How do I create a glossary in RH9 without typing all the terms & defs?

[A_Avallone]

I have searched all available doc and this is what I've tried:

Linking to a Word 2010 doc with just the glossary

Linking to a Word 2010 doc with glossary appended to existing topic

(For both of the above, I chose "convert glossary" in settings AND used unique Word paragraph styles not used anywhere else in my project--mapped one to glossary term and one to glossary definition.)

What I got:

In both cases, the glossary came through as a topic (or added to the existing topic when appended), but what am I failing to do to get the glossary to be recognized as a glossary?

P.S. I hand entered one term and it generates just fine. However, in any of the settings locations where there's a choice to "Add to existing glossary" or "Create new," I notice that the "add" feature is grayed out.  Is this a clue...or a random, unrelated issue? 

[Subhash_Jha]

In Linking if you want to convert glossary then only option available is to create a new associated glossary for each Linked Word Document. "Add to existing glossary" option is available only for import workflow and not for Linking.

Since, you have already selected the option "Convert Glossary", you must have given a glossary name say "MyWordGlossary". So, are you sure your glossary items are not coming in this newly created glossary "MyWordGlossary", you can open this glossary from "Project Manager" Pod.

Also, please note that when a GlossaryTerm style is followed by a GlossaryDefinition style paragraph then only a new Glossary item is created in RoboHelp. So, your glossary term and definition should be in pair in the word document to get converted properly in RoboHelp.

NOTE: Your Glossary will not get created in (Default) Glossary but in "MyWordGlossary".

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

You may also want to refer to this post: http://forums.adobe.com/message/1043871 for the layout of the glossary file & build it outside of RH.

[A_Avallone]

Well, yes, but there are some caveats. I did try it this way, but some of my source content (definitions) had been created by colleagues and some strange formatting came with a few of them and made the whole glossary disappear.  I had stripped all of the formatting, and the GLO file looked fine, but nothing showed up in the Glossary pod.  Even a Tier 2 tech from Adobe sharing my screen and running the XML editor couldn't find exactly what it was that had gotten attached to my content--we only found what was corrupted by deleting entry by entry from the GLO file until everything suddenly came back.

Long story short: I ended up doing it through the RoboHelp interface after all.

[daand01]

Any one able to help me how to "add definitions" to the words?

I have a index now with words based on character style and it shows where pages list the word..

How to add the definition that explains the word?

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

RoboHelp is a fabulous and awesome tool and does many things that may seem totally miraculous at first blush. But a miracle worker it isn't. There is no way I'm aware of to tell it to divine what the definition is for any given word. Unfortunately you will still have to put some effort into providing the definitions in the Glossary pane.

Cheers... Rick

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Or you can do it externally of RH and format it like the .glo file – search on “.glo” to get a hit on a thread that outlines the formating

[Captiv8r]

Umm, please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here, but even if editing the .glo separately, it would still involve typing the terms and definitions, no?

Happy Monday... Rick

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

You & I would do that Rick, but the OP may have some automagical method of extracting terms and definitions out of some external database or something that could be formatted into the XML shape that the .glo file is structured in these days ;>)

[Captiv8r]

True that!

(Shudder) I totally forgot that there indeed are folks that exist and practice those dark arts.

Ohhh the incantations one must know!

Cheers... Rick