Rename styles without reapplying them?

[Tom_J_]

In RH, I want to change some names of styles I set up. Unfortunately, when I change the style names, I have to reapply the styles to each of my selections. Is there any way around this? I thought it might have been fixed in this version, but it doesn't appear so.

[Peter Grainge]

Assuming you have set up classes of style, you could do a multfile find and replace. For example: Search for class="redrabbit" and replace with class="greenrabbit".

You make it sound like not be able to do that is a bug. I've used several HTML editors and I don't think any of them do that.

[Tom_J_]

I hadn't thought of doing the global find and replace. Thanks. Actually, now I have bigger problems. The entire style editor menu disappeared from view. Not sure what happened. Even with new projects, there's nothing.

[Tom_J_]

Here's a graphic of what I'm talking about. The style menu is totally gone. However, it's just the display that's gone. The styles are still there. When I create a new project, which uses the default css style file, the same problem happens.

<img src=" http://www.idratherbewriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/rhstyle.png">

I was updating the style sheet directly with RoboHelp. Perhaps I removed some essential feature that RoboHelp requires. Hmmm. Even when I create a new project now, there is no style menu. Has anyone ever come across this?

[Peter Grainge]

The only problem I saw in that respect during the beta was the styles would be listed but not displayed as formatted. That was fixed early on and I haven't seen a problem since.

Is the problem still there if you close and reopen the project? Do the topics using the stylesheet display correctly? Have you tried changing the topics to another stylesheet?

[Peter Grainge]

Re-reading, I see you have tried closing and reopening as well as creating a new project so obviously the problem is way more serious than a simple problem with one stylesheet in a project.

First I don't think anyone reported blank stylesheets during the beta.

Second, try this. Open RH7 and click the Open icon on the startpage. In the ribbon, you will see Samples. Try both of those. Same problem? If it is, then zip up the new project you created and send it to me. We'll see what happens when it is opened on another PC. You can contact me via my site.

[Tom_J_]

I'll send you the file via your email. Note, however, that it will corrupt your copy of RoboHelp. I've tried it on two computers now with separate installations. I think the only solution is a re-install.

[Peter Grainge]

When you tried the second PC, was that installation OK until you opened this project?

If so, then forgive me if I don't open the project. However, with your permission I will send it on to Adobe as this sounds pretty horrendous.

What happens with the Samples to which I pointed?

[johndaigle]

Hi, Tom (and Peter)
I found an old computer I was willing to test and loaded up RH 7. I then opened Tom's project and everything works just fine.
Here is a screenshot of the Dropdown Style Box.
www.showmethedemo.com/Transfer/Tom-CSS-Test/TomJohnsonCSS-StyleTest.jpg
I applied several of the custom styles and they look good.

I'm not clear whether Tom actually performed the find and replace or not. If you did, I am wondering if something went amiss during the find and replace operation and munged up some of RH's control files. (I'm grasping here.) I'll keep looking, but thought I'd at least report that the project opens fine on my test machine.

Tom if you like, you can email me a description of the find/replace operation you were attempting and maybe we can get a clue.
Also, I'd be interested to know if this is XP or Vista and whether this version of RH 7 is part of the Technical Communications Suite or standalone (It shouldn't make a difference but I'm just trying to get the lay of the land.) Also, was this an "imported" css created somewhere else, or completely created using the RH 7 Style Editor.

Sorry, you're having this glitch. Meanwhile, I really enjoy your Tech Writing blog and I hope you're enjoying your new home in Utah.
Thanx,
john

[Tom_J_]

Thanks for trying it out. Here are some more details about my setup and process.
Platform: XP with the Tech Comm Suite.

Steps to reproduce bug:
1. Import Word doc with styles.
2. Open up RoboHelp CSS file in separate editor (NotePad++) and tweak the styles.
3. Delete a lot of the P and LI styles that RH auto-creates (and then watch them reappear each time).
4. Continue editing the styles with RH project open to see the effect of the CSS edits.
5. Close project.
6. Re-open. Now the display of the styles are hidden.

I'm not sure what point the styles started to disappear, but that was my general process. I never did the find and replace operation that we discussed. Tomorrow I will do a reinstall and see if that fixes it.

I think where I went wrong is in deleting some of the default styles in RH's style sheet. I was just trying to clear out some of the styles I wasn't using. The MS Word import created a lot of styles that I didn't need (mostly the inline styles).

I'm not sure why opening style sheets for other projects, like the sample, still showed the problem. I will let you know if I still experience it tomorrow. Thanks for your help.

Tom

[Tom_J_]

Actually, I just realized what the problem was. It has nothing to do with having the style sheet open in a separate editor while and tweaking styles while having a project open (I'm glad it doesn't, because this is much faster than using the dialog boxes).

I created a new toolbar and dragged the Apply Styles feature onto the new toolbar. Somehow, it was the new toolbar that was problematic. When I re-added the Apply Styles feature onto the Formatting toolbar, all the styles re-appeared. I tried reproducing the bug but was unable. Sorry. Thanks for your help.

I originally dragged the Apply Styles feature to a new toolbar in hopes that I could expand the menu and keep it open while I apply styles to topics. Unfortunately the menu hides after you make a selection. It would be cool if developers could add a "stay down" or "pin open" feature so that the style menu would remain open.

[Guest]

Hey Tom,

Here's the feature request page in case you haven't used it to submit your suggestion.

--Ben

[Tom_J_ · Accepted solution]

Thanks Benjaminson, I'll use the feature page to submit the request.

I figured out how to reproduce the Apply Styles bug. If you do these steps, you'll see it. I also included the fix below.

1. Go to View > Toolbars > Customize.
2. Click New and create a new toolbar.
3. While the Customize dialog box is still open, drag the Apply Styles drop-down to the new toolbar.
4. Close the Customize dialog box.
5. The Apply Styles menu shows all the styles.
6. Close and re-open RoboHelp.
7. The Apply Styles menu appears blank.


Fix: Click the Add or Remove buttons link at the end of the Formatting toolbar, and re-add the Apply Styles button. Then click Save all.