Importing Word 2010 - Style and Image Problems

[namedujour]

This week we upgraded to Word 2010. I don't know if anyone else experienced this problem, but if you use shapes you may be in trouble if you import documents into Robohelp.

Apparently Microsoft changed the shapes with this version. If you look at the two images below, the top shape is a Word 2007 shape, and the bottom shape is a Word 2010 shape. Notice how ragged the new shape is - it's as if it's in a much lower resolution.

I did some testing and found out that the shape retains its clarity if you save it in Word as HTML, and then import it. For this reason it looks like Adobe is going to need to address how to import 2010 shapes without messing them up during the conversion process. In the meantime, that's the fix - unless anyone else has any thoughts.

[namedujour]

Actually, when I published the project I found that the imported HTML file displayed NO IMAGES...except for the shapes, which looked wonderfully well. Does anyone know why this might be?

The files appeared to be coming over during the import process. They all displayed in the Results dialog as either .png files or .jpg files. The shapes are the .pngs, and the images I inserted into the document are .jpgs. None of the .jpg files display, except in the Design screen and the Preview window. There is no folder in the Project Manager for this file. In fact, the file displays rather randomly in the Project Manager folder of another topic. Can someone please explain what is going on, and how I can fix this? I can't import Word documents and I can't import HTML files at this point. I'm stuck.

By the way, the shapes come over as .gif files when you import the .doc file, and come over as .png files when you import it as HTML, which may have something to do in the reduction of quality in the published topic if you import it as .doc.

Thanks!

[Peter Grainge]

Take a look at http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/importing/importing_rh9.htm

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@petergrainge

[namedujour]

Found a solution. I had to abandon the HTML import process because it doesn't work.

However, you can manage your shapes within Word 2010:

1. Select the shape and right-click. Select Format Shape from the right-click dropdown to display the dialog.
2. Click Solid Fill and select a dark fill color.
3. Click Line Color and select white.
4. Click Line Style and set the width to .5.
5. Click Shadow and select No Shadow from the Presets dropdown.
6. Right-click the toolbar, select Customize Quick Access Toolbar, select All Commands, then scroll down to add the Set Autoshape Defaults icon to your Quick Access toolbar (there's no way I no of to set your shape defaults through the menu.)
7. Highlight the shape and click the Set Autoshape Defaults icon. Each time you create a shape in that document from now on, it will display the default attributes.
8. Import the document into Robohelp.

Here's the before and after:

[Peter Grainge]

Thanks for adding that. I have added to the thread title to help others searching for answers to the problem.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge