FM Conditional Build Tags Not Processed Correctly in RH

That’s my standard procedure:

In Frame:

Set Conditional build Tags for Book

Apply

Update Book.

Save

Got to RH

Confirm that the Apply FM Build Expression is set

Force Update All

I noticed the problem after doing a Force Update All; I did subsequent testing using a single file. Sorry I didn’t make that clearer.

Just tried it; same thing happens.

The problem is that when I set the flag, RH isn’t apply the CBT expression correctly.

I’ve even tried deleted the project cache file in case that had gotten messed up.

Yeah, I did some testing with a new frame file, no template, bare bones, and it works.

So, as best I can determine, I am doing something wrong in my project settings.

After some testing, here’s what appears to be going on:

Here are my project settings:

cid:image003.jpg@01CEBAD2.E3B6CE70

Our manuals use a number of fonts that aren’t in public domain.  To make things easier on all concerned, I created a default.css for our online help that mirrors our FrameMaker style, but uses windows-standard fonts.

The FM template is a frame version of the same thing.  I apply that so that when I view topics in RoboHelp, they will have the online help fonts, not the PDF fonts. In addition, it gets the second level bullets looking correct; at this point, I’m not even sure how, but it does. I can define a custom bullet in Frame, but I haven’t figured out how to do it in RH or in a CSS.

Now, if I leave the template selected, as above, then I get this in Robohelp:

cid:image004.jpg@01CEBAD2.E3B6CE70

On the negative side, I’ve got the conditional text problem.

On the plus side, what I see here mirrors what I get in the finished product. I generally have tight deadlines, so being able to see the finished format in Frame is fairly valuable for me—particularly since the style differs from the Frame source files.

cid:image005.jpg@01CEBAD2.E3B6CE70

Now, if I Deselect the Frame template option on the project settings and then update, here’s what I get in Robohelp:

cid:image006.jpg@01CEBAD2.E3B6CE70

Plus:  Conditional Text is processed correctly.

Minus: Style is all over the place.

In the finished output, the style is correct—I apply the css at generation—but the bullets are wonky:

It may not display correctly, but below, the bullet is a funky lower case m; it is supposed to be a double greater-than symbol.

cid:image007.jpg@01CEBAD2.E3B6CE70

So apparently it’s the combination of the template and css at the time of update that is messing with processing CBT. Now I just have to figure out how to resolve that while getting the correct bullet in the output.

This is why I drink, people.

OK, we'll try again

Yeah, I did some testing with a new frame file, no template, bare bones, and it works.

So, as best I can determine, I am doing something wrong in my project settings.

After some testing, here’s what appears to be going on:

Here are my project settings:

Our manuals use a number of fonts that aren’t in public domain.  To make things easier on all concerned, I created a default.css for our online help that mirrors our FrameMaker style, but uses windows-standard fonts.

The FM template is a frame version of the same thing.  I apply that so that when I view topics in RoboHelp, they will have the online help fonts, not the PDF fonts. In addition, it gets the second level bullets looking correct; at this point, I’m not even sure how, but it does. I can define a custom bullet in Frame, but I haven’t figured out how to do it in RH or in a CSS.

Now, if I leave the template selected, as above, then I get this in Robohelp:

On the negative side, I’ve got the conditional text problem.

On the plus side, what I see here mirrors what I get in the finished product. I generally have tight deadlines, so being able to see the finished format in Frame is fairly valuable for me—particularly since the style differs from the Frame source files.

Now, if I Deselect the Frame template option on the project settings and then update, here’s what I get in Robohelp:

Plus:  Conditional Text is processed correctly.

Minus: Style is all over the place.

In the finished output, the style is correct—I apply the css at generation—but the bullets are wonky:

It may not display correctly, but below, the bullet is a funky lower case m; it is supposed to be a double greater-than symbol.

So apparently it’s the combination of the template and css at the time of update that is messing with processing CBT. Now I just have to figure out how to resolve that while getting the correct bullet in the output.

This is why I drink, people.