Printing issues with RH9 Webhelp

[Tech_Writer_KC]

Hello,

We've recently converted our chm help to webhelp, and along with that upgraded from RH8 to RH9.

We're encountering an issue where webhelp content, including the TOC pane and the topic content, doesn't print. Selecting to print results in blank pages with some formatting marks (you can see where the TOC would go, fex), but no content.

However, if you print preview and then print, the content will print, although there still seems to be some wonkiness (blank pages, etc.).

This is on multiple machines, both IE and Firefox. Is there a project setting I'm not seeing, or a browser setting (for multiple browsers) at work here?

Thanks in advance,

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

You know, there is likely a very good reason Adobe doesn't even offer a print option in their AIR Help viewer. What they do is what I'll recommend to you.

Create a PDF and insert that as a Baggage file. Then advise users to open the PDF if they wish to commit the electronic information to a dead tree last century medium.

Cheers... Rick

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[Tech_Writer_KC]

Rick - I'm a bit confused. Are you indicating that Adobe intentionally doesn't provide print support for Webhelp systems???

I was under the impression that Webhelp should print easily, that our issue was merely something wrong with our help or browser configuration. Are you saying the default behavior is no support at all?

[Captiv8r]

Hello again

I'm not sure anything is "intentional" to discourage printing. Nor am I sure where you managed to get the impression that WebHelp handles it with aplomb. Have you been talking to sales again?

Printing from *ANY* help system is always going to be less than stellar. This is because you are effectively putting what appears on the screen (and has been designed to work well there) on paper (where it wasn't optimized).

Any printing that would occur directly from the help system is going to be a kludge and likely won't appear anything close to what you really hoped for. That's why we suggest PDF. You make the PDF look like you want and the printed output from the PDF looks good too!

So I'm not saying there is no support at all, but what you are asking is similar to asking if a Jaguar would be a good vehicle to haul a load of fill dirt to your backyard. Sure, you can do it, but why? Rent a truck (lorry in Peter's terms) and do the job right. In other words, use PDF for its strengths.

Cheers... Rick

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[Tech_Writer_KC]

I'm not sure you're understanding the issue here.

The issue IS NOT that the printed help looks "off" or "weird". The issue is that NO CONTENT IS BEING PRINTED - all that prints is the window title, URL, the toolbar buttons ("Index", "Search", etc.), and the divider line between where the TOC and the currently selected topic content would appear if they were included as well.

No text or screenshots from the current topic prints. None of the TOC entries show up. The format comment is in reference to one user being able to print if they print from print preview, but even then if they're printing multiple topics it's blanking out on some of them.

But if you try printing directly from the browser - like you would if you were printing a PDF or other form or just a regular website page, it always appears blanked out. This is the primary issue and the one I'm asking about.

Hence this thread. Is there a help/browser setting we're not seeing that's blocking the content from being printed?

[Captiv8r]

Sorry, sounds like all I'm doing is managing to frustrate you when I was just trying to help.

Perhaps Peter or another person has some ideas...

[Tech_Writer_KC]

No worries, was just concerned that we've put all this effort into RH9 and webhelp and only now find out it doesn't really support printing, which would be a major issue here.

You were right about the missed checkbox for the print button. It appears to work and currently awaiting feedback. Thanks.

[Peter Grainge]

Alternatively you could try adding a Print button to the toolbar. Hopefully that will print the topic. See Snippets on my site.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Tech_Writer_KC]

I tried the snippet instructions but I'm running in an issue of the button not showing in the actual webhelp.

I've set it up in the skin editor, and it shows on the editor's preview pop-up, but when I generate the actual help, it's not there.

[Captiv8r]

Hello again

Remember, when you add a custom button you also have to enable it in the SSL recipe.

Look at the options where you specify buttons. Likely it's not selected.

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcerStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks