RoboHelp HTML Version 10. - OK to use an HTML cleanup tool on RoboHelp topics?

Report · Sep 02, 2014

We are considering using a Webtool like www.cleanuphtml.com to clean up the inline html styles in a large number of RoboHelp topics that were imported from Word several years ago. After the cleanup, we can still use the styles from our CSS. Does anyone see any potential problems here? Here's what the Cleanup tool adds to the Head section. It then uses these "internal" styles whereever it needs to clean up the HTML. Thanks - Charlie Kyle

HTML from Cleanup

<head>

<title>AAANew Topic1 </title>

p.cleanuphtml-13 {

text-indent: -40px;

margin-left: 140px;

}

table.cleanuphtml-12 {

margin-left: 40px;

}

col.cleanuphtml-11 {

width: 20%;

}

...more styles

/*]]>*/</style>

</head>

End of HTML Cleanup

Report · Sep 03, 2014

I have not seen any reference to this tool on any of the authoring sites I follow, That does not mean it will not work without problems, simply that there is nothing to go on.

Where I might expect problems in the future is when you amend the CSS or want to apply a new one. The embedded CSS that you have printed will always be in your content. What works today, might work tomorrow and then again...

I understand not wanting to clean up using a good Find and Replace tool but it is the way I would go, with plenty of backing up.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

Help others by clicking Correct Answer if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.

Report · Sep 03, 2014

Thanks, Peter. Appreciate your response. A search on "html cleanup" produces a number of options including http://ww.w3.org/People/Raggett/tidy/. Tidy is a tool that offers suggestions for optimizing HTML and doesn't actually change the code as is the case with the Cleanup tool.

I noticed today that when you run the Cleanup tool on the topics inside a RH project (vs. outside the project), then the Cleanup styles get added to the CSS referenced in the topics. Now all we need is a cleanup tool for the CSS 🙂 I'm suggesting to our group that if we move ahead with this that we apply a fresh CSS after the cleanup.

Report · Sep 03, 2014

You do realise the styles added to the CSS are linked to the embedded styles so cleaning those will have consequences.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

Help others by clicking Correct Answer if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.

Report · Sep 03, 2014

No I didn't see that. Thanks. I thought as long as the styles were embedded in the topics that deleting them from the CSS would not matter. As you can see, I am near the end of the line with my knowledge of HTML and CSS.

Report · Sep 04, 2014

In my experience, HTML cleaning tools work just fine with RoboHelp. But you will lose inline styling etc. depending on what you set in the cleanup.

Be wary of CSS optimizers though. They can optimize a CSS to a point they confuse RoboHelp and they may remove RoboHelp specific settings (twisties, multilevel lists, etc.)

Kind regards,

Willam

Adobe Community

RoboHelp HTML Version 10. - OK to use an HTML cleanup tool on RoboHelp topics?

1 Correct answer