Can a single stylesheet be applied to linked Word docs?

[RightOar]

Hi all,

Everytime I link (by reference) a Word document to my RH 8 project, a new css file is applied to each topic. Is there anyway this can be avoided by designating one style sheet for all linked docs? I use a specified style set in Word and I've designated the default RHStyleMapping.css in the Import tab under Project settings, but I'm guessing this only applies to imported documents. I've also tried creating a dummy topic with the RHStyleMapping.css and selected the "Apply to all topics" setting, but again I'm assuming that this applies to only imported or newly created topics. I say this because no matter which settings I choose, the linked/generated topics still create new css files. And when I change a topic's style to the RHStyleMapping.css through the Topic Properties window, I void the Link to Word advantage that updating the source document and "regenerating" in RH allows.

Under the Conversion Settings, I've selected the [Source] style as the RoboHelp style to map with the Word styles. This has worked well and my linked documents look good (same as the source). I'm just wondering if I should be concerned with the number of css files created--and whether I'm missing something. Stylesheets are not my strong point.

Thanks!

[ZacKnight]

I too would like to get rid of all the extra style sheets. For now, I leave them alone and check the "apply to all topics" box for one stylesheet when I generate webhelp.

[Peter Grainge]

Not sure how RightOar's post got missed but I believe the reason it works this way is to ensure that the CSS you end up with has all the styles required for the document being imported.

After the import you can change the CSS but obviously you have to be sure the CSS you use has all the required styles. To change multiple topics, select them in the Topic List and change them by right clicking and selecting Properties.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[RightOar]

Peter,

Appreciate the response. Changing all of the stylesheets via the Topic List is convenient; however, doing so makes the topics out of synch with the source docs. And even if I were to do that, and save the change so that all topics have a consistent stylesheet, any time I make changes to a source doc and update the link in RoboHelp, the update overrides the existing stylesheet and creates a new one--as before.

Seems like we're left living with multiple stylesheets when using the Link to Word feature. So far, I haven't noticed any adverse effets, but right now I only have a limited number of topics for this particular project.

Again, if anyone can think of any problems that may arise with having a separate stylesheet for each topic, I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts.

Thanks.

[ZacKnight]

You could apply a Word template (.dotx) to standardize styles of your linked documents. I make sure that the template styles are the same or similar to my default output css styles.

It's not perfect, but it's close.