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Hey guys any suggestions in solving the following issue?
An ongoing issue with RoboHelp has always been our project names being too long to migrate. We can manually reduce the size of folder names and topic file names, however, with the new import procedures, RoboHelp is generating image folders separate from the topic files and we are unable to rename these folders. This negates the efforts we have made to reduce the file names of the topics. When we attempt to rename the folders, RoboHelp re-creates the original folder and the image no longer appears in the Project Manager pod or in the published HTML files.
Any kind of help is greatly appreciated.
Thank You.
Hello again
Okay, so I really just wanted you to understand that what you are seeing inside RoboHelp is nothing RoboHelp is doing to change anything. Now let's talk a bit about this document. One thing I would suggest (and my esteemed colleague Peter suggested) is that you rename this document prior to importing it into RoboHelp. Short file names will lead to short paths (and fewer possible issues) once we enter the RoboHelp universe.
When working with something like RoboHelp, you have all sorts o
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Hi there
Can you share a screen capture of the section of RoboHelp where you are unable to rename folders? I have a sneaking suspicion I know what is happening, but before I babble on, I'd like to see it.
Thanks... Rick
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Thanks for showing interest Rick,
Here is the screenshot.
Thanks again for the help!
- Haider
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Ahhh, okay
So it appears you are using content created by importing from Microsoft Word?
I'm unaware of anything "new" RoboHelp would be doing here. The folder names you get are based off the names the Microsoft Word document was using. I believe you would see the same naming and result if you took these Word documents and saved them as HTML.
One way to make the names a bit shorter is to ensure the document file names are short before you import them into RoboHelp. As for the names of the folders containing the image files and other assets, I believe those are actually created by Word during the process. Likely, you can't simply rename them because of embedded code in the documents and associated files that is pointing to these folders.
Maybe consider filing a bug with Adobe so they can look into doing what they can on their side to smooth things out. But that would only apply to future versions.
Cheers... Rick
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Yes so far the manual from Adobe is all we have had to guide us thus far. Unfortunately it does not directly address the creation of folders when images are imported. The instructions appear to be strictly in regard to folders created by the user which are modifiable.
The auto-created folders however, do not appear to be modifiable in this way without losing their link to the image position in the topics they correspond to (and sometimes they simply revert back to the original folder name after the project is closed and reopened). When this happens the image no longer appears in the published final product.
Also Forgot to ask this earlier.. Is there any way of controlling the settings in Word that are causing the folders to be created in the first place. If so we could optimize them to resolve our issue. I am going to search this up as well in the meantime.
Rick, Thanks again for your help!
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Okay, humor me a bit and perform this small experiment.
Forget about RoboHelp. Just open Word where it has one of your documents that contains an image. From Word, click File > Save As and choose a "Web Page" where you end up with HTML. Ensure you choose a folder location where that's the only content. Then examine its contents. What do you see? Is it similar or the same as what you saw inside RoboHelp?
Cheers... Rick
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I can't help but think you may have missed Rick's point that the folder names are based on the name of your Word document. Short name = short path. Am I misunderstanding?
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
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Yes, Rick they appear the same as they would do in RoboHelp. Do you have something on mind?
Peter, thanks for sharing some insight! I believe I did understand his point. I am quiet new to RoboHelp in general so I can't exactly confirm which one of us is misunderstanding..
Kind regards,
Thanks again guys!
- Haider
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Hello again
Okay, so I really just wanted you to understand that what you are seeing inside RoboHelp is nothing RoboHelp is doing to change anything. Now let's talk a bit about this document. One thing I would suggest (and my esteemed colleague Peter suggested) is that you rename this document prior to importing it into RoboHelp. Short file names will lead to short paths (and fewer possible issues) once we enter the RoboHelp universe.
When working with something like RoboHelp, you have all sorts of different files involved that help track your project. I notice that your Word document is using a comma in the file name. I'd strongly suggest avoiding any characters other than 0-9, a-z, A-Z and the underscore ( _ ). Any character other than those is to be considered "special" and will only cause you grief at some future point.
So as you have seen, when Word creates HTML, it also creates these folders. RoboHelp does its best to have your back and prevent you from shooting yourself in the foot. I noticed when I tested by saving as HTML, that more than simple images were placed in that folder Word created. RoboHelp is likely preventing you from changing the name of the folder because of the other files inside. Generally speaking, RoboHelp allows you to name your images as you wish and store them anywhere you like. But this content is a bit special, as it comes from Word.
One way to work past this would be to save your images separately from Word, naming them appropriately, then importing a Word document without the image. Then add the images later. That way you shouldn't end up with the unwanted folders and the images may be stored where you want.
Cheers... Rick
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Thanks a lot for assisting me in this process!
I really appreciate your help, guidance & tips.
Cheers!
Haider