Editing Outside of RoboHelp and Then Importing

[srmsrm]

Is it possible in RH7 or RH8 to export the data to a Word file, have someone make edits, and then import the Word document back into RH? RH would then update the corrsponding topics with the changes.

Thxs

srm

[Peter Grainge]

Sorry but no it is not possible. When you cut and paste from Word it does not carry any formatting and that has the advantage you don't get Word's horrible way of writing HTML, which can cause problems of its own. So you will have to get the SME to use Track Changes and then manually make the changes.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Peter Grainge]

There is an option you could consider if the workflow suits.

RoboHelp 8 allows you to link to Word documents on your network. You could create Word documents and save them to the network, then you would create links to those documents. The document can be broken up into many topics.

Your editor can do their review and then you update the link.

Try it in a test project.

Thanks to Rick Stone for the suggestion.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[srmsrm]

Thanks. I currently have RH7. If upgrade to RH8, has this option been tested to see how effective it is? I can also just buy two copies of RH8 and we can update the projects using our version control software.

Based on people's experience using the link feature, what path might be most effective?

Thxs

srm

[Peter Grainge]

Linking works. The decision is about whether the appearance is what you want and whether the workflow works for you.

The appearance will be what it is in the Word document. Whilst you can tweak the topics after creating them from the link, any changes you make will be lost next time you update. Thus you are effectively pretty much tied to what the document looks like.

The workflow has to be your call. Do you trust the editor to get the document right? If not you will have to edit that and then maybe manually making RoboHelp the editor and you making changes there might be preferable.

If you have another machine available, try it out with the trial version of RoboHelp 8.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[srmsrm]

Peter:

Thanks. Seems like an option.

If I understand correctly the format will be what it is in Word. If I make formatting changes in RH, link to Word, then make changes in the Word file, the data changes will come back into RH, but the formatting I did in RH will be lost. The format will be what it is in Word carried over into RH. Am I understanding correctly?

Are there any limits to what you can do in Word and then adding it back into RH? For example, if i create a table in Word, will it come back over into RH.

srm

[Peter Grainge]

You've got the flow right.

Tables should be OK and most likely will be. However, anything Word to HTML comes without warranty.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge