Robohelp doesn't keep legends/captions ON images

[ChristianeJäger]

We are using RoboHelp for many years. Again and again we have problems with legends/captions on images. In our Microsoft Word document we insert an image from file and a legend from "Insert/shape/legends" (hope it's right, we have the Word program in German language). This legend we place ON the image. When we later import that document in RoboHelp HTML the legend will be inserted as an additional image above or beside the image.

We know that there must be a way to keep the legend ON the image, but we don't find it. Unfortunatelly our colleague who solved that problem the last time has left our company. Now we have to start new.

We needed to change something in our documentation but can't upload it to web because of the wrong illustration in RoboHelp.

How it looks like in Microsoft Word:

How it looks like in RoboHelp:

We use RoboHelp 9 and Microsoft Word 2010 (also tested Word 2007).

Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance.

[RoboColum_n_]

I suspect your former workmate had a workaround. Would they have captured the image of the image in Word with the caption over it and then readded that to the Word file. That should then come across into RH as you require.

[ChristianeJäger]

No, the captures were set over the picture in the original Word document. I have the original Word and picture files. Also when I open the original files I get this trouble.

I can not change the pictures by adding the capture to the picture before adding it to the Word document. Because I would have to change this in all the one thausend pages of the original files to be able to upload the update.

Any more idea?

[Peter Grainge]

I have been kicking around these forums for years and the only solution I have ever seen posted is the one Colum has mentioned.

In your live project, you have the legend sitting on the image if I follow you correctly, at least for some of the images. Have you looked at the code in an output file for an image where it works as you want? What does the code say?

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[RoboColum_n_]

I was going to add before Peter's response that if you don't combine the two elements in the Word file, you'd definitely have to do so in the RH project. Whichever way you look at things it has to be done somewhere.

[ChristianeJäger]

It's a good advise to look into the source code of the html files. The legend is in a <p> tag followed by the screenshot picture.

It's something like that:

<p>

<span style="position:absolute; z-index:18; margin-left:384px; margin-top:310px; width:222px; height:133px;">

<img src=".../Legendpicture.gif" alt="rectangular legend: Here you see ... " style="width:222px; height:133px; border-style:none;" width="222" height="133" border="0">

</span>

<img src=".../screenshotpicture.jpg" style="width:640px; height:512px; border-style:none;" width="640" height="512" border="0" alt="">

</p>

But how to tell RoboHelp to do it like this? The legend that was inserted beside the screenshot doesn't seem to have a transparent background. So even if I would find a way to put the legend back on the image it would cover a lot of the screenshot. I also only could find to let the picture flow with text but not to superimpose text or pictures.

[ChristianeJäger]

But how to combine the image and the legend? Only way I can imagine would be in a graphic or paint program. This would mean to save all the thousand images new.

If it would be possible in Word the time and effort would become more manageable. In Word the function exist to "group" elements. But I can't select picture and legend at same time.

[Peter Grainge]

The first thing that clearly demonstrates is that your colleague did somehow convert the legend to an image - Legendpicture.gif. Then they added some code (the span style) that positioned the legend image over the screenshot image.

What I cannot tell you is whether they worked that out and executed it manually or did it using some third party tool.

There used to be a German RoboHelp forum. I wonder if your former colleague found or posted the solution there. The only thing I can find now in a quick search is http://www.robo-forum.de/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi It looks a bit dated but that does not mean the answer is not there.

I assume you cannot contact your former colleague.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[ChristianeJäger]

Now that I looked into the source code of the old project, I also checked the html code of my new example project.

There the legend is also inserted in exactly that way (means it is converted to a .gif file, it is placed in a <span>, ...) But the margin values are incorrect. So I could try it out and place the legend by margin it correct. I also found out, that RoboHelp never places the legend correct, even when the margin is changed. But when copying the html code to an html editor the preview shows it right. So the browsers will do, too. I hope.

I will make some more tests now.

Thanks for your answers so far.

[Peter Grainge]

If you do get this resolved, it would be very helpful if you could post back the exact steps.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge