RH8 HTML, workspace font 8pt, can it be changed?

[Jan7272]

Hi,

My IT department just upgraded me to a faster machine Windows 7 however my RH8 HTML displays my Project Manager et al pods in Ariel 8pt. I know I can adjust the topic font size from the View option, however, has anyone figured out how to change the font size elsewhere on the workspace? My css works fine in my output. It's just my workspace view.

Thanks

Jan

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Jan. I don't believe this is possible. You may want to add this as a feature request at the link below.

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform&product=38

I appreciate the problem also as my eyes are getting no younger. A workaround would be to change your screen resolution. Hardly perfect, but it would do the job.

[Jan7272]

Hi - thanks for confirming what I was afraid of -- I tried adjusting the screen resolution and then I'm struggling with the lack of sharpness around the fonts -- like you said, the eyes are getting no younger -- and when I have to do a screen capture, the screen is then not acceptable for size and sharness. I'll add it to the wish list.

[Jan7272]

I just realized its not just a font sizing in the workspace that's off since I upgraded to Windows 7 - it's my topic workspace not displaying WYSIWG in my design view from RH8HTML. When I select the View Item option the correct font size displays but not from the workspace. I didn't have this issue from Windows XP. Have you got this happening?

[Peter Grainge]

Have you got the zoom on the toolbar set to 100%?

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Jan7272]

yes

thanks, Peter.

[Jan7272]

Peter, when I said yes i meant that I do have the zoom set to 100%.   Have you heard of this happening before?

[Jan7272]

Hi all, I'm going to continue this discussion in a new thread because what's more important to me is that my Design view on the RH workspace display true WYSIWYG and not be affected by what appears to be a universal setting from Windows 7 to reduce font sizes by pixels. thanks, Jan

[Captiv8r]

Jan, can you please expound on that?

Are you referring to what you see when you right-click the desktop in Windows 7 and choose Personalize then click Display? Where you choose the percentage to make screen reading easier?

Cheers... Rick

[Jan7272]

Rick, I'm referring to two ways that I've tried: go to Screen Resolution and change the resolution and I also tried making different percentages, custom and setting the DPI with either Windows XP option or not. None give me WYSIWYG. My default setting per our IT group  is currently medium- 125% and the DPI scalling 100% without Windows XP option.

Thanks, Rick!

[Jan7272]

Rick, I don't know if its relevant, but I got upgraded to a laptop. Does that affect it?

[Captiv8r]

Hello again

I"m honestly a bit stumped here. But I'm also a bit amused by your being adamant about "giving you WYSIWYG". I've used RoboHelp for 20 years and I have to say that it's NEVER truly been close to what I would call "WYSIWYG". WYSIWYMGIYAL, maybe. (What You See Is What You MAY Get If You Are Lucky)

I'm also aware of DPI being configured to anything other than 96 dpi can cause issues. We see this from time to time with Adobe Captivate and what it produces being "off" until the DPI is configured back to 96.

Something else you might want to be leery of would be adjusting things so the output looks just dandy on your own PC. Doing that might make it render incredibly large on a typical PC that doesn't use similar settings to yours.

Cheers... Rick

[Peter Grainge]

There are two threads running on this problem. See also http://forums.adobe.com/message/5229689#5229689

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Jan7272]

thanks, Peter!

[Jan7272]

Ha! you are so right Rick about the WYSIWYG but honestly, this is the worst that its ever been. I am going cross eyed and usually my WYSIWG view is pretty darn close to my css - which is especially helpful because I have scrubbing that I do in the legacy projects and it's easy to tell the difference. This particular font size that Windows 7 has robohelp defaulting to is smaller than 8pt. No one has answered me about the laptop question - could that be a factor?

We are having some inconsistent behavior as well in that sometimes Webhelp builds and our TOC and search works displays and acts correctly, other times the javascript doesn't even load the TOC and search.

The IT department is going to build a viritual environment for Robohelp today.

Thanks! Jan

[Jan7272]

Hi, what do you have your screen resolution set to? For me, the pods workspace is so tiny it appears to be 6pt. Why doesn't zoom work on the pods? I've practically got my nose glued to the screen I have to get so close (just kidding, not that bad but sure is close!)

I can adjust the design view for a topic to zoom in but I find myself going cross-eyed when I'm updating a project and going back and forth from the topic list pod to open a topic and then edit it. I tried different windows settings, the IT department tried, we set up a virtual remote desktop, i installed Robohelp HTML 10 on my Windows 7 at home to see what would happen, and still...my conclusion and problem remains the same. My eyes can't read font size that is 6pt or barely 8pt without getting eye strain by the end of the day. I can't believe we can't adjust the font settings in the pods. I didn't have this dramatic difference in Windows XP. I had WYSIWYG that was 9pt to my 10pt style so it wasn't too far off. But this Windows 7 makes it between and 8 and a 9pt. And on top of that there is a difference in the kerning.

Thanks to everyone for their help. I wish Adobe would make RH more like Dreamweaver.

Cheers, Jan

[Captiv8r]

Jan, out of curiosity, what resolution is your screen configured at? How many pixels wide and tall?

[ginafromtampa]

I'm using RoboHelp 9.  Problem still persists.  The font size of the TOC and Topic List looks like it's 6pt while the rest of the font in the UI look OK, like they're 14 pt (like the menu bar).  See screenshot below.

I have a 22" Dell monitor - fairly new.  I'm using the default screen resolution of 1920 x 1080. I changed the Screen Resolution option in Windows 7 -  "Make text and other items larger or smaller" set to "Larger - 150%".  It still makes the font for the TOC and Topic List look like it's 6 pt on my screen.  I'll be happy to enter a request with Adobe -- but  it's definitely frustrating.

[Captiv8r]

Hi Gina

Sorry, but I'm unaware of a way to increase the size of these. Unless you use some form of "Mouse Magnifier" utility, about all you can do is report it to Adobe as a Bug or a Suggestion and hope for the best. Who knows, maybe Adobe will have a suggestion about an obscure change to make that will help.

Wishing I had better news! Rick

[ginafromtampa]

Hi Rick,

I followed the instructions for the Windows magnifier at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/make-items-on-the-screen-appear-bigger-magnifier

but it is pretty unweildy.  I'm just going to have to squint to see the Topic List for now.

[Jan7272]

Hi Gina,

I totally understand your frustration. After much trial and error (including trying the magnifier, too!), my IT team and I gave up and there are no settings that correct this problem. That being said, I did find some Windows settings that improve the appearance in some respects that I'm happy to share with you. My appearance is also dictated by my need to capture screenshots.

I have two monitors, Dell1907FP, Dell P190S 1280X1024 resolution

Screen resolution: 125%, custom DPI 9pt, select XP scaling option, turn on cleartype text,  -  because if I go larger, other things dont display correctly. Selecting large icons in robohelp didn't really help me so I left them set to default size even tho that's TINY.

My eyes do get tired more easily now so I try to give them more breaks and I moved my screen stands up as close as possible - they are somewhat hanging off my desk. Don't forget that you can change the view size of your topic but the problem I found with that is then the horizontal scroll bar kicks in and I find that cumbersome. I'm hoping the Robohelp developers eventually give us the same setting options as Microsoft does in Outlook - I've gotten rid of the 6pt font in 95% of Outlook. My eye doctor says I don't need glasses for the computer. I am just one of those people that can't tolerate the tiny font size for long periods of time.

Cheers,

Jan

[ginafromtampa]

Jan,

I have a Dell P2412H Widescreen 24 inch monitor.  The default resolution is 1920 x 1080.  I experimented with several different resolutions including what you have for yours (1280X1024), and I have the same other settings as you do.  It still doesn't help.  My other older monitor, which I wasn't using until I tested it just now, is an HP1730 17" (not a widescreen), set at 1280 x 1024, at the smaller 100% default text size resolution setting in Windows 7.  On the smaller monitor, the Topic List in RH9 font is even larger and more legible than my 24" monitor with the customized settings! 

It looks like RoboHelp 9 might have been designed for a non wide-screen smaller monitor.  Does anyone know if that's the case?  So I guess I'll just switch over to my older monitor for now.

Thanks.

Gina

[ginafromtampa]

For now I have a workaround.  For my 24" monitor, I adjusted the monitor from the menu buttons on the front of it to Display Settings > Aspect Ratio 4:3 (instead of the default 16:9). I changed the screen resolution in Windows to 1152 x 864.  I changed the font size to 100%.  Now the Topics List font looks normal and not tiny.

I realize this topic was for RH 8, but I'm using RH9.

BTW, I do have a 17" monitor and RH looks fine on it, but it's attached another PC and I can't move it, so I have to use either my wide screen monitor or my laptop with a wide screen.  So it looks to be that the aspect ratio is the issue.

[ginafromtampa]

Does anyone know if this has been fixed in RoboHelp 10 (the tiny font in the Topic List for wide screen monitors)?  This is such a pain!  I have two beautiful 24" monitors that I have to reset to the resolution of an 8-year old 17" monitor just to be able to see the UI.

[ginafromtampa]

I just installed a trial of RoboHelp 10 and the update:  10.0.1.292, and the resolution problem is still not fixed.  The Topic List and Program Manager and other panels' text is still about 6 pt font on a widescreen monitor, while the toolbar text looks fine.  And we can zoom the text within a topic.  I was going to upgrade but not until this gets fixed.  Thanks!