Configure Numbered and Bulleted Styles in CSS

[LPMichael]

I have searched and read a lot of postings re:Numbered and Bulleted styles/lists in the CSS setup and still have no clue how this was changed in the most recent build of RoboHelp HTML or the correct way to apply and get to work.

In X5 of RoboHelp HTML, I had a CSS style sheet with 5 paragraph styles with bullets. I did not create a list - I simply bulleted the style. When I apply one of these styles to a paragraph it adds a bullet.

I upgraded to RoboHelp HTML X8.0.2.208 and my bulleted styles are a total mess. The styles are still in the CSS, but when applied there is no bullet - it adds a number (then I have to click the Bullet icon button on the toolbar to apply a bullet). I have tried to find release notes or some documentation explaining the change and can find none. I have reviewed Peter Grange's site information about lists and multilevel lists, but see no reason why I cannot just apply a bullet directly on a style without using the list or multilevel list.

I guess the issue may be my stupidity on the configuration and use of lists and multilevel lists. Is there any documentation from Adobe that outlines the change that occurred as of this most recent build? I am looking for an explanation of how a list corresponds to a style and how to get the style to work correctly. Ironically, the online help has been no help at all.

As always, thanks to any feedback or direction.

Michael F Weart

[Peter Grainge]

Michael

See my first reply in this thread.

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/636490?tstart=0

Are you saying that all your "lists" just have a paragraph style and no LI tag?

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Guest]

Michel, I am right in the middle of doing what you are trying to do.

In addition to looking over Peter Grainge's snippet, which lays out how the P styles and LI styles work, you will probably find that you need to edit the html directly, even after you get a set of styles created.

I am finding various problems, such as <ol> tags that weren't properly closed when I inserted a bullet into a numbered list, and various manually applied styles that I used to fudge things into line in previous versions of RoboHelp.

After you get your styles arranged so that a representative topic looks right, keep an eye out for paragraphs that look different in other topics, such as an indented bullet that suddenly looks indented too far. If you look at the para in html, you may notice an added manual style that applies an indent, or <ol> and <ul> tags  that don't match up evenly with their closing tags.

The upside is that you are going to gain some serious skills in reading xhtml.

Best wishes.

John

[Guest]

Wait-- didn't we pay Adobe for RoboHelp so that we would have an editor that allowed us NOT to have to edit HTML directly!!

[Guest]

It's not your stupidity! They have enhanced this feature to the point where it is unusable. The online help around this makes no sense, either.

What, for example, does this mean:

"Select Inherit Numbering Property From Multilevel List to inherit the multilevel list style to apply autonumbering. Select the multilevel list style from the List Class pop-up menu and select the level to apply autonumbering. Click Ok."

We just upgraded to 8 and are having to rework every single topic that has numbers, bullets or alpha lists. Thousands. And when I search the help and the community I see nary a release note mentioning that this was going to happen...

[Guest]

No, it's true. The change from html to xhtml horsed everything up.

This email doesn't contain whatever grumbling post you are commenting on, but in case I didn't give due credit, Peter Grainge was a lot of help to me during my weeks of pain and anguish. His web site contains a lot of info about how to wrangle everything back into shape.

As a comment, I didn't even try to set up multi-level numbering. For all I know, it's a great feature & solves all problems, but I decided that if Adobe couldn't even manage to get ordinary numbers and lists to work right, there was no hope for anything complicated.

I am probably being a little unfair, because my project was the result of several different RoboHelp versions & it eventually built up goofy errors & inconsistencies that it would be difficult to expect any mere software to overcome, but the whole experience was so painful that I am just hoping I can retire before needing to upgrade any Adobe product ever again.

And don't get me started on Adobe documentation. I don't understand how they are still in business with what they produce. One of life's great ironies that they create products for technical writers but don't actually employ any who can competently describe the products they create.

Good luck.

John

[Vandal_Adonis]

I agree. I tried RH 8 for several weeks. I found that the new features that attracted me were actually implemented in a way that made them unusable for my situation. That, combined with the list train wreck and the general slugishness of the product convinced my to forgo an upgrade. I'm still running 7 and happy that I am.

[LPMichael]

OK - sorry have not posted my solution and it works for me...

This is what I did to create a single level bulleted style using bulleted list:

(1) Create a MultiLevel List Style called BulletedList

I have only defined Level 1 of the MultiLevel List

For that Level 1 - I DID NOT specify a Paragraph Style

For that Level 1 - I selected List Style of DISC

For that Level 1 - I defined the Edit Style as <x>

Saved this MultiLevel List style with a name of BulletedList

(2) Created a Paragraph Style called NBullet

Font is set to Arial 10pt

Spacing/After is set to 6pt

From Indents line - clicked the AutoNumber icon button

This opens the List for Autonumbering dialog and I set the following:

Checked the box for Inherit Numbering Property from Multilevel List

Selected BulletedList from the List Class drop down

Selected List Level as "1"

Clicked OK to apply and return to Paragraph Style Setup dialog

On Paragraph Style Setup dialog clicked the Format drop down button

Selected Paragraph formatting

Defined Left Indentation of .5in

Defined Special Indentation of Hanging .25in

(3) Clicked OK to save the Paragraph style called NBullet

When I look at the drop down list of styles within a topic, the style name appears as "1 NBullet". Don't let the "1" fool you - when I apply that style the "disc" bullet is applied and NOT a number (it just displays a number in the style name for some reason that escapes me).

I now have my bulleted style back and it works fine.

NOTE:  I do not like to reformat anything, so I set up an NBullet (Spacing After set to 6pt), NBulletSpace (Spacing After set to 12pt) and NBulletLast (Spacing After set to 18pt).

I also set up "bullet continuation" paragraph styles so I can lead with a bulleted line of text and then follow with "additional information" paragraph that aligns to the text in the bulleted lead paragraph line - that paragraph style is NBulletContinue defined with NO autonumber setup and the Format/Paragraph set to Indent/Left .75in (which aligns the text to the text of the bulleted paragraph).

I set up the same paradigm of NBulletContinue, NBulletContinueSpace and NBulletContinueLast.

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Aside from the Style name appearing in the Style list when working in a topic as "1 NBullet", "1 NBulletSpace" and "1 NBulletLast" the formatting works and looks great (and note - the style name when I go into CSS formatting does not have the leading "1").

Also note, if I use the Increase Indent option when working in a topic on the NBullet styled paragraph, the Level 2 bullet list format is applied. I HAVE NEVER and WILL NEVER use the Increase or Decrease Indent functionality (either in Word or RoboHTML).

All of my CSS styles match the naming convention used in my Word template - making it easier to push content back and forth between Word and RoboHTML.

=============

My approach may be non-standard and may not be within the spirit of this functionality, but it works for me and I get the formatting I need.

One last note on the comment of the "sluggishness of the product" for x8 - I had the same problem and then I applied the two patches that were made available. The difference in the response time was VERY noticeable in a GOOD way. Search for and apply both fixes to RoboHTML x8 and you will see a pronounced difference. I also got my boss to approve ordering a new PC and now there is not sluggishness at all in the performance.

Thanks to all --

Michael F Weart

[dh2help]

I ended up opening every project I have in Dreamweaver and doing a find and replace to get rid of all of the li-kadov-p stuff that was left over. Be careful on how you replace things and make sure you have a backup just in case. You should be familiar with HTML before you attempt this.

I removed all of my hard coded classes for bullets and now I can just click the list icon and indent icon to create my multi-level lists.

Another thing Dreamweaver does very nicely is remove all of the Microsoft Word markup when you import Word documents.