Linking two separate Robohelp projects together

[adrianaharper]

Hi all,

TCS 2 on Windows 7 64 bit.

I have two separate Robohelp projects: Call them HELP and WORKBOOK. They are both generated and published to the same server, and kept online behind the same login portal on a secure web site, but under different pages of the web site.

I would like to have links in the WORKBOOK project that, when clicked on, open up the HELP project to a particular place (similarly to how context sensitive markers work to open up a spot within a help project) in a separate window.

Is this doable? If so, how? Do I need to import one project within the other as a baggage file or something? This whole concept is new to me and I'm just feeling it out at the moment.

Thanks,

Adriana

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Adriana.

This sounds like both projects are completely seperate (i.e. not merged in any way) and just placed in different locations on the secure server. If this is correct you could just link from one to the other using the standard hyperlink URL functionality. You'd just need to enter the path to the HELP project topic.

---

The RoboColum(n)

@robocolumn

Colum McAndrew

[adrianaharper]

Hi Colum,

Thanks for writing so quickly! Yes, that is right. They are completely separate projects, not merged in any way.

Not to sound dense - but I don't usually insert hyperlinks etc. in RH b/c I link an FM doc and import into RH. So if I'm manually adding the hyperlinks in RH, what would it look like - i.e. what 'path' would I put in? I've clicked INSERT >> HYPERLINK/POPUP - Then would I select Link to: File, or Webaddress? And since it's external... what would I type in in the link box?

Thanks

[RoboColum_n_]

If both your projects are in FrameMaker files, linked into RoboHelp projects and then published to a server I wonder if there is a better way to link between them. The reason I ask is that when you update the FrameMaker files and bring them into your RoboHelp project, any manually created hyperlinks you've created may inevitably be lost. So I wonder whether you'd be best to use the Cross Reference functionality in FrameMaker to link between them. The issue here is that the HELP and WORKBOOK "projects" may not be the same book so I'll unsure how you'd be able to link between them - I'm not a real FrameMaker expert!

Perhaps we should stick with my first suggestion. If you know that the location of the two projects is always the same you could use the Link to > File option. Just generate the output for the HELP project and select the output file name of the topic in the HELP project. For example if HELP is published to W:\Help and WORKFLOW is published to W:\WORKFLOW the link would look like W:\Help\topic.htm

---

The RoboColum(n)

@robocolumn

Colum McAndrew

[adrianaharper]

Thanks Colum. Yes, I was thinking that myself (about updating FM and losing the markers) as I hit post message on my last note...

At any rate. Thanks for the suggestions - I have taken note and will try it that way. Perhaps I could ask the moderator (if you are watching this forum...) to move this post to the integration forum - perhaps someone has experience with the integration piece and could point out a way to do this that would not force me to update these links everytime I update the FM book and the RH project.

Thanks again,

Adriana

[Guest]

I am not a FrameMaker user, but here's how I link two RoboHelp projects.

The hyperlink to open the Workbook from the Help is:

<a href="../../Workbook/WebHelp/index.htm" target="_blank">Workbook Help</a>

I never know what drive or specific folder my engineers might put the related Help files, so I keep the ../../ at the beginning.

Not sure if this will work for you.