. Went and deleted everything in the output folder for the printed doc. Deleted the .CPD file, just because.

Restarted Windows again. Tried generating the printed doc again. It's stuck at the same point, and it's been over a half hour.

I could go back to yesterday's backup without much pain (no major changes since then), but just in case this happens again and I don't have that option, what should I do?

It's a long weekend here in the States (Memorial Day) and I think it's a Bank Holiday in the UK (Spring Bank Holiday), so I'm sure you all aren't glued to your screens , so I'll be patient.

Insert date in footer in printed document

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 15:34:30 GMT

I've searched this site and it seems that there is no way to change the header or footer that RoboHelp uses when creating the printed document. I even tried editing the footer in the Word template that I use, but it doesn't seem to work.

So, assuming that you can't change the header/footer by changing the template, has anyone created a Word macro after the fact to insert a date?

We use the Word doc to review the help. Currently I use an old-tech ink date stamp to stamp each page before I give it to the user. This isn't a problem when you're doing a few topics at a time, but we're getting to the point where I'm going to be getting final review for large chunks and that's not going to be the best use of my time

I'm using RH9.

Browse sequence buttons not appearing in RoboHelp 9 .chm file

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 31 May 2013 13:58:07 GMT

When I first created this project two years ago, I didn't think I'd be using browse sequences. Well, of course, things change, and now I think it would be a good idea.

I followed the instructions for creating a browse sequence automatically (Tools > Browse Sequence Editor, then Auto-create from TOC). That seemed to work.

I compile the .chm file. No >> buttons.

How do I enable them? I looked at the master page layout and didn't see anything there. I looked at the Project Settings (File > Project Settings) and couldn't see anything there.

I've searched the RH 9 help and can't find any reference. My guess is that they must appear automatically and I must have, in my infinite wisdom (HA!) deleted them two years ago when I thought I didn't need them.

Suggestions?

User wants to include username and password in a topic

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 07 May 2013 19:06:59 GMT

A user just gave me a list of instructions that he wants in the online help. The instructions include a username and password for downloading a file from an FTP site. I don't like that idea for a couple of reasons.

The first is that anyone in the company who has access to the help file can see that username and password. He says that's not a problem, that it just gives them access to a file, but I still worry that some of the information in that file could be misused.

My second problem is that passwords change (or, at least, they should!) and that could mean that the help file becomes out of date and will need updating frequently.

So, any ideas on how I could handle this? I just searched the discussion area here and there doesn't seem to be a way to password protect part of the file. (We're delivering as a .chm, so I can't use the features of a web server to protect it.)

His reason for wanting it to be part of the main help file is that this way all the information is in one place. One thing I could suggest is that we put everything EXCEPT the username and password in the help, and put that somewhere more secure.

Has anyone else had this problem? How did you handle it?

I-beam on headings in printed document

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 13:23:08 GMT

This drove me crazy yesterday, so I thought I'd post my findings in case any of you have had similar problems.

In my printed doc, I noticed that some of my headings had an I-beam at the beginning. I searched this forum and the web for I-beam and RoboHelp and found nothing, so I wondered if it was something Word was doing, not RoboHelp.

I'm sure I would have figured it out quicker if I had more experience with some of Word's features, but despite the fact that I started using Word in 1987 (yes, it was around then), I've mostly used FrameMaker for complex documents.

Those I-beams are Word's way of indicating a bookmark. Somehow my setting for Show Bookmarks in Word got turned on.

This web page tells how to turn bookmarks viewing on and off in Word 2007 and 2010:

http://wordribbon.tips.net/T009190_Seeing_Where_Bookmarks_Are.html

(If that page disappears, search for Show Bookmarks Word.)

View > Pods > Topic List not working

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 20:58:40 GMT

I'm running RoboHelp HTML v9.0.2.271.

When I select View > Pods > Topic List, nothing happens. This used to work -- I used to use it all the time -- but it hasn't worked for a couple of weeks. I've been managing by using View > Pods > Project Manager, and then expanding the HTML Files (Topics) list, but now I want to be able to sort by master page name and so on.

I'm wondering if this is registry problem like the one I described on

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/947268?tstart=0

Any suggestions?

View Selected Item no longer working?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:17:57 GMT

I'm currently at RoboHelp HTML v9.0.2.271, having updated just last week. I wanted to show a user what the topic would look like in the help and clicked the View Selected Item topic (the one that looks like a pair of eyeglasses) and nothing happened. I've been using it all along. Did something change in 9.0.2, or have I done something so that it doesn't display?

Link to a bookmark from the TOC?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 24 May 2012 19:28:40 GMT

I couldn't find this anywhere in the help. The only time it mentioned linking to a bookmark from a TOC was if you used the feature to autocreate your TOC.

I think I figured out how to do it, but wanted to run it by the forum to see if this is right.

Is this how it's done?

Add a new page to the TOC.
1. Enter a title.
2. For File Name, pick the topic that contains the bookmark.
3. Click OK to save it. Your page should be listed in the TOC.
Right-click the TOC page you just created. The TOC Page Properties window opens.
At the bottom of the page, where it says "Link to", add # plus the bookmark name to the end.

For example, if your topic appears as Entering_a_New_Customer.htm and the bookmark is called address, you'd add #address to the end of the filename. That gives you a link of Entering_a_New_Customer.htm#address

Is there a different way to do it? This way requires two steps and requires you to know the name of the bookmark; you can't navigate to it.

Page numbers in Word TOC not correct; have to open doc and update

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 07 May 2012 21:11:00 GMT

I'm using RoboHelp HTML 9 and Word 2010.

I generate a Word doc (.docx) as one of my outputs. The Word TOC works -- that is, if I Ctrl-Click one of the items in the TOC, I'm taken to that item.

A user just came up to me asking why the page numbers are off. Here's what I see.

I use SSL to generate the Word doc.

In the TOC, I look for the topic "Setting Up Comments." It's listed as being on page 30.

I Ctrl-Click that TOC item and it takes me to the topic, but when I look at the footer, it says this is page 28.

If I go back to the TOC, right-click, and choose "Update page numbers only", Word updates the TOC, which now shows the correct page number, page 28.

In other words, generating my printed doc is now a multi-step process:

Use SSL to generate the Word doc.
Open the Word doc and update the TOC.
Save the Word doc.

Shouldn't the TOC be right the first time around? Am I forgetting to do something?

Conditional build for chm and printed doc produce different outputs

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 02 May 2012 20:02:33 GMT

I'm using RoboHelp HTML 9.0.2.271

In my TOC, I have two "books" of topics that I want to exclude from output because the topics won't be required at this time.

I right-clicked each book in the TOC and applied a condition ("Defer").

For the HTML Help (.chm), I made my build expression say NOT Defer and NOT Comment.
I generated the help.

The two books (and their topics) were excluded, as I expected.

For printed documentation (.doc), I made my build expression say NOT Defer and NOT Comment and NOT Online.
I generated the Word doc.

The two books were NOT excluded; they appeared in the printed doc.

The workaround is to delete them from the Chapter Layout window when I generate the printed doc, but I expected that since my build expression said to NOT include them, that they wouldn't be included.

Is my method wrong, or is it my expectation?

Status by To Do list item?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:48:56 GMT

Is there a way to see the status by To Do assignment listed with Topic Name?

That is, I've created a number of To Do list items to reflect the review cycle.

If I run a status report, I can see how many topics have the Need Engineering Answer classification, but I can't figure out a way to either get a list of those or to sort the topic list by To Do items onscreen.

Any clues? Any other way to do this? I notice that the To Do categories are listed in the topic-check-list Meta tag in the HTML. I'm using Windows 7. Is there a way to search the contents of HTML files in a particular folder? I tried searching contents, but it doesn't find anything.

Where do you set the topic break level when importing/linking from FrameMaker?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:29:46 GMT

I have the Technical Communication Suite. I'm importing a FrameMaker 9 book into a RoboHelp HTML project.

How do I tell it where to break the topics?

That is, I followed these instructions from the RH help, but I ended up with only 1 topic per chapter.

Create a project in RoboHelp.
Select File > Link > FrameMaker Documentt.
Select FrameMaker BOOK (book files) from the Files Of Type pop-up menu.
Browse to select the FrameMaker book file and click Open.

and then...

Right-click the linked FrameMaker document from the Project Manager pod and then select Update > Generate.

When and where do I specify that I want a new topic every time it sees a FrameMaker Heading 1 or Heading 2 paragraph tag?

Converting from WebWorks to RoboHelp

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 23:16:24 GMT

My client acquired a company that had been using FrameMaker > WebWorks ePublisher to produce HTML Help. In the process of the acquisition, the WebWorks Publisher software got wiped out and my client decided to go with RoboHelp. "No problem," I thought, since my client has the Tech Comm Suite with FM 9 and RH 8.

The existing application uses dialog-level help and the output is a *.chm file. I couldn't find a map file anywhere, so I asked the engineers. They don't know where the .h files are. I can't find it with the document sources.

I asked the engineer to look at the code and find where it calls the help. He sent me back a code fragment that looks like this:

//===============================================================

// The Help filenames shown below are provided by the help author

//===============================================================

public string AddCustomer = "Add_Edit_Customer.html";

public string CustomerManager = "Manage_Customers.html";

When I saw that, I thought that maybe the application was really using Web Help and the .chm file was a red herring. I looked in the application's installation directory for HTML files and couldn't find any.

I keep thinking that his piece of code isn't wha't's really being called (I believe he's new to this project).

Has anyone converted dialog-level help from WW to RoboHelp? WW would have to have used a map file, right?

Any suggestions (other than telling my client to repurchase WW)?

Draft watermark in RH9 docx output?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:08:33 GMT

I'm using RoboHelp HTML 9 and I have a separate cover that I insert for the printed output.

I created the cover using Microsoft Word 2010 (on Windows 7) and used the Page Layout > Watermark feature to insert a diagonal DRAFT notification.

When I generated my printed documentation, the cover doesn't show the watermark.

I tried using both a .doc and a .docx version of the cover page, and producing .doc and then .docx versions of the output. I still don't see the DRAFT on the cover page.

Ideally I should have a way to make a DRAFT watermark for both my printed and HTMLHelp outputs, but I thought this would be good enough for now.

If this isn't an option, is there a simple way to do what I want? (Mark a copy as draft so that someone doesn't find a printed copy lying around and think it's the final version.)

Placeholders (breadcrumbs, Mini-TOCs) not showing in Printed Documentation

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:35:39 GMT

I've included Placeholders (breadcrumbs and Mini-TOCs) in Master Pages. They work as expected for the HTMLHelp output, but when I generate Printed Documentation (.doc), they aren't there.

I checked to make sure that I didn't accidentally assign them an online-only condition (I didn't).

I'm using RoboHelp 9 (RH9). Do I need to do something special? I just tried specifically applying the Print condition to the breadcrumbs in the footer and using that condition in the build, but that didn't help.

Map ID question

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:02:23 GMT

I found a few posts on Map IDs, but none of them exactly answer my question, at least not that I can tell. My apologies if this is a duplicate.

I'm using RoboHelp 9.

I am working on a HTMLHelp project with a .chm output. I want to implement dialog-level help. That is, there will be a help button or icon on the window and the user will click that to get help on the window itself.

Let's ignore the question of whether the developers reuse a window, changing the output with variables, which is something I read about on a post I found. Let's assume for a second that the developer will be able to "hook up" the help button to a topic as long as I give her a map file.

As someone noted in a previous topic, auto-map works well the first time you use it, but the question is, how do I automatically get a map ID for a topic I've added?

For example, today I added 20 placeholder topics. The only way I know to get map IDs for a new topic is this:

1. Open Topic Properties (I'm right-clicking on the topic in the Topic List pane and selecting Properties).

2. Click the Advanced tab.

3. Click the Edit Map IDs button.

4. Select the Map File at the top.

5. Make sure that the correct topic is highlighted in the right pane (it's hard to see).

6. CLick the Auto-map button.

Isn't there any way to configure RH so that whenever I create a new topic, RH automatically gives it a map number without me doing anything?

(And am I imagining it, or did RH at one time used to do this? I've used it sporadically since 1995, and I don't remember having to re-open the Properties window. Maybe the window for creating a new topic had a checkbox?)

Colum, I read your article and comments on manually adding the new map IDs. As you can probably tell by the fact that I'm creating placeholder topics, this help file isn't complete yet. Should I just delete the map file, wait until I've finished adding topics, and then auto-number as if I was just starting out?

RoboHelp Reports

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:22:46 GMT

I find the ability to create my own To Do categories very useful, but I can't figure out a way to, for example, get a list of topics that I've assigned the "Placeholder text" category to, or a list of topics sorted by To Do category.

Am I using the wrong feature? Or is there a way to add columns to the Topic List? Is there a third-party tool that allows one to customize?

I'm using RoboHTML 9.

HTML comments not showing up in snippets in RH9?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 23:47:37 GMT

I want to be able to add some HTML comments sometimes when I enter content.

For example, let's say I want a pair of HTML comments like so, with a place for text between them.

and

I created a snippet, entering the following using HTML view:

When I dragged the snippet onto the topic, though, the HTML comments (lines 1 and 3 in the example) were missing. That was the whole point of the snippet: To be able to copy in the HTML comment lines.

I can open the snippet in HTML view, copy the lines, and paste them into the HTML view of the topic, of course, but I'm going to be leaving this project after it's over and don't want to have my successor pulling his/her head out wondering how to get this to work.

Suggestions?

Copy and paste in Sticky Note causes Reader X to hang

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:40:28 GMT

I have a reviewer who is trying to comment on a PDF. When he tries to paste in a Sticky window, Acrobat Reader X hangs. I watched him do it twice, and both times it hung.

First time:

He created a sticky, moved out of the sticky to highlight some text, pressed Ctrl-C, moused back into the sticky and pressed Ctrl-V. Reader X hung.

Second time:

He typed something in a text window, copied part of it, and then tried to paste it in the window.

(He tried both Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V and Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste.) Reader X hung.

I think he was using Firefox, but I'm not sure. He's on Windows XP.

Has anyone experienced this before?

I made the PDF using FrameMaker 9 and Acrobat 9 Pro Extended on Windows 7.

LMS not required for quizzes?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 04:11:02 GMT

I just want to make sure of something before I go blathering on about the quiz feature in Captivate.

I know that Captivate will work with an LMS, Acrobat.com, and Adobe Connect, but are any of those REQUIRED?

That is, if I don't have an LMS, don't have a subscription to Acrobat.com, and don't have Adobe Connect (or a subscription, whatever), can I still create quizzes so that users can self-test, just for their own knowledge?

Best practices for importing .png screen shots into FrameMaker 9?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 19:52:17 GMT

I'm new to importing .png screen shots into FrameMaker, and also new to FrameMaker 9. To compound things, I have engineers giving me screen shots taken on Linux machines, using a client like NX to get to Linux. My screen shots are coming in fuzzy and instead of trying to troubleshoot what's going wrong here, I was wondering if someone could quickly tell me what normally works with FrameMaker 9 and .png on a Windows system so I can troubleshoot from there.

That is, let's say I'm capturing a screen shot on a Windows system and I use some tool (Paint Shop Pro X, SnagIt, Alt-PrintScreen, or whatever). I save the screen shot as .png and then import by reference into FrameMaker 9.

What dpi do I use in the capturing program?

What dpi do I use when I import by reference into FM?

What if that makes the screen shot too large/too small: Is it better to use the FrameMaker Graphics > Scale solution, to resize it in my capture program, or to retake the screen shot?

Customized job listed in drop down, but can't find .joboptions file

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 16:29:37 GMT

I recently started a new contract where they are using Acrobat 8 Standard on a Windows XP machine. When I generate a PDF, there's a customized PDF job option called Company_Standard. I've been asked to find that file so that we could back it up somewhere.

I've searched for Company_Standard.joboptions, *.joboptions, Company_Standard*.*, and just about every other combination. I've changed the Windows folder options so that I can see hidden files and system files. I *cannot* find Company_Standard.joboptions.

Aha! I just answered my own question, but I can't believe how hard it was to find it!

It was in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe PDF\Settings, but it did not show up in any search I did! I finally found it by creating a PDF and reading the success message!

So, instead of canceling this post, I thought I'd post it anyway in case anyone else had the same problem. This should have been a lot easier to find, but maybe this is a Windows thing because it's under the Administrator user.

FM8 won't print PDF using Distiller 8

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 20:58:50 GMT

I've just started working at a new job and they have the following:

Windows XP Professional SP3

FrameMaker 8.0p277

Acrobat Distiller (Standard) 8.2.5.241

I tried to Save as PDF and it starts to work, but stops. The .tps file has a size of 0, there's no .pdf, and there's no error message. This happened repeatedly for a number of books I tried.

I looked at the PDF "printer" in the printer queue and the state was Deleting. I canceled all jobs, and the printer disappeared! (It's possible I could have had a slip of the mouse, but not probable; I was being very careful.)

I've been searching the forums here, but no one seems to have this particular problem. Any suggestions?

Also, are the drivers downloadable from Adobe? I didn't see any.

Dreamweaver MX 2004 serial number invalid on Windows 7?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:03:41 GMT

I'm trying to switch to a new computer. I uninstalled Dreamweaver MX 2004 (also called Dreamweaver 7) from my XP machine and tried to install it on my new Windows 7 Home Premium machine.

After I entered in the last digit of the serial number, a red x appeared next to it. The only button available was Go Back. In other words, it said my serial number was invalid.

I entered it a couple of more times and then tried an experiment. I installed it again, entered the exact same serial number, and there wasn't any problem. That is, it's definitely a valid serial number.

Then I found an update to 7.01, which I installed. Now I could enter the serial number and it accepted it, but when I clicked Next, it said that this update required the serial number of the previous product. So I tried entering the serial number for Ultradev, which I believe was the previous product. (If not, it's the only other Dreamweaver disk I have around.) That didn't work, so I thought maybe 7.01 was looking for the serial number for 7.00, so I tried that. That didn't work.

Any suggestions?

I have only one web site that I maintain using Dreamweaver, which is why I haven't upgraded. I'd hate to have to go back to Notepad (actually, I'd use Notepad++ if I had to).

I just remembered something. When I installed it, I accepted the default directory, which was Program Files, not Program Files (x86).

Cannot Save or compile RH 7

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 21:55:32 GMT

Earlier today, I made some changes to some topics (deleted them) and tried to compile the help. Nothing happened. So I tried to close Word, to restart it. It kept asking me if I wanted to save a particular document. I replied YES, but it just wouldn't save the file.

Doing a Google search, I found a very helpful page at

http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/rh7/using_rh7.htm

I checked and RHComAdd.dll wasn't disabled. Also, I was running 7.02, which should have contained the patch. I still couldn't save or compile.
I closed Word and then closed RoboHELP, without saving the file.

I reopened it using RoboHELP and tried a compile. It worked. I deleted those three topics again and saved. It saved. It also compiled.

Anyone else still having this problem? I believe I originally opened the file by navigating to it using RoboHELP, so I really don't see why I had this problem.