Applying Master Pages and Cascading Style Sheet

[phiguru]

ISSUE ONE:

I set a master page and a cascading style sheet set for every topic.

I set the new style and css in Topic List and could see the change take effect in the Topic List. (Also verfied some topics using the Properties menu.)

My problem is:  I don't see style updates in the topics.

For example, if I change the H2 font from 14pts to 16pts, it seems that the change should ripple through all of the topics where I have assigned the master page and css.

No dice.

I can manually change the heading, for example, change H2 to H3 and back to H2 and the new font will be applied.

But, as you can imagine, I don't wan't to manually edit 2300 topics. That basically makes the idea of a master page and style sheet worthless.

Oh, as a clarification. The stylesheet seems to work. For example, if I change a header, all pages are changed. It is the text formatting in the body of the document that does not change.

ISSUE TWO:

If one selects a H2, and reselects style H2, one gets an information panel that states:

Do you want to:

  1. Update the shyle to reflect recent changes?

  2. Reapply the formatting of the style to the selection?

If an author choses item 1, the change is reflected back to the cascading style sheet that I have applied.  YIKES.  One button push and my hard work on the style sheet is compromised.

Is there a way to lock the css to prevent accident changes by authors?

Thanks for you help. Dennis

[Willam_van_Weelden]

Hi,

What version of RoboHelp are you using?

I set a master page and a cascading style sheet set for every topic.

I take this to mean: You created a master page and assigned the CSS to the master page. Then you assigned the master page to the topics. This will have the topics use the CSS that is assigned to the master page.

Whenever you change the CSS of the master page, the style sheet of the topics is changed accordingly. Can you check whether the new CSS is assigned to the topics linked to the master page? Just open the topic properties and check that the correct CSS is assigned.

About your H2 selection problem, can you post a screen shot of what you are trying to do? I can't reproduce this problem. Whenever I select a heading 2 in the topic and apply a heading 2 style, nothing happens.

As for locking the CSS: You can try to set it to write only. Personally, I have a central location for the CSS and I regularly sync the project's css with the central CSS. Look into the Resource Manager as that might be exactly what you need.

Greet,

Willam

[phiguru]

I take this to mean: You created a master page and assigned the CSS to the master page. Then you assigned the master page to the topics. This will have the topics use the CSS that is assigned to the master page.

Yes indeed.

Whenever you change the CSS of the master page, the style sheet of the topics is changed accordingly. Can you check whether the new CSS is assigned to the topics linked to the master page? Just open the topic properties and check that the correct CSS is assigned.

Yes. I can see the master page is assigned by looking at the Properties menu for topics.

I can also see that the CSS is assigned by looking at the Topics Pod (topics list) which has a column for CSS.

Set the css to read-only.

Very interesting.

1. Set the master page and the css files to read only. (Using Windows Explorer (file manager)
2. Opened an existing topic in Robo. Changed an H4 tag from 11 font to 48 font.
3. Selected h4 from the style menu.
4. Got the window asking me if I would lke to "Update the style to reflect recent changes".
5. Clicked "Update"
6. System opened a second message window stating: "To execute the selected action, the files in the list below need to be writable."
7. Clicked "OK".
8. Robohelp then reset the css file for read and write.

Thus, no protection from non-Robo expert authors. They can reset the css at will.

All I did when making the css read-only was to add one more "OK" button to the process.

So, my two questions remain.

• When I change a style on both the master page and the css, it seems to me that the new style should be applied to all topics (but is is not being applied). (Neither in the editor or in the Webhelp Pro output)
• Can I prevent authors from changing my css file?

Thanks for joining the dialog on these topics.  dennis

[phiguru]

I have been reading Peter Grainge's site and my first question has been answered.

When I change the css, the new style is not applied to all files.

Turns out that about 75% of my topics were imported from MS-Word and they are laden with inline formating such as:

<H1 style = color: red>

I should have figured this out on own.  Duh.

Now, for question two:

Is there a way to keep non-Robo expert authors from changing the css when the system prompts them?

No matter how much coaching I give authors (all scientists and their thinking is generally applied to something other than the authoring system), some will make changes that will then ask to change the css.

Thanks, Dennis

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

What about just applying a "good" CSS to all topics when you generate the help? That can be set in the SSL layout recipes.

[Peter Grainge]

Applying a different CSS to the output will not override any inline styling. The thing that comes to mind here is one of Willam's tricks, applying Important to the styles in the CSS.

table {

margin-left: auto !important;

margin-right: auto !important;

}

Calling Willam - is there a way to apply that to the whole selector rather than each declaration?

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Willam_van_Weelden]

Hi,

Afraid not Peter.The easiest is to combine the different style declarations such as margin-left, margin-right, margin-top and margin-bottom into a single one: margin: auto 0 !important;.

I also have a script on my site that quicly deletes all the inline styling from your project: http://www.wvanweelden.eu/robohelp/scripts/remove_inline_styling. Back up first though, the changes can't be undone and the script is quite thorough. I also have a similar script lying around somewhere that does the same, only you get to pick which file you want to clean. I can look it up if you want.

Greet,

Willam

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Ah, right Peter - forgot about the "polluted" source ;>)