Importing multi-level bulleted lists from Word

[Guest]

Hello, friends.

I am trying to import help files, with lots of multi-level bulleted lists, from Word (Office 2007) into RoboHelp 8.

In Word, the bulleted material is set up using the "bulleted list" icon and carries a style of "List Paragraph". (This is by default--no explicit application of styles was done.)

I can import this material using the option to "convert lists to HTML lists" and the result looks OK, but it is very difficult to edit (and it looks different from the corresponding material created in RoboHelp). When I edit (e.g. by adding new bullet items) the indents change unexpectedly. Here is a sample of a file with some imported bulleted items (upper list) and some created within RoboHelp (lower list) :

The underlying HTML is also quite different in structure.

The imported bullets look like this in HTML:

                <ul type="disc">

                                <li><p class="ListParagraphCxSpFirst">This is the first bullet

                                 level</p></li>

                </ul>

                <ul type="circle">

                                <li><p class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">This

                                 is the second bullet level</p></li>

                </ul>

                <ul type="square">

                                <li><p class="ListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">This

                                 is the third bullet level</p></li>

The native bullets look like this:

                <ul type="disc">

                                <li>This is the first bullet level</li>

                                <ul type="disc">

                                                <li>This is the second bullet level</li>

                                                <ul type="disc">

                                                                <li>This is the third bullet level</li>

                                                </ul>

                                </ul>

                </ul>

Is there a way to import these files that results in the native structure in RoboHelp?

I know that I can change the Word styles to make the appearance similar to RoboHelp, and I don't care about the symbol used as the bullet ("disc" vs. "circle" vs. "square"), but that doesn't solve the underlying structural difference, which seems to be the root cause of my editing difficulties.

I suppose an option would be to run a find-and-replace utility on the HTML--but surely there is a better way than that.

Thanks for whatever guidance you can provide.

Regards,

-- George

[Peter Grainge]

By following specific steps in RoboHelp 9, you can get good working lists. The process is described on my site and it took a lot of work to get that right, indeed it depended on the fixes that were included in the 902 service release.

Whilst those changes were obviously not in RoboHelp 8, it is possible the same steps will work in RoboHelp 8. Sorry but I am not able to test that right now.

In this scenario, I would leave my main project alone and test various ways of importing in a test project.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Guest · Accepted solution]

Thank you for the suggestions on your site, Peter. I could not use them directly, but they set me off on a series of experiments that resulted in a workable solution.

The solution is this: I imported the bulleted lists as "RoboHelp lists". This is done by selecting Edit, under Word document, in the second screen of the import process (titled "Import"). The resulting dialog box, Conversion Settings, is used set up style equivalences and to break up the imported file into topics based on styles. After setting up my style conversions, I clicked on Other Settings in the left-hand pane to get a series of checkboxes. I selected the one that says "Convert Word list to" and selected "RoboHelp list". I clicked OK, then Finish.

When the import completed, I opened each topic and selected all the bulleted-list items (which all had the same indent, regardless of what level they were supposed to be) and clicked on the bulleted-list icon. The list items now took on appropriate indentation.

I am still experimenting with styles and style sheets to get exactly the appearance I want, but I am now fairly confident that this approach will work for me.

Thank you, Peter, for pointing me in the right direction.

-- George

[Peter Grainge]

Alway happy to tell someone where to go.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge