RH8 - List numbering question (basic)

[jaggedpeak]

I was wading through Peter's info on fixing lists that have come over from older versions of RH and have decided to sort-of start from scratch.

I commented out all of the extraneous (at least I think they are) styles in my .css. For example, where I had a P.List1 and a LI.P-List1, I removed the P.List1 (and vice-versa). In other words, I left the P.* styles for paragraphs, and the LI.* styles for lists.

Now...

I have three numbered list styles: p-List1 (decimal), p-List2 (loweralpha, indent .25), p-List3 (lowerroman, indent .5).

I type in the following lines with no style assigned:

   test line 1

   test line 2

   test line 3

   test line 4

   test line 5

   test line 6

I then apply the three list styles and get:

   1. test line 1

       a. test line 2

           i. test line 3

          ii. test line 4

       c. test line 5

   4. test line 6

What do I have to do in the style to make the numbers work properly? That is, they should look like:

   1. test line 1

       a. test line 2

           i. test line 3

          ii. test line 4

       b. test line 5

   2. test line 6

[jaggedpeak]

Addenda... there are times I want to pull my hair out.

Looked at the html that caused my result above and found that line 1 was bounded by ol /ol tags, line 2 was bounded by ol /ol tags, and lines3-6 were bounded by ol /ol tags.

Removed those lines completely and tried again.

Typed lines 1 through 6.

Applied p-List1 to line 1, p-List2 to line 2, p-List3 to line 3, and then reversed for lines 4-6.

Result:

1. Line 1

   b. Line 2

      iii. Line 3

       iv. Line 4

   e. Line 5

6. Line 6

The html is

I was wading through Peter's info on fixing lists that have come over from older versions of RH and have decided to sort-of start from scratch.

I commented out all of the extraneous (at least I think they are) styles in my .css. For example, where I had a P.List1 and a LI.P-List1, I removed the P.List1 (and vice-versa). In other words, I left the P.* styles for paragraphs, and the LI.* styles for lists.

Now...

I have three numbered list styles: p-List1 (decimal), p-List2 (loweralpha, indent .25), p-List3 (lowerroman, indent .5).

I type in the following lines with no style assigned:

   test line 1

   test line 2

   test line 3

   test line 4

   test line 5

   test line 6

I then apply the three list styles and get:

   1. test line 1

       a. test line 2

           i. test line 3

          ii. test line 4

       c. test line 5

   4. test line 6

The html is

<ol type="1">
<li class="p-List1">this is my first line</li>
<li class="p-List2">this is my first alpha</li>
<li class="p-List3">this is my first roman</li>
<li class="p-List3">this is my second roman</li>
<li class="p-List2">this is my second alpha</li>
<li class="p-List1">this is my second line</li>
</ol>

So, I guess my questions are twofold now:

• Is there something I need to do in the style definitions themselves?
• How do I apply the styles to get the 'proper' result?

I apologize for asking what I know are basic questions, but I dropped into this in the middle and am learning my way from the inside out.

[MergeThis]

You simply can't inject sublists by inserting only LI tags. Sorry, but they must be controlled by their own OL or UL tags. As to list and table styles, I remain skeptical about the ability of RH to deliver on its claims.

Combining the HTML and CSS protocols, then getting out of their way, is the more efficient way to manage combo lists. For example:

OL { decimal styles for outer list }

OL > OL { lower-alpha styles for next inner list }

OL > OL > OL { lower-roman styles for next inner list }

1. Then select all of your list items and click the Numbered List toolbar icon.
2. Select each of the sub-list items and click the Indent toolbar button.
3. Continue to select other sub-list items and click the Indent toolbar button, as needed.

Try this by creating a differently named .css file and replacing your current stuff with this configuration instead. For more info on CSS, see the W3C website. You can also set up combo OL and UL configurations (OL > UL > OL), as well as classes (OL > OL.old > OL.new), to allow for different scenarios.

Good luck,

Leon

[The gt (>) sign is used for direct child selectors (appying only to immediate children of the element), whereas no sign (OL OL OL) would be an example of descendant selectors (any descendant of an element). That is, the child in an OL OL setup could be separated from the parent by other tags (P, IMG, etc.), but the child in an OL > OL setup cannot be separated from the parent.]

[jaggedpeak]

Thanks Leon.

I think it's time to just kill myself and get this over with. I follow (some) what you're saying, and I'll see what I can do.

I think one of my biggest problems here is that there seem to be multiple ways of handling lists in RoboHelp (style list, styles pod, toolbar buttons, editing HTML directly, using CSS, etc.) -- is there a 'best practice'? Should I stay away from the Style list and numbered/bullet list buttons completely?

If there *is* a best practice, is there an actual working example somewhere? (Please forgive me if I'm being obtuse -- I just can't afford to waste huge buckets of time learning the *wrong* way to do things in this environment.)

[MergeThis]

Yes, stay away from the RH list styles.

Try this:

1. Create six lines of text, select them all, and click the Create a Numbered List toolbar button.
2. Select list items 2 thru 5, and click the Increase Indent toolbar button.
3. Select list items 3 & 4, and click the Increase Indent toolbar button.

Now, you'll have the following Design and HTML views. Note that RH has created two additional OL sets within the outer OL set

Now, if your .css file has the OL > OL { lower-alpha styles } and OL > OL > OL { lower-roman styles } setups, the browser will follow those instructions. Simple, right?

Good luck,

Leon

[jaggedpeak]

Thanks Leon, that's much more clear 🙂

I tried out your example, and got the same result that you did.

Then I modified the .css to have an OL OL entry, and an OL OL OL entry. (When I tried OL>OL / OL>OL>OL, it didn't apply.)

I set the font-style to italic (so that I could see the change apply) and I set the list-style-type to lower-alpha and lower-roman.

The font-style change took effect, but the list-style-type didn't -- I still have decimal steps for all three indent levels.

I'll keep poking at it to see if I can figure it out 🙂

Thanks again!

[Willam_van_Weelden]

Hi,

A little background information:

When you add 'OL OL' to your css, you target all ordered lists inside an ordered lists. It doesn't matter if the list is inside a paragraph, inside a table in the list, etc. When you add 'OL > OL' to your css, you target all ordered lists that are children of an ordered lists:

<ol>

     <li>List

          <ol>

               <li>List level 2</li>

          </ol>

     </li>

</ol>

The li element is a child of the first ol element and can be targed by 'ol>li'. The second ol tag is a descendant of the first ol, but not a direct child since it is in the li element. If you use 'ol>ol' in your css, the styles do not apply to the nested list.

Greet,

Willam

[jaggedpeak]

Thanks William. Between you and Leon, I think you've got my head on straight 🙂

I'm going to start a separate topic for some additional clarifications.

Thanks all!