Robohelp 8 HTML - VERY basic layout and naming question.

[Solon Aquila]

OK, I'm sure this must be obvious to everyone else because I can't seem to find it in the places I've searched. My personal experience with Help files isn't helping (yeah, I know, bad pun).

I'm creating a RoboHelp HTML file from a PDF file.

While importing the file I'm given the option to create a new topic based on a style. Great so far. Having done so as an experiment and looked at the output I'm of the feeling that a 'topic' is "an HTML document that would, in theory, cover an area of interest, hence the term topic".

Then I open IE's help file I see the contents like "Finding the Web Pages You Want" and "Browsing the Web Offline". Neither of them can be selected to show information in the right pane, but both open to show what I'll call 'sub-topics', each of which DOES open what appears to be an html document in the right pane.

Adobe's help files are a bit easier to deal with, I just navigate to the Help folder and there are all the HTML files.

So I'm confused and I've got a major mental block that's making it difficult to proceed without getting a layout/hierarchy. And if this information is in Robohelp's help or available someplace online, just smack me in the back of the head and point me in the right direction because I'm not seeing it.

In the Internet Explorer help, what do I call the links in the left pane on which I can click to bring up a page in the right pane? What do I call the items I can highlight that, when clicked, show a list of the clickable links? And is it accurate that if I ask RoboHelp to create a topic out of each of a given style, then I'll have a separate HTML document for each instance of that style?

Thanks,

Solon

[Captiv8r · Accepted solution]

Hi there and welcome to the wonderful wild and wacky world of Help Authoring!

The area on the left side is typically called a "Navigation Pane". The Navigation Pane usually has different views. Table of Contents (TOC), Index, Glossary and of course, Search.

The Table of Contents view has a Books and Pages metaphor. Each Book contains Pages inside. Each Page links directly to an individual HTML file (Topic).

Indeed if you are sucking content in from PDF, RoboHelp has to be told what the criteria is to break the long PDF document into individual HTML topic pages.

Hopefully this helps a smidge... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7 or 8 within the day - $24.95! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcerStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks

[Solon Aquila]

Excellink! Yes, books and pages fits, given the images. OK..  now I'm catching on. The PDF in question is the 'meat' of a service manual and now that I know about books, pages, and topics, I can make a more educated guess as to the style(s) that will create topics.

Thanks for the info (I think I clicked the 'correct answer' button).

Solon