Style sheets attached to imported or added FM files (RH7)

[lcolby]

This pertains to importing or adding (in the enhanced version) files from FM 8 into RH 7. When the Framemaker files are added or imported, stylesheets are created for each imported file. However, in addition to styles they create specifically for the FM file, they do not contain all of the other style information that may be used for the rest of the webhelp. For example, I have styles that control the appearance of links that are not included in the generated css. What are the options for getting this style info included? I'm having trouble thinking of good solutions. Here are some, none of which I like...

1. Manually edit the generated css files... Cons to this approach is that this will have to be done every time the FM files are updated, as updates regenerate the css files. It also could involve editing tens or hundreds of files, depending on how many pages are imported. You can specify after editing that the css files not change when imports are done, but this could cause problems if you add a new style to the FM page you are updating, as the new style mapping will not be included in the generated css.

2. Manually edit the FM-sourced topic files to link to an additional style sheet (as in a master style sheet) - same cons as #1

3. Edit the html files after generating the webhelp to include a line or lines to link to an additional style sheet with the missing styles. This seems like the best solution... I guess I can do a global search and replace for </title> in the html and add the extra lines to the html files that way.

Is there a better way? I have been searching through the project source files and can't seem to find anything that controls this behavior. (There aslo doesn't seem to be any way to map any particular FM style to a RH style that would cause <a> link style to be included in the generated css.)

Thanks,
Linda

[JainVivek]

<quote> in addition to styles they create specifically for the FM file, they do not contain all of the other style information that may be used for the rest of the webhelp. </quote>
You may want to edit the fmstyles.css to add these styles, which you need. Once you add them, each chapter will have those styles as well and you don't need to make any changes there.

[JainVivek]

To add to my previous reply, after you edit the fmstyles.css, you may need to Update or Force Update the linked FrameMaker book - that shall propagate the styles to the Chapter level stylesheets.

[lcolby]

Actually, I had already edited the fmstyles.css file and added all styles that are used throughout the webhelp (plus updated everything multiple times). The conversion process *does not* copy all css declarations to the individual generated css files. As has been mentioned in other posts (in the General Forum), after updating, you can select all topics and apply a style sheet and/or a template to the generated topics. However, it would be better if the process could be improved so that the user could specify whether or not they wanted to use individual css files or not. (design-wise, separate css files for each web page/topic are a bad idea imo).

[Jersie]

Hi Linda,

I've run into a similar or identical problem while conducting a trial of the TCS. Would you mind if I contact you directly to discuss this issue? Do you have a phone number / skype address I can reach you at? Also, please note which time zone are you located in. I'm on skype at daniel.keen or on email danielk@opentv.co.il, and I'm located in Tel Aviv at GMT+2hrs.

Cheers,

Daniel

[JainVivek]

Linda

The chapter level CSS is generated based on fmstyles.css and the mappings. Let's for example, you have a style which is part of fmstyles.css. You may need to map one of the FrameMaker styles to this style. Otherwise, this style is not used in the mapping process. Please try this.

[JainVivek]

To add to my previous post - If a style from fmstyles.css is not used in the mapping process, this style will now show up in the chapter level CSS.
If you are bringing content from FrameMaker, you should be able to use the mapping to select the style even for links or title.

For Non-FrameMaker HTML content in RH project, you can associate any stylesheet with the HTML topics. Right Click on the topic-> Select properties-> select appearance tab -> select the stylesheet you want to associate with that topic.

I hope this helps.

[JainVivek]

Correction - this style will NOT show up in the chapter level CSS.