How to apply a global style to all tables in RoboHelp 8?

[WMahan]

Is there a way to apply a table style to all tables in a project in RoboHelp 8 without doing it table by table?

[Willam_van_Weelden]

Hi,

Open your stylesheet in an external editor. Add TABLE {} and add the styling between the brackets. See this page for the available styling.

One note: Every style you create in your style sheet can be overwritten by inline styling. If you have this problem, use the !important statement to overwrite inline styling from your style sheet. Say that you want all tables to have a top margin of 15px, also the tables that have a different margin applied. Use the following style:

TABLE {

     margin-top: 15px !important;

}

Greet,

Willam

[Peter Grainge]

Willam

Whilst that is correct, I would have thought the way to go is the RH8 table editor which writes the CSS for you. I accept it is not the most intuitive tool to use but it is easier than manual code writing which is not for everyone, especially for tables.

There is some information about this at http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/rh_tour/index.htm

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[Willam_van_Weelden]

I did play around with the style dialog, but as you said, it's not very intuitive... I found it a bit of a pain

You made me wonder though:

1. I thought the Robo Tables all use inline markup, so defining tables trough the Style dialog doesn't seem such a good option to me, especially with legacy project where tables haven't been created from a table 'style' defined in the style dialog.

2. Can you actually define a style in Style dialog that applies to ALL tables in your project, no matter how they were created? I assumed/thought/found that you could only set table styles for tables you create there.

Greet,

Willam

[Peter Grainge]

In Version 8 look in the Styles Pod and the dropdown includes tables. Style created there are CSS based.

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[WMahan]

I cannot find a Styles Pod. Where is it? Walt

[Peter Grainge]

Sorry about the half answer.

Existing tables from earlier versions will be inline, unless you used the method that was on my site. There is an option to remove inline styles in RH8 and then apply a CSS style.

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[Willam_van_Weelden · Accepted solution]

Indeed a nice feature, missed that one, thanks.

It looks like there's a limit though, you can't apply a global style to a table, table row, colum or cell from the Styles dialog. It seems that applying a really global style to all classes of tables at once, is to add the definition for every single table in the Styles dialog. It seems to me that you can only apply real global styles by editing the CSS directly.

Greet,

Willam

[Peter Grainge]

No you cannot apply one of your existing styles to the table, you have to define the text style within the table editor. That means you cannot map it when you generate printed documentation. Hence on my site I cover how to work around that, basically you set up the table to have some garish font to remind you to apply a style after creating the table.

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[Peter Grainge]

Access the pod via Format > Styles.

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[Willam_van_Weelden]

Hi,

That's not exactly what I meant. The problem is with global styles, ie styles that apply to all elements, such as all tables, regardless whether they were made in RH7, RH8, Dreamweaver, etc. Whether they use inline styling or not.

It seems to me that such styles (as TABLE{}, TR{}, TH{}, etc) can only be created manually in your style sheet. The method on your site is the method that Robo8 started to support and the method that most people comfortable with html and css probably already used in Robo7. 'Even' if you used this method, it seems that you cannot set a global style in the style dialog to address all table classes.

Greet,

Willam

[Peter Grainge]

If you create a table in the new Table Editor, it creates a CSS based table. You can create as many table styles as you want.

The CSS is not the way Dreamweaver would write it but the table is nonetheless CSS based rather than being inline. Change the appearance of any style via the table editor or direct in the CSS and it will apply it to the relevant tables.

I agree you cannot make a change that will apply to all the CSS based tables but that has advantages as well.

Unless you have an exceptionally large number of table styles, I wouldn't see the work as being excessive.

Have I understood your point?

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[Willam_van_Weelden]

Hi,

Yes, new tables are CSS based, which is a major improvement.

I agree you cannot make a change that will apply to all the CSS based tables [...].

Yes, that's my point.

If you don't have much tables, it won't be a problem using the Style dialog, I agree with you.

Since the original question was how to apply global styles, I stick to my first answer , manually add TABLE{} to your style sheet if you're comfortable using CSS.

If you do it from the styles dialog, you have another good solution, which will probably work for most people. You're absolutely right about that - I did miss the table styles at first

Greet,

Willam

[Peter Grainge]

OK we're at one. Whilst the question used the term "global" I took it to mean in the sense of how RH8 works but between us I think the poster has the information required!

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