Anyone ever edit WebHelp files once they've been output?

Report · May 13, 2009

For example, in my WebHelp project I use user-defined variables. For the word "trouble ticket" I may want to use the word "Incident" or "Case" later, depending on the end user. Since the Help file is used with our web application - on the web application, end users can configure the app, so anywhere the word "trouble ticket" appears - it can now say "incident". Now, I know before I generate the output, I can switch the value of my user-defined variables, but is there an api/script that would allow us to update all the output files (after the Webhelp has been output) and the locations in those files where the user-defined variable needs to be updated (more specifically, without having to regenerate the Webhelp project using RoboHelp?)I guess my big question is, is there any api's or scripts that can simulate re-generating a Webhelp project without using RoboHelp so the output files can be edited by end users, even though they don't have RoboHelp?Otherwise, all the changes for each version of our application - would have to be manually sent to me, then I would have to regenerate each separate version of Webhelp? Any ideas, appreciated

Report · May 13, 2009

Hi there

See if fellow Adobe Community Expert Peter Grainge's site can help here.

Click here to read more

Cheers... Rick

Report · May 14, 2009

I am not clear as to what it is you want to edit post generation.

The variable "Colour" allows you to generate Red in one output and Green in another. What is it that you want the user to be able to do? Change that to Orange or edit the output in some entirely different way?

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

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

Report · May 14, 2009

Hi Pete,Thanks for responding. I realize it's never good to edit files outside of Robohelp... In our web based end user application that's integrated with our Help system, we'd like to allow the end users to customize their WebHelp on the fly. They don't have access to Robohelp. I know this pretty much isn't recommended, but was wondering if anyone knew of what was possible..
For example, if we allowed an end user to open a .htm page that was used by the Webhelp layout (that was already output), if they made changes to it? Would those changes be reflected in the compiled version? Or would there be other things like FTS index, TOC, and other things that would also need to be considered.
I'm looking for guidance on this, so I can explain to my supervisor that this isn't recommended. That changes are only recommended within Robohelp.. otherwise, all sorts of other errors could happen. But if it's possible, then any information on what can and can't be done would be great too.Appreciate you taking the time to respond. Thanks

Report · May 14, 2009

In that case the page on my site that Rick pointed you to does cover what you need to know.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

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

Report · May 18, 2009

I have managed to do some post-processing to Generated WebHelps.

We need our helps also in Arabic and Hebrew. Obviously, I cannot edit those languages in Robohelp 7 but I can generate the output from translated files. After that, there are several .htm files in the output, that still need to be changed to right-to-left orientation. Originally, I did it by replacing the (html) opening tags with (html dir=rtl), with Helpware FAR, but now our engineers have automated it for me.