File Layout of a Glossary File (.GLO)

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

As a new RH user, I have yet to find a definitive answer about how a RH glossary file (a .GLO file type) is defined. The RH help file talks all about importing them into your projects, but nowhere does it mention what the file looks like inside. Presumably, it has a glossary term and its definition as its components, but are they comma separated or what in their layout?

Can anyone provide this info?

[Captiv8r]

Hi Jeff

These are simple text files. You may open and view them using Windows Notepad.

Here is one of mine:
NAME=BC
BC represents BigCo, our company name

As you can see, they follow the format of NAME=BC (BC is the glossary term you define)
Glossary description here (the simple description follows the term)

Hopefully this helps... Rick

[Guest]

Unless you're talking about RH8, where the contents of the file are set up in XML.

[Guest · Accepted solution]

Specifically:

<glossentry>
<glossterm>Term</glossterm>
<glossdef>Definition.</glossdef>
</glossentry>

[Captiv8r]

Hi Ben

Hmmm, thanks for posting that. I was unaware it had changed!

Cheers... Rick

[RoboColum_n_]

Aren't all the project files in XML with RH8? I can't look without some major destruction as my laptop (with RH8 installed) is locked in my desk drawer and I left the key at home this morning

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Thanks all - that is exactly what I was looking for! I dug around within an inherited project that was created under RH7 and it indeed has the NAME= layout as per Rick. Once that same project is converted to RH8, it changes to the XML tag layout as per Ben.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to build a system that will take my single-source FM glossary document (that is all laid out in pretty tables) and pull out the glossterm & glossdef bits of content! But that's another post, in another forum, for another time 😉

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

Jeff, did you ever get your Fm glossary to process into Rh?

I have the Glossary markers processing into the GLO, but not the GlossaryTerm markers (which is helpful when navigating said glossary )

-Matt

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

I found the answer in a different thread...

The Glossary terms are processed into the Rh glossary file. Insert a Glossary marker (containing the glossary term) into a paragraph containing only the glossary term definition.

[G. Carleton Foster]

Is there a trick to editing the glo file? I tried using Notepad to edit the existing file (using the structure showed here), but when I reopen Robohelp (2015), no luck.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Notepad should be fine - it's just a text XML file. Where are you expecting to see changes in RH? In the project itself or in the output?

[G. Carleton Foster]

Thanks Jeff. That's what I thought. I am closing my project, using Notepad to edit the glo file. When I save and reopen the project, I don't see any of my changes in the glossary within RoboHelp. User error?

[G. Carleton Foster]

Found the issue - special characters! Apparently the glo file I am creating doesn't like them!

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

Are you saying that you were inserting characters resulted in incorrect HTML?

[G. Carleton Foster]

My original file had Spanish characters in it. When I copy/paste into the glo file, nothing displayed. Once I replaced them, victory