Macromedia RoboHelp - 2017 User Guide

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Using RoboHelp (2017

release)

May 2, 2017

Contents

Getting started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Basic workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Create a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Author the content. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Import files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Develop the navigation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Customize the output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Generate, test, and distribute the Help package. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Activation and registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Install the software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Help with installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

License activation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Adobe Product Improvement Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Help and support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Adobe Community Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Accessing RoboHelp help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Services, downloads, and extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Adobe Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Adobe downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Adobe Labs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Adobe forums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Adobe TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

RoboHelp sample projects and output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

RoboHelp Developer Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Previous RoboHelp Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

What’s new in RoboHelp (release 2017) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Produce stunning interactive content with next- generation HTML5 publishing . . . . . . . 7

i ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE)

Do more in less time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

About RoboHelp Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Tracking and reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Automatic project merging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Support for languages other than English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Integration with SharePoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

SharePoint version matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Exploring the workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Workspace overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Quick Access Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

RoboHelp Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Tabbed document pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Pods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Working with the RoboHelp tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Working with pods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

View a pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Arrange pods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Types of pods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Starter pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Project Manager pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Output Setup pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Snippets pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Styles And Formatting pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

User Defined Variables pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Error List pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Output View pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Toolbox pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Resource Manager pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

External content search pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

RoboHelp Server pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Create and save an environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Load an environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Restore the default environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Delete an environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Create or remove keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Create keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Remove or reset keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

Configure general settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Set the default language and other preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Enable or disable confirmation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Enable, disable, or reset notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

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Project basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

About projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Help project components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Files in a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Main project file (XPJ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Folder files (FPJ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Single-source layout files (SSL) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Auxiliary project files (APJ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Other types of files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

About output types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

End-user viewer requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Create and manage projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Create a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Create a project by importing documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Create a project using FrameMaker or Word documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Create a project using a DITA map file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Save projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Disable auto-save . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Opening a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Open a project when starting RoboHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Open a project after starting RoboHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Upgrading a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Pin a project to the list of recently opened projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Change project settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Set options on the Stop List pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

Set options on the Phrases pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38

Set options on the “Always Ignore” Words pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Set options on the LNG File pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

Set options on the Synonyms pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Rename a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Viewing projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Define chapter layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Notes: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Drag folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Manage files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

List topics by title or filename . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Using the To Do list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Edit the list of recently opened projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Add files and folders to the Baggage folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Additional features with Baggage folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Remove files from the Baggage folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Map file types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Remove topics from projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

Manage folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Create folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Project Manager folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

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Rename folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Move folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Remove custom folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

File and folder icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Authoring content in multiple languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Support for multiple languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Translation workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Compare content in different languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Select a different language for translating a project file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Create a project with a different language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53

Customizing text for localization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

WebHelp, WebHelp Pro, FlashHelp and FlashHelp Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

WebHelp only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

HTML Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Edit the Labels file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Notes: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Change the default project language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Notes: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Language support for associated dictionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Index localized text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Universal character sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Support for Unicode text encoding standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56

Set up input languages on Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Upgrade localized projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Minor customizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Major customizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

Import PDF files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Create a project by importing a PDF file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

Create new topics based on styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Import PDF files into a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Importing and linking Word and FrameMaker documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Importing and linking Microsoft Word documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Steps to import a Word document into RoboHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Steps to link a Word document from RoboHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Linking versus importing Word documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Optimizing Word documents for online output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Linking options for Word documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Link and import Word documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65

Create a project by importing a Word document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Link a Word document to a RoboHelp project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Import a Word document into a RoboHelp project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Importing a Word TOC, index, and glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Convert headers and footers in Word documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Converting Word styles to RoboHelp styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Select CSS for style mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Automap styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE) iv

Convert Word paragraph styles to RoboHelp styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Convert Word character styles to RoboHelp styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

List mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Create custom HTML tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72

Convert Word table styles to RoboHelp table styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Convert Word references to hyperlinks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Create RoboHelp styles from inline formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Pagination and topic naming in converted Word files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Set pagination for online Help topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Convert context-sensitive Help markers in Word to map IDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Define the topic name pattern for generated topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Synchronizing linked Word documents with RoboHelp projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Word document synchronization status indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Generate topics from linked Word documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Update topics generated from linked Word documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Preserve changes to a topic during an update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Delete a generated topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Regenerate a deleted topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Edit a linked Word document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Delete a linked Word document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Restore a link to a missing or renamed Word document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Word conversion settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Export conversion settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Import conversion settings to a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Word document components converted to RoboHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Importing FrameMaker documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Optimizing for online output before conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Preparing FrameMaker documents for conversion to Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Importing FrameMaker documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Create a RoboHelp project by importing FrameMaker books or documents . . . . . . . . . . 86

Import a FrameMaker book into a new RoboHelp project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86

Import FrameMaker documents into an existing RoboHelp project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

FrameMaker document components converted to RoboHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Conversion basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Convert a FrameMaker TOC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Import FrameMaker index entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Import glossary definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Apply conditions from a Ditaval file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Converting FrameMaker formats to RoboHelp styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Select a FrameMaker template for conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Select the CSS for style mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92

Content reference to: Automap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Upgrading from RoboHelp 7 to RoboHelp 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Hierarchical structure in a FrameMaker 9 book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Convert FrameMaker cross-reference formats to RoboHelp styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Content reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

v ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE)

Conversion settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Setting pagination and topic names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Pagination basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96

Topic name basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Set pagination and topic names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98

Convert context-sensitive Help markers from FrameMaker documents . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Apply FrameMaker conditional text build expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Converting FrameMaker content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Convert FrameMaker paragraph formats to RoboHelp styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Convert FrameMaker character formats to RoboHelp styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100

Exclude a FrameMaker paragraph format from Help topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101

Custom HTML tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Autonumber style mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102

List-mapping scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102

Convert FrameMaker table formats to RoboHelp table styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104

Image conversion settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Preserve converted images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Create alternate text for images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107

Import a DITA map file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Import XML files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Select XML Import Handler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Advanced XML Import Options dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

About the XML Handler Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Import Microsoft HTML Help projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Import WinHelp projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Import WinHelp Project settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Pop-ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

What’s This Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

External topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113

Bullets/Numbering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Tips: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113

WinHelp folder import options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Folder for HTML files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Folders for images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .114

File options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

WinHelp formatting import options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

WinHelp general import options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Navigation pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115

Default pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Advanced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

HLP and HPJ files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

HTML projects from WinHelp: Frequently asked questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Import a WinHelp HLP file into an HTML project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Tips: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119

HTML limitations with HLP files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120

ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE) vi

Tips for creating HTML projects with HLP files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Import a WinHelp HPJ file into an HTML project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Tips for creating HTML projects with HPJ files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Adding projects to version control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

About version control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Apply version control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Access version control options in pods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Version control FAQs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

How does version control work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

How can multiple authors use version control? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Can single-user projects use version control? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Are multiuser checkouts OK? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125

Where can I set version control options for RoboHelp? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125

Will I need my version control program outside RoboHelp? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125

Should I check out the project file (XPJ) to edit the project? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Are items added to the project also added to version control? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125

Are items removed from the project removed from version control? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126

Where are the latest changes made by the team? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126

How can I add output files to version control? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Add a RoboHelp project to version control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

File checkin/checkout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Version control with Microsoft SharePoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Configure RoboHelp settings for SharePoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Configure SharePoint document library settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Add a project to a SharePoint document library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Merging Help projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

About merged Help projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Create a master project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Notes: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Publish child projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

View merged Help projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Remove merged child projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Customize merged Responsive HTML5, WebHelp Pro, or FlashHelp Pro projects . . . . 133

FAQs about merging projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Master projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

WebHelp projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

HTML Help projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Adobe AIR projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Export project reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Print reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Send reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Generate and customize reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Broken links report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Conditional Build Tag report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138

vii ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE)

See Also report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Index report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Duplicate Map IDs report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140

External Topics report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Glossary report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Images report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141

Map IDs report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141

Project Status report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141

Snippets report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141

Style Sheets report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .142

Table Of Contents report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .142

Topic Properties report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .142

Topic References report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Topics By Priority report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143

Unreferenced Topics report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Unused files report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143

Unused index keywords report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144

Used Files report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144

Missing topics report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144

Variables report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144

Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

URL Properties dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Delete Old Project dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Move File Into Project dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Help to HTML style options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Tips: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146

HTML Help Advanced Settings tri-pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Navigation pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146

Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

HTML Help Advanced Settings TOC tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Working with topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Create, save, and open topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Create a topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Save topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Save a topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Enable or disable Save . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Rename topic files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Open topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Support for multiple document interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Author in XHTML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Convert XHTML to HTML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Validate XHTML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Import and copy topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Import topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE) viii

Copy topics into a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

View topics and design elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Preview topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Define a conditional build expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

View design elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Master pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Create a master page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Create a master page from a topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Formatting master pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Edit a master page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Change the CSS associated with a master page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Insert a placeholder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Format and edit placeholders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159

Importing master pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Applying master pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Apply a master page to a topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Apply a master page to multiple topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Applying a master page or CSS at the time of generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Adding headers and footers for printed documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Manage topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Rename a topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Update topic references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Add underscores to file names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Change topic properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Change topic properties on the Index tab (WebHelp Pro) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Changing master pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Find a topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Locate topics or images in Project manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Assign a default topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Track topic status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

View and manage topic details in the Topics List pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Work with the Tag list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Check spelling and find and replace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Check spelling in the TOC, index, see also list, or glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Specify spelling options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Main Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Special Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Auto-correct spelling options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

View Ignore Words list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .169

Check spelling in topics or projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Spelling check options for topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Spelling check options for projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Customize a dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Use the thesaurus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Find and replace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

ix ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE)

Set Find and Replace options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .173

Viewing Find results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .176

W3C compliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

General pane for Oracle projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Editing and formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

RoboHelp editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

RoboHelp Design Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

RoboHelp HTML Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Open RoboHelp HTML Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .179

Undo a change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .179

View line numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Add keyword expansions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180

Change code color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Third-party HTML editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Using RoboHelp with other HTML editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Add an HTML editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Remove or rename an HTML editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Auto-select an HTML editor or set a default . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Specify an editor for new topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .183

Character formatting and fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Apply or remove character formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Apply color to text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Define advanced font options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Change character spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Change font size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Create a font set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Apply a font set to text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Change font sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Remove font sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Insert symbols and special characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Insert a non-breaking space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Format paragraphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Align paragraphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Indent paragraphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Indent text lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Change margins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Tips: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .187

Change the unit of measure for the ruler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Define a language for a paragraph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Apply text wrapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Notes: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Adjust line spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Add line breaks to paragraphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Borders, backgrounds, color, and sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE) x

Add or edit borders and backgrounds in topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Add borders to images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Remove borders or backgrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Add or delete horizontal lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Add a horizontal line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Delete a horizontal line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Modify colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Remove colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Add sound to topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

About tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Workflow for creating a table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Insert tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Insert a basic table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .193

Insert a custom table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Inserting tables within tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Copy and paste tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Edit tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Insert table rows or columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Edit table properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Set autofit table properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Edit cell properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Edit spacing within cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Merge or split table cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Indent lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Apply bullet styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Specify an inline bullet style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Create a bullet style for a style sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .196

Match bullet color to text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Match color using an inline style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .197

Match color using a style sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Remove bullets and numbering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Apply a numbering format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Add a paragraph within a list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Restart or continue numbering or lettering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Headers, footers, and page breaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Headers and footers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Create or edit headers and footers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .199

Remove headers and footers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .199

Insert page breaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Text boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Insert text boxes in topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Notes: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Insert a text box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .200

Insert a positioned text box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .200

xi ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE)

Layer positioned text boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Change text box properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Remove text boxes from a topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

User-defined variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Create a user-defined variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Create a variable set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Edit a user-defined variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Format a user-defined variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Insert a user-defined variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

View properties of a user-defined variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Toggle variable views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Delete a user-defined variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Rename a user-defined variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Single-source with snippets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Create and manage snippets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Insert a snippet in a topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Insert a snippet in a drop-down text editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Applying conditional build tags to a snippet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Inserting variables in snippets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Convert a snippet to text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Delete a snippet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

META tags default editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Styles and style sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Style types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Media rules and attributes in styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Define media-specific styles in a style sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Add a media rule in topic styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Link media-specific CSSs to a topic and add media attributes in HTML . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Syntax of the link tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210

Map styles in Word/FrameMaker content to media-specific styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

View content in media-specific styles in Design view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Delete a media-specific style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Media queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Manage media queries for screen profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Manage style sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Link a style sheet to topics or master pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Unlink a style sheet from topics or master pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Create a style sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Create a style sheet and topic simultaneously . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Export a style sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Create styles for style sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Create a style in the Styles dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Create a style using the Styles And Formatting pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE) xii

Create a style using the Design Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Table styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Global table styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Apply table styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Create and manage table styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Create table styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .216

Apply conditional build tags to tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .216

List styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

About list styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Create HTML lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Create multilevel lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Create an autonumbering style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Create a sequencing prefix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Edit a sequencing prefix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Delete a custom sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

HTML styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Create styles based on Div, Hyperlink, and Image styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Edit Div styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Edit Hyperlink styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Use Pseudo classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .220

Use Twisty images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Use Block-style hyperlinks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Edit Image styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Apply styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Edit styles in CSS files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Edit a style using the Styles dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Edit a style using the Styles And Formatting pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Edit styles in an HTML Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Delete styles from style sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Use color and images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Change text and link colors in a style sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Add or edit borders or backgrounds in style sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Inline styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Apply or edit inline styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Update inline styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Remove inline styles from text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Reset styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Example (Reset a table style) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Clear formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

TOCs, indexes, glossaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

TOCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

TOC basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

About TOCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Create TOCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .228

Print TOCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .229

xiii ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE)

Create TOC books and pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Create TOC books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Create TOC books and pages with targeted links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .229

Create TOC books from pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .230

Create TOC pages by dragging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .230

Create TOC books and pages with user-defined variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .230

Edit TOC books and pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Rename TOC books and pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Reorder TOC books and pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231

Remove TOC books or pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Change properties for TOC books or pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Manage TOCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Manage TOCs with reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .232

Identify and fix broken TOC links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .233

Multiple TOCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

About multiple TOCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .233

Move books and pages to TOCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .233

Create multiple TOCs for a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .233

Merge TOCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Create browse sequences from a table of contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .234

Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Index basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

About indexes and keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Topic keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Index file keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .236

Specify keyword types for a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .237

Print indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Add and link index keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Add index keywords using the toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Add index keywords based on a topic title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Add index keywords using topic properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Add index keywords by selecting topic text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .239

Copy index keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .239

Select an index keyword destination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .239

Create index keywords with user-defined variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Cross-reference index keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .240

Edit index keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Move and sort index keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Rename keywords for a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Rename keywords for a topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Change the capitalization of a keyword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .242

Remove index keywords from the Index pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Remove index keywords from topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Manage indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Manage indexes with reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Identify and fix broken references for keyword topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .243

ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE) xiv

Remove topic references from keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Remove unused index keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Apply conditional build tags to an index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Automatic indexing with the Smart Index wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Create an index automatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Specify keywords to ignore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Specify common words to ignore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Specify custom phrases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Look up synonyms for indexing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Multiple indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Create multiple indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Merge indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .248

TOCs and indexes in Microsoft HTML Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Assign custom TOC icons (HTML Help) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Create binary contents files (HTML Help) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Create binary indexes (HTML Help) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Customize a TOC (HTML Help) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Customize an index (HTML Help) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Add TOC controls (HTML Help) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Add index controls (HTML Help) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Link keywords and TOC items to custom windows and frames (HTML Help) . . . . . . . 253

Glossaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Create glossary terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Import glossary terms and definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Test and print glossaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Test the glossary in the output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Print a glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Remove terms from the glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Change glossary definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Create multiple glossaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Merge glossaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Glossary hotspots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

About expanding glossary hotspots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Notes: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Add expanding glossary hotspots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Update expanding glossary hotspots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Test expanding glossary hotspots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Unmarking expanding glossary hotspots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Unmark hotspots using the Glossary Hotspot wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Unmark hotspots in Design view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Linking, navigation, and search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Navigation basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Navigation options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

About breadcrumbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Add breadcrumbs to topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

xv ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE)

Create text links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Use Design Editor to create text links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Drag to create links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Link to a pop-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Exclude pop-ups from full-text searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Bookmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Create bookmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Create links to bookmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Rename bookmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Locate bookmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Remove bookmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Link images and multimedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Add links to multimedia clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Add links from images and multimedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Link to external topics (Microsoft HTML Help projects) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Link to external files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Link to WinHelp topics (Microsoft HTML Help projects) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Link to e-mail addresses, FTP sites, newsgroups, and web addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Link View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Navigate in the Link View pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Change the appearance of links in the Link View pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Change icon sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Set Link View scroll features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .270

Set options in the Link View pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Link maintenance and repair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Update and remove links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Manage broken links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Fix broken links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Identify and update topic references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Identify topic references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Update topic references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Identify and update external topic references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

View and test hyperlinks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

View hyperlinks and identify browse sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Test links in a topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Link controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

About link controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Types of link controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Keyword link properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

For HTML Help projects: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .274

Add Related Topics controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Related Topics wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

For HTML Help projects using See Also or Keyword Link controls: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .276

Create, assign, and add See Also keywords and controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Create and assign See Also keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE) xvi

See Also pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Set See Also Keywords in the See Also wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .277

Set keywords in a remote CHM file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Set See Also keywords in a remote CHM file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Add See Also controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Change, reuse, or remove link controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Text-only pop-ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Work with text-only pop-ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Create text-only pop-ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .280

Edit text-only pop-ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Remove text-only pop-ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Test text-only pop-ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Test before generating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Test after generating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Browse sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Create or edit browse sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Create browse sequences automatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Create browse sequences manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Remove a topic from a browse sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .282

Rename or remove a browse sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .282

View and test browse sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Identify topics associated with browse sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .282

Test browse sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

View sequences for a single topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .283

Test browse sequences in a browser or view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Identify the browse sequences a topic is assigned to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

RoboHelp output search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

RoboHelp search basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Add search metadata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Optimize content for search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Configure search experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Search auto-complete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

External content search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Set up and manage external content search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Enable external content search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Multimedia and special effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Image basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Image file formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Locate images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

Copy an image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .292

View an image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .292

Add an image to a topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .293

Add a RoboScreenCapture image to a topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .293

Remove an image from a topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

xvii ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE)

Edit an image in RoboHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Edit an image with RoboScreenCapture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Image thumbnails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Thumbnail support for images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .295

Image maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Create an image map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Change an image map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Adobe Captivate demos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Create an Adobe Captivate demo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Insert an Adobe Captivate demo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Import an Adobe Captivate Demo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Edit an Adobe Captivate demo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Multimedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Add multimedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Change multimedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Remove multimedia from topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Dynamic HTML and special effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

DHTML basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Add DHTML effects to a topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Apply DHTML effects to multiple paragraphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .303

Update DHTML effects in a topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .304

Change or remove DHTML effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Dynamic hotspots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

About DHTML hotspots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Add DHTML hotspots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Remove hotspots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Change formatting of DHTML hotspots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Triggers and targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

About triggers and targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Assign a trigger to text or images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Connect triggers to text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .306

Connect triggers to images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Removing triggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .307

Marquees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Add marquees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Set or change marquee properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Delete marquees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

HTML comments in topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Insert an HTML comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

View an HTML comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Iframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Insert an iframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Edit an iframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Conditional text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Conditional text basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE) xviii

Customize printed output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Target custom content to specific audiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Deliver versions of an application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Design and test conditional text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Workflow to implement conditional text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Managing links to excluded topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Conditional build tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Create a conditional build tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Apply conditional build tags to content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Notes: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Verifying tags applied to topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Apply conditional build tags to a topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .313

Apply conditional build tags to multiple topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Apply conditional build tags to topic content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Apply multiple conditional tags to topic content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Apply conditional build tags to a folder, index, or TOC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Apply conditional build tags to placeholders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Preview conditional text areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Hide and view conditional text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Remove conditional build tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Rename conditional build tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Conditional build tag expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Define conditional build tag expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Advanced conditional build tag expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Context-sensitive Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

About context-sensitive Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Author and developer roles in creating context-sensitive Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Map files and map IDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

About map numbers, map files, and map IDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Managing map files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Create a map file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Import a map file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Export a map file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Lock or unlock a map file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .324

Remove an obsolete map file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Remove an unused map ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Managing map IDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Create a map ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .325

Edit a map ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Reassign a map ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Auto-generate a map ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Assign a map ID to a topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Unassign a map ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Dynamic editing of context-sensitive topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Usage scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

xix ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE)

Map an application dialog box with a topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Information for developers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Program Help for Visual Basic applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

RH_ShowHelp syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Airplane Help for Visual Basic applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Program Help for Visual C++ applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Prevent RoboHelp_CSH.cpp from using precompiled headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .334

Function calls from Visual C++ applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .334

Call a CSH function for AIR Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .335

Call a CSH function for Responsive HTML5, WebHelp, FlashHelp, or FlashHelp Pro .336

Call a CSH function for WebHelp Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Call a CSH function for HTML Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .338

Overriding the default MFC Help Handler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

Airplane Help for C++ applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

Program Help for Java applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

Function calls from Java applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

Call a CSH function for Responsive HTML5, WebHelp, FlashHelp, or FlashHelp Pro .341

Call a CSH function for WebHelp Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Program Help for web pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Program Help for web pages (WebHelp/Pro) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .342

Function calls from web pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Call a context-sensitive function for WebHelp Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Call a context-sensitive function for WebHelp or FlashHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

Program Help for .NET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

.NET basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

Make a Help call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .346

Locate the RoboHelp Server with .NET samples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Specify the URL (WebHelp Pro) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Web services provided in RoboHelp Server with .NET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .351

Steps without using support files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

WebHelp Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

WebHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Programming HTML Help in applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Context-sensitive HTML Help function call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Troubleshoot window-level Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Create context-sensitive JavaHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

Create context-sensitive Oracle Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .359

What’s This? Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

About the What's This? Help Composer tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

What's This? Help and Microsoft HTML Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Use What's This? Help Composer for context-sensitive Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Create What's This? Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Tips: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .365

Import What's This? Help projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Notes: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Open What's This? Help projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE) xx

Remove What's This? Help from a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Test What's This? Help with BugHunter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Test HTML Help API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .367

Troubleshoot What's This? Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Maintaining text-only topics (Microsoft HTML Help projects) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Notes: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Working with text-only topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Create text-only topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Tips: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .371

Edit text-only topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Test text-only topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Tips: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .371

Remove text-only topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

Tips: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .372

Remove text-only topic files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

Testing context-sensitive Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Test with the Context-Sensitive Help tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Test with BugHunter for HTML Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Start and close BugHunter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .374

Interpret BugHunter data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374

Customize the BugHunter pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

View map numbers in hex format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .375

Test in the application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Context-sensitive Help terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Create Help for iOS and Android apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Capabilities delivered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Broad steps to implement mobile Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Available API functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

iOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .378

Android . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .378

Sample app . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

Context-sensitive help for filtered dynamic content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

BugHunter tab of the Options dialog box (HTML Help) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

Display options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

Example (single line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .381

Example (multiple lines) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

Color options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .381

Generating output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Single sourcing basics and more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

About single-source layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Layout types in RoboHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Specify the primary layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Create and edit single-source layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Create or duplicate single-source layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .383

xxi ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE)

Edit single-source layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Rename a single-source layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .384

Remove single-source layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

About excluding unreferenced topics from output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

Generate dynamic content output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Tag content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .385

Create a dynamic content filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Use a dynamic content filter in the output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

Test the dynamic content filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

Generate dynamic user-centric content (DUCC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Generate native (ASPX) or HTML output for Microsoft SharePoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Publish native (ASPX) Multiscreen output to Microsoft SharePoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Publish HTML output to Microsoft SharePoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Work with layout types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Responsive HTML5 layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Customizable HTML5 layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

Supported browsers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Online/offline behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .393

Configuring Responsive HTML5 prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

HTML5 output generation workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

Recommendations for authoring HTML5 output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

Multiscreen layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

Supported browsers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

Online/offline behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .396

Configuring Multiscreen HTML5 prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

HTML5 output generation workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Recommendations for authoring HTML5 output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

eBook layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

WebHelp layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398

About WebHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398

Add or remove search highlights in WebHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

Creating Section 508-compliant WebHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

WebHelp Pro and FlashHelp Pro layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

About WebHelp Pro and FlashHelp Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .401

Convert desktop Help to WebHelp Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

Microsoft HTML Help layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

About Microsoft HTML Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .402

Generating Microsoft HTML Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402

Link TOC books or pages to custom windows (Microsoft HTML Help) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

Extract CHM files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

Rename CHM files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .404

Find HTML Help files and components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

Replace CHM files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

Register or unregister CHM files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

JavaHelp layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

About JavaHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .405

ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE) xxii

Generate JavaHelp output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406

Merge JavaHelp projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406

JavaHelp limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .406

Oracle Help layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

About Oracle Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .408

Update topic IDs for Oracle Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

Set the topic window for Oracle Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

Oracle Help remote views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .409

Oracle Help limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .411

XML layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

Adobe AIR layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

Configure the Adobe AIR layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Create a self-signed digital certificate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424

Signing an intermediate AIR Help application with AIR Developer Tool . . . . . . . . . . . .424

Generate, view, and publish output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

Output generation basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

Tips for optimal project generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

Generate Responsive HTML5 output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

Generate Mobile App output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432

Upload your mobile app to the app store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .438

Generate Multiscreen HTML5 output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

Generate EPUB and Kindle Book output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

EPUB resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .445

Generate eBook output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

Best practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450

Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450

Generate EPUB 2.0.1 output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450

Prepare for generating the EPUB 2.0.1 output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .450

Run script to generate EPUB 2.0.1 output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451

Generate WebHelp output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452

Generate WebHelp Pro or FlashHelp Pro output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458

Generate Microsoft HTML Help output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462

Generate Oracle Help output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463

Generate JavaHelp output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467

Generate XML output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469

Generate EclipseHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

Batch-generate output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

Notes: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472

Customize the Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472

View output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474

View Multiscreen HTML5 output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .474

View WebHelp, FlashHelp, WebHelp Pro, and FlashHelp Pro output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474

View compiled Microsoft HTML Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475

Help Viewer Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .475

Publish output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477

Generate and publish output from the command prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479

xxiii ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE)

Open the application from the command prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479

Generate layouts from the command prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479

Publish layouts from the command prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .479

Command prompt options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479

Hosting updates for AIR Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480

Create and host an update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481

Post an update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .481

Distribute the project output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481

Distribute Multiscreen HTML5 output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482

Output files in the Multiscreen_HTML5 folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482

Output files in the Screen Profile folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .482

Output files in the whxdata folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .483

Subfolders in the template folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483

Distribute eBook output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484

Distribute WebHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484

Output files in the WebHelp folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .484

Output files in the Whgdata subfolder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487

Output files in the Whdata subfolder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488

Output files in the Whxdata subfolder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489

Distribute FlashHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489

Distribute FlashHelp with an application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490

Publish FlashHelp to a disc, server, or desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490

Output files for FlashHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .490

Distribute Microsoft HTML Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493

Register ActiveX controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493

Distribute JavaHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494

Output files for JavaHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .494

Distribute Oracle Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495

Output files for Oracle Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .495

Distribute XML output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495

Distribute Adobe AIR output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496

Configure FlashPlayerTrust to run local browser-based Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .496

Moderator password and configuration file path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497

Configuration file attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .497

URL formats for Windows, Mac, and Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498

About modifying the status of new comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499

Printed documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499

About printed documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499

Organize and customize content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .499

Map project styles to Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .499

Types of Word documents to create . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499

Printed document structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .500

Conversion of online features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .500

Page setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501

Body page settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501

Additional settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501

ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE) xxiv

Organize and customize document content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504

Notes: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507

Prepare for printed documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507

Printed document organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .507

Styles and formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507

Conditional text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508

Single-source layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508

Mapping styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509

Mapped styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509

Unmapped styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .510

Style naming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510

Styles that RoboHelp adds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510

Duplicate styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510

Map styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510

Export style maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512

Import style maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512

Generate PDFs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513

Generate a PDF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513

Generate a PDF with setup options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513

Generate printed documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513

Add headers and footers to printed documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514

Specify default printer options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515

Skins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516

About skins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516

Edit skins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516

Tips: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .516

Add skins to the gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517

Import skins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517

Export skins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518

Delete skins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518

Preview skins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518

Compile skins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518

Create custom skins for Adobe AIR projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519

Fine-tune the palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .519

Modify font properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519

Customize icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520

Create custom skins for WebHelp and WebHelp Pro projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520

Customize FlashHelp skins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523

Customize or create a skin with Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524

Modify the skin without Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524

Select and preview WebHelp or FlashHelp skins from the Skin gallery . . . . . . . . . . . 524

FlashHelp vertical-style skins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

Create or edit windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

WebHelp, WebHelp Pro, FlashHelp, FlashHelp Pro Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .526

HTML options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

xxv ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE)

Adding HTML buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .532

Edit windows for JavaHelp and Oracle viewers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533

Options for JavaHelp viewers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533

Options for Oracle viewers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533

Assign a default window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

Remove a window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

Screen profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

Add a screen profile to a Multiscreen HTML5 SSL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

Modify a screen profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

Add a screen profile to the project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536

Delete a screen profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536

Map styles for screen profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537

Use device pixel ratio for screen size and resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537

Screen layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

Create a screen layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

Manage screen layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

Preview a screen layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

Editing a screen layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

Add a screen layout page (SLP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

Screen layout page components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

Placeholder properties and attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

Guidelines for screen layout design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

Edit a screen layout page (SLP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .545

Customize the default Topic page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .546

Review and collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

Review in Design Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

Display the Review toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

Enable the Track Changes mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

Configure review settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

PDF review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

Create a PDF for review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

Embed SWFs in review PDF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550

Add comments to SWFs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550

Import comments from PDF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551

About PDF comments imported in Design Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551

Import of comments added to SWFs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551

Import of comments added to placeholders, snippets, and headers and footers . . . . . . . 552

Managing Shared resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552

Add a shared location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552

Add a category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553

Notes: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554

Sharing resources between users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554

Show/Hide contents in the Resource Manager pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554

Manage shared files and folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555

Manage linked resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556

ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE) xxvi

Manage linked resource notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557

Configure Resource Manager settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558

Specify application-level Resource Manager settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558

Specify project-level Resource Manager settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559

Configure version control application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559

Manage comments and changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560

Review Pane pod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560

Filter comments and changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561

Group comments and changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562

Reply or set a status to a comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562

Accept or reject changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562

Delete comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563

Review and collaboration in AIR Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563

Topic rating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563

Commenting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564

Store comments in a shared network folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564

Store comments on a RoboHelp server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564

Configure preferences for comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565

Add comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565

Comment moderation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565

Moderate comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .566

Advanced program features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568

ActiveX controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568

About ActiveX controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568

Add design-time controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568

Types of HTML Help ActiveX controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569

Add ActiveX controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569

Customize ActiveX control properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570

Remove ActiveX control properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570

Customize the calendar control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571

Applets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571

Notes: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572

Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572

Workflow to create forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572

Add a form to a topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573

Set form properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573

Form elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573

Add and edit text fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574

Add special fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575

Add buttons to forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576

Add image buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577

Add check boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577

Add radio buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577

Add drop-down menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578

Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579

xxvii ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE)

About frames and framesets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579

Notes: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579

Create framesets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579

Change frames and framesets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580

Change the size of a frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580

Remove framesets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581

Link framesets to books or pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581

Link to topics in frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581

HTML Help controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582

Reuse HTML Help controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582

Add WinHelp topic controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582

Add index controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583

Add table of contents controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584

Add splash screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584

Add shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585

Add HHCTRL version controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585

Add close window controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586

Change HTML Help controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587

Remove HTML Help controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587

Information types (for HTML Help) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587

About information types (HTML Help) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587

Define categories and information types (HTML Help) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588

Assign information types (HTML Help) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589

Access information types from the HTML Help viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589

Edit information types (HTML Help) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589

Change categories for information types (HTML Help) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589

Remove categories from information types (HTML Help) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590

Remove information types (HTML Help) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590

Remove information types from books and pages (HTML Help) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590

Remove information types from categories (HTML Help) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590

Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590

About scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590

Add a script to an HTML topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591

Event support in scripting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591

Predefined events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591

Register a function for an event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592

Unregister a function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592

About ExtendScript Toolkit support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593

Creating scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594

Manage script folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594

Manage script files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595

Run scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595

Twisties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596

Add or change images in a hotspot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596

Add or change images of glossary terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596

Removing Twisties images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596

ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE) xxviii

Default keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597

xxix ADOBE ROBOHELP (2017 RELEASE)

Getting started

Adobe RoboHelp software is designed for developing Help systems, e-learning content, policies and procedures, and knowledge bases. Its enhanced editing and layout capabilities enable you to create professional looking content. With the new Responsive HTML5 and mobile layouts (SSLs), you can now take your content authored in RoboHelp, FrameMaker, or Microsoft® Word to mobile devices and tablets. You can create custom fluid layouts to ensure that users can view the output on a wide range of devices.

With the Responsive HTML5 layout, you can generate output that is suited for different device sizes and resolutions. For example, you can place the TOC on the right or design a page for displaying search results. In the multiscreen paradigm, desktop is another screen with a specific width and height.

You can also publish Responsive HTML5 output to RoboHelp Server 10 to enable tracking of review comments from multiple users and reporting them for analysis.

Worldwide, Adobe RoboHelp is a leader of online Help authoring tools through innovation. New features create a more productive experience for technical communicators and their audiences.

For latest information about Adobe RoboHelp, visit www.adobe.com/go/learn_robohelp_product_en

Before you begin working with your software, take a few moments to read about the basic workflow and the many resources available to you. You have access to instructional videos, plug-ins, templates, user communities, seminars, tutorials, RSS feeds, and much more.

Basic workflow

Indicative infographic: RoboHelp input and output formats

Create a project

Every Help system has at least one project. The basic element of the project is the topic.

Author the content.

Create topics. You can add multimedia now, or later when you customize the output. Work with the application developer to start planning which topics to also use for context-sensitive Help. Context-sensitive topics appear when the user clicks a Help button in the user interface or presses F1.

Getting started 1

Import files.

You can import HTML files, Microsoft Word files (.doc, .docx, .docm, .rtf), FrameMaker books and documents (.book, .bk, .fm, .frm, .mif), XML files (.xml), and Adobe PDF files (.pdf).

Develop the navigation.

Based on the hierarchy, or organization scheme, of the content, create links among topics and to external content if necessary. You can also link text or images to other content. Create a table of contents that reflects the content hierarchy, and include an index that users can browse. You can also create browse sequences, paths a user can follow through Help topics. For example, if a user must read several related topics to understand a feature completely, you can link them in a browse sequence.

Customize the output.

You can apply layouts (which determine behavior and appearance) and formatting. You can also use conditional text to show or hide content, depending on user interest, application being used, skill level, and

other factors. Add multimedia to make your Help more compelling and richer.

Generate, test, and distribute the Help package.

Generate the output so you can view the Help and check links, formatting, and so on. Test every output you intend to distribute, including printed documentation.

Activation and registration

To review complete system requirements and recommendations for your Adobe® RoboHelp® software, see

www.adobe.com/support/robohelp.

If your computer is not connected to the Internet, you can check the ReadMe file on the installation disc.

Install the software

1) Close any other Adobe applications open on your computer.

2) Insert the installation disc into your CD drive, and follow the onscreen instructions.

NOTE: If the computer on which you are installing RoboHelp does not have the latest version of PDF Add On,

you can install the latest version while installing RoboHelp. You can also install the ExtendScript toolkit. RoboHelp uses this toolkit to provide scripting capabilities. For more information about ExtendScript, see AboutExtendScriptToolkit support.

Getting started

For more information, see the ReadMe file on the installation disc.

Help with installation

For Help with installation issues, see the Up and running section on the RoboHelp hub page.

License activation

During the installation process, your Adobe software contacts an Adobe server to complete the license activation process. No personal data is transmitted. For more information on product activation, visit the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/activation.

Adobe Product Improvement Program

After you have used your Adobe software a certain number of times, a dialog box appears, asking whether you want to participate in Adobe Product Improvement Program.

If you choose to participate, data about your use of Adobe software is sent to Adobe. No personal information is recorded or sent. The Adobe Product Improvement Program only collects information about the features and tools that you use in the software and how often you use them.

You can opt in to or opt out of the program at any time:

• To participate, choose File > Help > Adobe Product Improvement Program and click Yes, Participate.

• To stop participating, choose File > Help > Adobe Product Improvement Program and click No, Thank You.

Adobe provides more information about the Adobe Product Improvement Program in a frequently asked questions (FAQ) list on the Adobewebsite.

Register

Getting started 1

NOTE: Register only once for RoboHelp.

1) To register, follow the onscreen instructions in the Registration dialog box, which appears after you install the software.

Help and support

Adobe Community Help

Adobe Community Help is an integrated environment on Adobe.com that gives you access to community-generated content moderated by Adobe and industry experts. Think of Community Help as collections of related items rather than books. Adobe continually curates and adds to these collections.

Bookmark the RoboHelp Help hub page to find the best content on the web about RoboHelp, including these resources:

• Videos, tutorials, tips and techniques, blogs, articles, and examples for designers and developers.

• Complete online Help, which is updated regularly.

• All other content on Adobe.com, including knowledgebase articles, downloads and updates, Adobe Developer Connection, and more.

Accessing RoboHelp help

Accessing help using a web browser

RoboHelp help is available on-line at the following location RoboHelpHelp. You can view the help using a web browser (Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, Firefox, etc.) independent of the product. This means, you do not need to open RoboHelp to access the online help using a web browser.

The online help includes a search functionality that you use to search for help in the RoboHelp documentation or across adobe.com.

The online help also includes a PDF that you can download and view when you are offline.

For more information on the offline Help, see OfflineHelp.

Accessing help from within RoboHelp

When you are working in RoboHelp, press F1 to launch the help in a context-sensitive Help viewer.

• If you are online and you launch help from within RoboHelp, the product launches the online help within the Help viewer. This viewer launches as an independent window. If you are working in a

Getting started

multi-screen environment, you can keep RoboHelp on one screen and drag the viewer to the other screen.

Since the viewer is context-sensitive, you can go to a help topic corresponding to your context in the application.

For example, if you are in the multi-channel publishing pod, press F1 to go to the corresponding help content for this feature.

NOTE: You can use the search functionality in the Help viewer to search for topics within RoboHelp help.

To search for help within RoboHelp and across adobe.com, go to the online help using a web browser.

• If you are offline, the context-sensitive Help launches a Microsoft Help (CHM) viewer. The offline viewer provides you the same in-product, context-sensitive functionality that you experience using the online Help viewer.

IMPORTANT:The offline Help CHM file is delivered with each new patch that Adobe provides. If Robo-

Help Help is updated between patches, follow the instructions in this knowledgebase article to download and install the updated Help file.

Services, downloads, and extras

You can enhance your product by integrating various services, plug-ins, and extensions in your product. You can also download samples and other assets and see various resources to get your work done.

Adobe Exchange

Visit the Adobe Exchange at www.adobe.com/go/exchange to download samples as well as plug-ins and extensions from Adobe and third-party developers. The plug-ins and extensions can help you automate tasks, customize workflows, create specialized professional effects, and more.

Adobe downloads

Visit www.adobe.com/go/downloads to find free updates, trials, and other useful software.

Adobe Labs

Adobe Labs at www.adobe.com/go/labs gives you the opportunity to experience and evaluate new and emerging technologies and products from Adobe. At Adobe Labs, you have access to resources such as these:

• Prerelease software and technologies

• Code samples and best practices to accelerate your learning

• Early versions of product and technical documentation

Getting started 1

• Forums, wiki-based content, and other collaborative resources to help you interact with like-minded users

Adobe Labs fosters a collaborative software development process. In this environment, customers quickly become productive with new products and technologies. Adobe Labs is also a forum for early feedback. The Adobe development teams use this feedback to create software that meets the needs and expectations of the community.

Adobe forums

To reach out to experts in the Adobe RoboHelp community, visit www.adobe.com/go/learn_robohelp_-

forum_en. If you comment on a Help page, the comment is automatically posted on the forum. The

experts and other users can respond to your comment.

Adobe TV

Visit Adobe TV at http://tv.adobe.com to view instructional and inspirational videos. The Technical

Communications channel features videos relevant for technical communicators. The videos on the RoboHelp channel help you get started.

If you are a beginner, then watch the RoboHelp (2017 release) for Beginners video. If you are an advanced user, then you should watch the RoboHelp (2017 release) for Advanced Users video.

RoboHelp sample projects and output

Visit the RoboHelp resources page and download sample projects created with RoboHelp and other resources, such as workspaces and applications configured for implementing context-sensitive Help.

RoboHelp Developer Center

Visit RoboHelp Developer Center for articles written by internal and external RoboHelp users on various user-requested topics.

Previous RoboHelp Help

Download the documentation of older versions of RoboHelp from the RoboHelpHelp hub page.

Getting started

What’s new in RoboHelp (release 2017)

Produce stunning interactive content with next- generation HTML5 publishing

Next generation Responsive HTML5 layouts

Present a visually rich content to your audience by using the new chrome-less HTML5 layouts. The interface features a cleaner look and feel, which makes it easy to jump to the most useful information quickly. These professionally designed layouts offer a superior search and intuitive navigation experience.

The new layouts are preloaded with an assortment of useful features, like in-page topic slider, show or hide widgets such as glossary and TOC, add topics as favorites and more. It offers a responsive design that makes the website perform equally well on screens and devices of different sizes. The content adjusts dynamically as per the screen size of your device.

For more information, see CustomizableHTML5 layouts

Search faster with auto-complete

The search field in the responsive HTML5 output now displays predictive search results based on a few characters that you type.

When you type the first few letters of any topic, subject or keywords into the search box, the relevant suggestions start appearing in the drop down. The search results appear instantaneously and you don’t have to enter the full search string or click on search button every single time. Your users now get better results that are more contextual and relevant in lesser time and in lesser number of clicks.

The powerful algorithm working at the background narrows down the search results for higher working efficiency. This greatly simplifies the search task and generates accurate results. The search results are intelligently ranked based on the frequency of the search term's occurrence within the content.

For more information, see Searchauto-complete.

Thumbnail support for images

With the new thumbnail support for images, you can now publish and show images as thumbnails. This reduces your page load time, potentially saving bandwidth, making it easier to render and view content on mobile devices.

The thumbnail images are clickable, causing the larger image to load at user’s discretion. This makes the content user-friendly, saving the user from having to download large image files that they don’t need to see. With the image thumbnails in place, users can click on only those images that are of their interest. The users would have greater flexibility in setting a standard thumbnail size which will provide consistent look-and-feel of thumbnails across published output.

For more information, see Imagethumbnails.

Getting started 1

Greater content accessibility

The output that you generate using the new Indigo themed Responsive HTML5 layout is 508 compliant. With the improved usability and accessibility of your website, you can increase the reach of your online content. You can benefit all of your customers, regardless of their special needs, by complying with web accessibility standards. A potentially greater benefit of an accessible content is better visibility to search engines.

Add favorites in Responsive HTML5 layouts

With the new Indigo themed Responsive HTML5 layout, you can mark topics as favorites and add custom links thereby saving time and effort while accessing the content again.

Do more in less time

Folder import for baggage files

Save time and work efficiently with the ability to import folders to baggage files. If you have multiple baggage files stored in a folder, you can add all of those files in a single click by adding that folder to the project. This makes importing relevant folders containing support information a lot easier. The hierarchal structure of the added folder is maintained in your project’s baggage file folder.

For more information, see Addfilesand folders to the Baggage folder.

Toggle variable views

Get greater content accessibility and save time by easily toggling between the variable name and the value it represents in multiple ways - using keyboard shortcut or the context menu. This helps you to view content as the end users would see it. You now have the option to either toggle a single variable or all the variables used in your project with a single click.

When you toggle all fields, by default the current state of the selected variable or the first variable of the topic is replicated across all the variables in the currently active document.

For more information, see Togglevariable views.

About RoboHelp Server

Adobe RoboHelp Server is a server-based Help solution that provides real-time end-user feedback on your Help and knowledgebase. RoboHelp Server gathers and logs data about what questions users ask while searching content and how users navigate through topics. Results are displayed in an easy-to-view graphical format for quick interpretation. Your Help system resides on a server (for example, Adobe Help Resource Center), and you can make instant updates to your Help system content.

RoboHelp Server contains the back-end processes, database functionality, and JDBC connections necessary to integrate it. RoboHelp Server works with the authoring tool, so authors can edit content, set master project options, maintain windows, and view reports.

Getting started

RoboHelp Server interaction with different components

NOTE: With RoboHelp Server, you can install your database server on a separate machine or use any of the

existing database servers.

Tracking and reporting

Adobe RoboHelp Server provides end users with the ability to find information when they have questions. Users can view content using any standard browser and operating system. Any number of users can access the published documents.NOTE: You can define the maximum number of database connections for Oracle

and Microsoft SQL Server database management systems through the maxload property in the robohelp_server.properties file.

RoboHelp Server tracks the following types of data:

• Where users request assistance: Identifies the location where users make repeated requests for specific information.

• How users search: Searches that users perform repeatedly. This data can be mined to move frequently searched information to a more prominent position in the content for easier access. You can also use this information to find information gaps and to improve heading titles for more intuitive navigation.

• How users navigate online content: Tracks how users seek information in online content and how frequently they access particular information such as headings and articles. This information is available at a topic level.

• RoboHelp Server tracks the entire operating system and browser details. You can use this information to improve the content quality for browsers preferred by users.

Automatic project merging

Concurrently work on multiple projects and merge them into a single project at run time.

While building an online information system, authors can develop and publish their content according to their own schedules. RoboHelp Server provides automatic project merging, so authors can work on different parts of a project at the same time, and publish them to the same server. When end users view the content, they see one seamless online information system. Do not worry about sharing source or

Getting started 1

depending on a single author or project—all separate projects are merged when users access the content. Users can navigate across all the projects using the Index, Contents, and Search buttons.

By default, projects are added to the Table of Contents in the order they are published to the server. You can customize this order in the Projects page of the Web Admin interface. When you merge projects, each project file in the authoring tool remains intact, but the keywords from the indexes and glossary terms are combined at run time, or when end users access the system from the server.

Support for languages other than English

The runtime interface (including Table of Contents, index, glossary, and search) can be automatically localized, and authors can publish projects written in various languages to the same server. RoboHelp Server supports localization for French, German and Japanese languages. You can change the display text on the user interface of the online system to another language, including text on the Contents, Index, and Search buttons.

In addition, end users can perform a full-text search of online content in their native language. This flexibility allows authors to develop content in languages other than English and take advantage of server-based online information systems.

Integration with SharePoint

RoboHelp versions 10 and above provide native integration with Microsoft SharePoint. This integration allows for an end-to-end workflow using SharePoint as the content repository. It also allows for the sharing RoboHelp assets across projects and users. You can then use the SharePoint workspace as a repository for your RoboHelp generated PDF reviews and finally publish the RoboHelp content to the SharePoint server.

Use SharePoint as content repository for RoboHelp content:

RoboHelp supports version control with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and above natively. This means that you do not need to install any third-party plugins. Add your RoboHelp projects to SharePoint repository. You can then check-in and check-out files, and perform other version control operations from within RoboHelp. For details, see Versioncontrolwith Microsoft SharePoint.

Publish Multiscreen and Responsive HTML5 content to SharePoint natively for both desktop and mobile access:

Publish RoboHelp content directly to a SharePoint site from within RoboHelp and in accordance with Microsoft security and compatibility recommendations. RoboHelp supports publishing the Multiscreen HTML5 and Responsive HTML5 output to SharePoint in its native format (ASPX), ensuring a problem-free display of output in SharePoint. When you view the published output, the topics appear in the SharePoint chrome as a single continuous HTML page. For details on publishing to SharePoint, see the details on the SharePoint tabs in the respective dialog documentation for:

• GenerateMultiscreenHTML5 output

Getting started

• GenerateResponsiveHTML5 output

Link SharePoint assets across RoboHelp projects and users:

You can link SharePoint assets (such as images, multimedia files, captivate videos, CSS files etc.) across multiple RoboHelp projects and authors. Live linking in RoboHelp Resource Manager is integrated with SharePoint. This implies that when an asset is modified by one author, the change is reflected in all the topics and in all the RoboHelp projects that use (link) that asset. For details on how to add a SharePoint location, see Addashared location.

Host RoboHelp content on SharePoint workspace for PDF review:

Select the RoboHelp topics that you want to send for review. Host this PDF for review in the SharePoint workspace, and send the link to reviewers. Your reviewers can provide review comments using the free PDF reader, without having to install or learn any additional software products. You can then import all the comments from stored on the SharePoint workspace to the RoboHelp project in one click. For details, see PDFreview.

SharePoint version matrix

The following matrix details the RoboHelp - SharePoint version support.

RoboHel

p Version Version control Publish Resource sharing Review

11 SharePoint 2010 + Native support: SharePoint

2010 + Via SharePoint mapped drive: SharePoint 2007

10 SharePoint 2010 Native support: SharePoint

2010 Via SharePoint mapped drive: SharePoint 2007

SharePoint 2007, 2010 +SharePoint 2007, 2010

+ Adobe Acrobat X +

SharePoint 2007, 2010 SharePoint 2007, 2010

Adobe Acrobat X +

Exploring the workspace 2

Exploring the workspace

Workspace overview

You work in RoboHelp using various elements, such as pods, panes, bars, and windows. Any arrangement of these elements is called a workspace. The RoboHelp workspace includes pods, panes, and customizable tabs. Customize the Quick Access Toolbar to include your most frequently used commands. You can also customize keyboard shortcuts.

RoboHelp workspace

Quick Access Toolbar

Tabs

Tabbed Document pane

Design and HTML view panes

Document area selectors F.Workspace switcher

Exploring the workspace

G, H, I.

Clubbed pods

Quick Access Toolbar

The Quick Access Toolbar in the upper right corner contains the most frequently used commands.

The right-most drop-down contains the following options:

More Commands

In the Customize dialog:

Customize the RoboHelp keyboard shortcuts

Change the RoboHelp theme: light or dark; colored or grayscale icons

Add or remove commands to the Quick Access Toolbar.

Show Below the Ribbon

Display the Quick Access Toolbar above (default) or below the ribbons.

Minimize the Ribbon

Show (default) or hide the RoboHelp ribbon.

RoboHelp Tabs

The RoboHelp tabs, such as Project, Edit, Output, and Review, provide you quick access to all the available RoboHelp commands. For more details, see Working with the RoboHelp tabs.

Tabbed document pane

The topic window or the Tabbed Document pane displays the topic(s) that you are editing currently. Select File > Options > Allow Editing Of Multiple Topics to edit multiple topics concurrently. You can paste objects and selections across multiple topics. You can select horizontal or vertical tiling of topics.

The Design and HTML buttons in the topic window let you switch between Design Editor and HTML Editor.

When multiple topics are open, click the down arrow button in the upper-right corner of the Tabbed Document pane to display the list of open topics and navigate to any topic.

Take advantage of fixed buttons in the Tabbed document pane to open and close topics quickly.

Right-click a tab to find options to save the active topic, close the active topic, close all topics, close all but the active topic, and create horizontal or vertical tab groups.

Exploring the workspace 2

Pods

Various pods, such as Project Manager, Output Setup, Resource Manager, and Single Source Layouts, help you complete the different steps to create the project and generate the required output. Select Project > Open > Pods to show or hide pods that you require.

NOTE: You can also access the list of pods in the Edit tabs.

From the context-sensitive menu of the title bar of a pod, access options such as Dockable, Floating, and Tabbed Document to arrange pods in various ways. The menu also includes options to hide and close the pod.

Working with the RoboHelp tabs

The RoboHelp commands included in logical groups and put together in the various tabs. Each tab contains commands of related functionality. Also, the tabs are groups based on the tasks performed by a user at any point of time. For example, the Edit tab includes commands specific to editing RoboHelp content. The Output tab includes command related to generating output.

Some common commands are included in different tabs. For example, the Pods drop-down list is available in the Project and Edit tabs. Also, some tabs are contextual only appear in the related context. For example the Table tab only appears when you are working in a table.

The RoboHelp interface includes the following tabs:

Ta b D es c ri p ti o n

File Contains options such as open, close, rename and list recent projects. This tab also provides links to

several help and community resources and options to customize RoboHelp preferences.

Project Includes commands associated with a project. You manage, create, import, edit, and delete project

level components such as topics, snippets, tags, and variables. You can save the currently unsaved changes across the project.

Edit Allows you to perform authoring tasks such as creating and editing stylesheets. While authoring the

contents of a topic, snippet, or master page, you can choose the commands in this tab such as Bold, Italic, font, and align. You can also apply tags to content.

Insert You use the commands to insert various types of objects at various points in your project. These

objects include tables, images, Captivate content, and snippets.

Review When setting up or importing the comments from a PDF shared review, you can use the commands

in this tab. This tab also includes commands that allow you to track changes, accept and reject changes in a document review.

Exploring the workspace

Ta b D es c ri p ti o n

Collaborate Includes commands that allows you to share project resources across users. You can also set up and

use version control.

Output The options in this tab allow you to create, setup, generate, and view RoboHelp outputs.

Tools You can create and view reports. RoboHelp ships with a number of scripts that you can use to

perform certain commands. Select and execute scripts from the Scripts list in this tab.

Ta bl e Provides access to table specific commands such as merge, split, borders and shading.

Note: This tab is context sensitive and only displays when the insertion point is within in table.

Positioning Allows you to position and size a Positioned text box.

Note: This tab is context-sensitive and only displays when a positioned text box is selected. To insert

a positioned text box, go to the Insert tab and choose Positioned text box.

Working with pods

Pods are workflow panes that you can float or dock anywhere in the application window. They provide quick access to logically grouped features from one location. For example, you can select and generate various layouts from the Single Source Layouts pod.

RoboHelp provides access to your most frequently used pods and projects, with flexible options. You can move a pod anywhere on the screen or to a different monitor. Use the auto-hide feature of pods to show or hide them on the desktop.

View a pod

1) Do one of the following:

• Select Project > Open > Pods > [pod name].

Arrange pods

• Click the title bar of a pod and drag-and-drop it on the required part of the screen.

• Change the display of the pod.

a) Do one of the following:

• Click the down arrow button in the upper-right corner of a pod.

• Right-click in the titlebar of the pod.

Exploring the workspace 2

b) Select one of the following options:

Dockable

Docks the pod if it’s in the Tabbed Document state or in the Floating state

Closes the pod

Floating

Floats the pod if it’s in the Tabbed Document state or in the docked state

Auto Hide

Pins or unpins the pod if it’s not in the Tabbed Document state.

Tabbed Document

Opens the pod in a new tab in the topic window.

Types of pods

Starter pod

The Starter pod provides links to common commands and product information.

Recent Projects

Open recently used projects (up to ten recent projects are listed) and other projects.

Create New

Select the Help type you want to generate.

Import

Import a Help project, such as an HTML Help project, Word document, and all other available types.

Resources

Access forums, developer centers, knowledgebase articles, complete online Help, videos, and other online content.

Access a stream of latest learning resources featured in the Starter pod. If you find the stream distracting, you can hide it by deselecting the Show Learning Resources On Starter Page option in general settings.

Exploring the workspace

Project Manager pod

The Project Manager pod contains various folders where you create and delete project files, or edit their properties. It also has folders for various key project components, such as the table of contents, the index, and the glossary.

TIP:If the project has many topics, collapse the Project Files folder first to view the other folders.

RELATED LINKS:

Project Manager folders

Output Setup pod

The Output Setup pod contains the following folders:

Windows

Containers for output. Custom windows for projects are stored in this folder. Modify window properties by double-clicking a window icon.

Master Pages

Use master pages to reuse information and create a standard appearance across topics.

Skins

Use skins with WebHelp or FlashHelp projects to change the appearance of the Help system. You can match the appearance of a company website or add interest and style to the output. Use skins to customize colors, buttons, text, fonts, icons, backgrounds, multimedia (FlashHelp projects), images for TOC icons and navigation buttons, and more.

Screen Profiles

Container for screen profiles used in Multiscreen HTML5 output.

Screen Layouts

Container for screen layouts used in Multiscreen HTML5 output.

Context-Sensitive Help

Container for the Map Files folder and the What’s This Help Files folder.

• Use the Map Files folder to access map files and perform most window-level context-sensitive

Help tasks.

• Use the What's This Help Files folder for field-level context-sensitive Help in HTML Help proj-

ects.

RELATED LINKS:

Windows

Master pages

Exploring the workspace 2

Skins

Screen profiles

Screen layouts

About context-sensitiveHelp

Map files andmapIDs

Snippets pod

Add custom HTML code snippets to a project for insertion later into desired topics. When you modify a code snippet shared by different topics, the changes are reflected in all the associated topics.

Snippets are stored in a Snippet library as separate files with the .hts extension. In the Snippets pod, you can organize them in categories, expanding or collapsing the categories for easy viewing. The category names appear in a sorted order in the Snippets pod and in the Insert dialog box. You can drag snippets to desired locations in a topic. You can also select snippets and then copy, duplicate, or delete them. Select the Preview option from the context menu to preview a snippet.

RELATED LINKS:

Single-sourcewithsnippets

Styles And Formatting pod

Use the Styles And Formatting pod to apply styles quickly. Select a style in the pod and apply it to the selected text in the topic. You can create and edit a style directly from the pod. Right-click the name of a style to rename, delete, or preview that style.

NOTE: Select Project > Open > Pods > Style and Formatting, to view the Styles And Formatting pod. You must

open a topic to view the Styles And Formatting pod.

RELATED LINKS:

Create a styleusingtheStyles And Formatting pod

User Defined Variables pod

From the User Defined Variables pod, you can accomplish these tasks:

• Create, edit, or delete variables.

• Create, edit, or delete variable sets.

• Provide and modify runtime values uniquely for different variable sets while generating the output.

• Format variable values.

RELATED LINKS:

User-definedvariables

Exploring the workspace

Error List pod

The Error List pod shows buttons for errors, warnings, and messages that are displayed when you try to validate a topic or a master page. You can click these buttons to display the relevant information in the Error list. The caption of buttons shows the number of errors, warnings, and messages. You can click all of these buttons to display the relevant information.

Output View pod

The Output View pod displays important errors, warnings, and messages that RoboHelp captures while importing content or generating project output. You can use the Quick Access Toolbar and the right-click options to save, copy, select, or clear the log.

Toolbox pod

The Toolbox pod provides shortcut icons to access various tools that come with RoboHelp. You can also add tools.

Graphics Locator, HTML Help Studio, and Resize are some of the default tools.

Resource Manager pod

Resource Manager stores all the common resources to use across projects and allows for quick access and management of common resource files.

Shared Locations

Specify the various shared folders that store resource files to use across projects. While a shared location can contain files of any type, Resource Manager displays only those that match defined file types (Add/Edit Categories).

RELATED LINKS:

Exploring the workspace 2

Managing Sharedresources

External content search pod

The External Content Search pod lets you specify URLs for content available outside the Help system (for example, in blogs) and map them to terms that users are likely to search for. By curating relevant content in this way, you can optimize the search experience for users and provide easy access to user-generated content.

RELATED LINKS:

External contentsearch

RoboHelp Server pod

The RoboHelp Server pod enables you to connect to RoboHelp Server. You can configure the setup for the server by selecting Responsive HTML5, WebHelp Pro, or FlashHelp Pro as the primary layout.

You can enter http://<server-name>:<port-number>/<context-name>/server and connect to it to publish your projects.

NOTE: By default, RoboHelp Server uses the http protocol. To specify that the https protocol should be used,

enter https://<servername>:<port-number>/<context-name>/server.

Environments

A RoboHelp environment refers to the arrangement of various workspace components, such as pods, in the main application window. By saving the current workspace as a named environment, you can restore that workspace even if you move or close a pod. The names of saved environments appear in the Workspace menu on the right of the menu bar.

Create and save an environment

You can create multiple environments for a project. Only one environment is loaded at a time.

1) Arrange pods.

2) Click the down arrow button in the workspace switcher and select Save Environment.

3) Type a filename, including the .rhs extension.

4) Specify a location for the environment. The default location is C:\Documents and Settings\[user name]\My Documents\My RoboHelp Projects.

NOTE: You can exchange an RHS file with other authors.

Exploring the workspace

Load an environment

1) Click the down arrow button in the workspace switcher and select Load Environment.

2) Browse to an RHS file and select it.

3) Click Open.

NOTE:The last environment you used before closing RoboHelp is used the next time you open RoboHelp.

Restore the default environment

1) Click the down arrow button in the workspace switcher and select Default Environment.

Delete an environment

1) Do one of the following:

• Delete the RHS file from the location where it was stored.

• Click Start > Run. In the Open box, type regedit and click OK. Locate the MRUENVFile[n]

variable in HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Adobe > RoboHelp > 11.00 > Common and delete the string assigned to the variable.

Create or remove keyboard shortcuts

Create keyboard shortcuts

1) Click the drop-down arrow on the right of the Quick Access Toolbar and choose More Commands.

2) In the General tab of the Customize dialog, check Show Keyboard Tips to display the keyboard shortcut if you press the Alt key, hold it down for a couple of seconds and then release the key.

3) Click Customize Keyboard Shortcuts.

4) In the Category drop-down, choose a tab category.

5) Choose a command from the Commands list and then place the insertion point inside the Press new shortcut key box.

6) Use the keyboard to choose a shortcut key combination and click Assign.

Exploring the workspace 2

Remove or reset keyboard shortcuts

1) Click the drop-down arrow on the right of the Quick Access Toolbar and choose More Commands.

2) Click Customize Keyboard Shortcuts.

3) Do one of the following:

• To remove a keyboard shortcut, select the category and command for the shortcut to remove.

Select the shortcut in Key Assignments, and click Remove.

• To restore all shortcuts to their default settings, click Reset All.

4) Click Export to export you Keyboard shortcuts to a .csv format.

You can then share shortcuts file.

Configure general settings

1) Select File > Options. Click General and set the following options to configure options for using the program and working with project files.

Set the default language and other preferences

Default Language for New Projects

Allows you to change the default language for every project that is created using the RoboHelp application.

Use Underscores In File Names

Saves topic filenames with underscores between words (for example, My_Help_Topic.htm). For HTML Help projects, topic filenames require underscores rather than spaces. This convention enables the book or page to synchronize with the topic content displayed at the right side of the viewer.

Automatically Check For Updates

The program checks for updates when you quit the program. You can also enable this option by selecting File > Help > Check For Updates.

Allow Editing Of Multiple Topics

Opens topics in different tabs in Design Editor and allows editing. Deselect this option to work in single-topic mode.

Exploring the workspace

Clear Project Cache (.cpd File) Before Opening Any Project

Controls whether the old <ProjectName>.cpd file will be deleted each time while opening a project and a new <ProjectName>.cpd will be created from the project files.

Remember Project State

Check this option to ensure that RoboHelp remembers the location of the opened files and pods. The next time you open RoboHelp, the project will open in the same state. Uncheck this option to prevent RoboHelp from remembering the current state.

Auto-Compile Outdated Files

When you view or publish your project, the program automatically generates your primary layout when the output files are out of date. If this option is disabled, the program prompts you to generate the primary layout if the output files are out of date.

Auto-display Output View

Shows the Output View at the bottom of the program window when a project is generating.

Convert RoboHelp-edited Topics To HTML

Converts XHTML topics created or edited in RoboHelp into HTML in the output. Topics created or edited with third-party editors are not converted.

Show Learning Resources On Starter Page

Show or hide the area in which a stream of learning resources, such as webinars, video tutorials, and whitepapers, is displayed on the Starter page.

Enable or disable confirmation

Prompt when a file is saved

The A File Is Saved option is disabled by default. Changes to the current topic are saved when you open another topic or close the project without saving. You can disable this setting here if necessary. For example, if you change a topic and want to restore the content, you can temporarily disable the automatic save.

Prompt when auto-generated topics from linked documents are modified

Allows you to enable or disable the message displayed when you modify a topic generated from the contents of a linked Word or FrameMaker document.

Enable, disable, or reset notifications

By default, notifications are enabled. Some notifications include an option (Don’t Ask Me Again) to suppress their display.

Exploring the workspace 2

• To enable or disable all notifications, deselect or select File > Options > General > Do Not Show Notifications.

• To restore all notifications to their default settings, click Reset All.

Projects

Project basics

About projects

Projects contain the source files that become the final Help system. Help authors work with the project files, and Help users view the output. For CHM output, the project contains the content you create and the properties you set up, such as what the output window looks like. The developer determines the window for WebHelp and FlashHelp output formats, or leaves them to run in your browser window. Create folders in the Project Manager to organize topics and structure the Help system.

Projects are collections of files. The project file (XPJ file) contains information about the content and properties of the project. Whenever you change the project, this file (and any other affected file) is updated automatically. Project files consist of the following:

Content

Project files contain topics with content and information about the location of topics, images, index, TOC, and other files.

Properties

Projects contain setting information, such as project title, language, and windows. When you first create a project, the basic (default) settings are used. Modify these settings according to your design needs.

Navigation

Projects include a table of contents, index, and full-text search.

You can view the elements that make up a project in several places, including the Project Manager, Single-Source Layouts pod, and Project Settings dialog box. You can also generate various reports (Tools > Reports) that identify project status, duplicate topics, files distributed with Help, and so on.

Help project components

Help systems are made up of different components that vary according to the Help format you deliver.

Projects

RoboHelp HTML creates a main project file (with the extension .xpj) that contains the information about your topics, images, and other files. (Open this file to open a project.) Project files also contain the settings that affect the appearance and functionality of a Help system.

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Topics

The basic unit of a Help system is the topic. Topics communicate the message of the Help system, mainly through text and images. You decide the content, format, and organization of your topics.

Table of contents

If a table of contents is included, users see a Contents tab or button when they open the Help system. The table of contents presents a hierarchical outline of what the Help project contains. Users can browse and select topics to view from the Contents tab.

Indexes

If an index is included, users see an Index tab or button when they open the Help system. The index displays a multilevel list of topics and keywords or phrases that you’ve specified.

Full-text search

Full-text search allows users to find specific words and phrases that occur in the content.

Links and navigation

Users navigate a Help system by clicking links. You design the strategy that connects your topics together. The most common links are from one topic to another. Links can also go to topics in different Help systems, different output formats, and even to a website or an application.

Styles

You format topics using styles. Styles are named formats that you design and apply to control the layout and appearance of text.

Image and multimedia files

Images and multimedia files enhance Help by adding graphics, sound, video, animation, and more.

Windows

Windows are the frames that display topics. In certain output formats, you can customize the appearance and attributes of windows. You can also design new windows to suit your content. You can open multiple windows and from the Windows dialog box, select a window and click Activate to bring it to focus. Click Save to save the displayed window in focus. Using the Windows feature, you can rename the project title to display in the output.

Compilers

The Help compiler isn’t part of the final Help file, but you sometimes need a compiler to create the Help file. For example, in Microsoft HTML Help projects, the compiler aggregates the source files and other project components. The compiler then creates one Help system file that you distribute to end users. (WebHelp and FlashHelp projects are not compiled.)

Viewers and browsers

Users access the Help system from within a viewer or browser.

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Files in a project

Main project file (XPJ)

The project file (.xpj) is XML-based. You can open project files with the .mpj extension, the format for older versions of RoboHelp, but they convert to XPJ files.

Folder files (FPJ)

Each project folder has an FPJ file that lists the folder contents. RoboHelp displays only those subfolders and topics that are listed in the FPJ file of a folder.

All the subfolders have their respective FPJ files. The name of an FPJ file except the FPJ file for the project folder is same as that of the folder.

The name of the FPJ file for the project folder is root.fpj. The root.fpj file is modified if you add, delete, or rename a topic or subfolder inside the respective folder. The root.fpj file is also modified if the order of topics or subfolders is changed in Project Manager.

Single-source layout files (SSL)

A single-source layout file (SSL) is used for each single-source layout. An SSL file stores the properties of the respective single-source layout and is modified when you edit the properties. An SSL file does not get modified on generating, viewing, or publishing a single-source layout.

Auxiliary project files (APJ)

The following components have corresponding APJ files, which get modified when you edit the components:

• Baggage files

• Colors

• Conditional build tags

• Font sets

• Information types

•Map files

• Pop-up note topics

• See Also keywords

• Skins (when adding or removing skins only)

• Single-source layouts (when adding or removing single-source layouts only)

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• Topic keywords

• Topic templates (when adding or removing single-source layouts only)

• Windows

Other types of files

When you modify the following components, the respective file gets modified:

• Browse sequences (BRS)

• Topics (HTM)

• TOC (HHC)

• Index (HHK)

• Glossary (GLO)

• Image and multimedia files (filename extension varies)

• Style sheets (CSS)

About output types

RoboHelp can generate the following output types. These types have common basic characteristics but different features and viewing and platform requirements.

WebHelp

Adobe WebHelp format works with virtually any combination of browser and platform for web-based or desktop applications, online Help, and online books. WebHelp also provides customizable navigation panes and quick downloads.

WebHelp Pro

WebHelp Pro is used for web-based applications, with features available only in server-based Help. WebHelp Pro provides feedback on the use of your Help system. Authors can work on separate projects and publish anytime, and projects are merged on the server at run time. RoboHelp Server is required to generate WebHelp Pro.

FlashHelp

Adobe FlashHelp® uses Adobe Flash® to provide an interactive navigation pane, customizable navigation controls, Flash animation, streaming video, audio, and graphics. Users need Flash Player.

FlashHelp Pro

FlashHelp Pro is used for web-based applications, with features available only in server-based Help. Authors can work on separate projects and publish anytime, and projects are merged on the server at run time. RoboHelp Server is required to generate FlashHelp Pro.

Multiscreen HTML5

Multiscreen HTML5 output lets you deliver a reading experience that is optimized for specific types of devices. You can add and configure different screen profiles for different sets of devices and generate Multiscreen HTML5 output for these screen profiles. When users visit the landing page for the Multiscreen HTML5 output on their devices, they are automatically redirected to content optimized for their device.

Responsive HTML5

Using Responsive HTML5, you can create a single output that is optimized for all your screens. Responsive HTML5 automatically adjusts to the screen a user is accessing it from and also adjusts to dynamic screen size changes, such as a flip of orientation or resizing of the browser.

You can also publish Responsive HTML5 output to RoboHelp Server 10.

eBook

The eBook layout helps you generate output in EPUB 3 and Kindle Book (MOBI) formats.

Microsoft HTML Help

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Microsoft HTML Help is used as application and stand-alone Help for Windows 98 and later, using Internet Explorer 4.x or later, and provides unique features.NOTE: Due to Microsoft security changes,

Microsoft HTML Help is now used where the Help has to be run on the users' PC; it cannot be installed on a server without registry changes. WebHelp and FlashHelp are used where the Help is to be run from a server. WebHelp and FlashHelp can be run locally, but it is not recommended.

XML

XML output exports to Extensible Markup Language (XML) format, used to structure, store, and send information. XML files use style sheets, as well as handler files. Handler files determine how RoboHelp imports or generates the XML files, associated style sheets, and related components.

JavaHelp

JavaHelp, from Sun Microsystems™, works with Java applications and is a delivery system, not an authoring tool. JavaHelp features (TOC, index, searches, controls, global search and replace, pop-ups) are created automatically, along with HTML features (links, Related Topics buttons, and image files).

Oracle Help

Oracle Help for Java™ is used with applications written in any language. Oracle Help and the ICE 5 browser provide TOC, index, full-text searches, pop-ups, context sensitivity, and customizable windows, through the Oracle Help viewer.

Printed documentation

RoboHelp enhanced printed documentation provides control over structure, content, and appearance of printed documents. You can organize the content as needed, format using CSS or Word template styles, and produce formatted and structured Word documents or PDF files.

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Adobe AIR

The Adobe AIR output type allows you to generate Help in Adobe AIR format. Generate your content in the cross-platform Adobe AIR Help format that brings a host of enhancements, such as these:

• Easy navigability through breadcrumbs, and more

• New templates and skins

• A rich branding experience, and the ability to insert corporate logos and an About box in Help

• Rich commenting and auto-updates

• Browser-based Help, with both offline and online content.

• Ability to add and access RSS feeds

• Enhanced search

End-user viewer requirements

End-user

system

Windows SP4 or later, Windows Vista, Windows 7

Mac OS, Linux

iOS, Android (devices)

Responsive

HTML5

Web browser N/A Web browser Built-in

Web browser N/A Web browser Not available eBook viewer PDF viewer.

Web bro w ser Nat i ve

Mobile

App WebHelp/Pro

N/A N/A eBook viewer PDF viewer. mobile app

Microsoft

HTML Help EPUB PDF

eBook viewer PDF viewer.

viewer

Example: Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Acrobat Reader

End-user system Multiscreen HTML5 JavaHelp* Oracle Help AIR Help

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Windows later, Windows Vista, Windows 7

Mac OS, Linux

iOS, Android (devices) Web browser N/A N/A N/A

XP SP4 or

Web bro w ser Jav a Help

viewer

Web bro w ser Jav a Help

viewer

Oracle Help viewer AIR Help

Runtime

Not available AIR Help

Runtime

Create and manage projects

Create a project

1) Do one of the following:

• Select File > New Project.

• In the Starter pod, click More under Create New.

2) On the New pane in the New Project dialog box, double-click a project type. You can change the project type after your project is created.

Blank Project

Customize and publish a project in any output. You can modify the window settings for WebHelp, FlashHelp, and HTML Help outputs.

Application Help

Create a Help system that you can install locally. The Application Help project has sample topics with notes on how you can customize and modify the information. For example, you can create a Help system to document information about a company product.NOTE: By default, the Application Help

does not use master pages or snippets but you can always add them.

e-Handbook

Create a project for an electronic handbook, such as an employee handbook for a company. The e-Handbook project template provides the relevant folders and topics for you to place company-specific information.

e-Learning

Integrate and organize Captivate demos into a project. Using the layout and recommendations provided, you can create computer-based and web-based training.

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Knowledge Base

Create a knowledgebase that has an interface similar to a wiki page. The knowledgebase project template contains master pages that you can customize. You can also create self-updating pages.

Web Application Help

Create a Help system that you can publish on a server. The Web Application Help project has sample topics with notes on creating online Help for a software application.

Department Guidelines

Create a Help system to outline guidelines for a department in a company. For example, you can create Help for a human resources department, outlining guidelines on recruitment and selection, flexible working hours, and so on.

Disaster Recovery Plan

Create a Help system with samples on how to write a disaster recovery plan.

Online Manual

Create an online manual for a company product or software application.

Policies And Procedures

Create a handbook or a document listing policies and procedures specific to an organization.

Custom

Customize a Help project template.

3) Specify options in the New Project Wizard dialog box:

• RoboHelp stores the project title in a field called Project Title. You can insert the field in topic

contents, snippets, master pages, and screen layouts.

• Leave Language as English or select another language to localize the project. Spell checking,

indexing with the Smart Index Wizard, and parts of the user interface are localized.

• If you select Save As Default, the selected language is used for all new projects.

4) Click Finish.

The first topic opens in the Design Editor on the right. On the left, the Project Manager opens. The first topic is selected in the HTML Files (Topics) folder.

Create a project by importing documents

1) Do one of the following:

• From the Starter pod, select a new project type from the Import list.

• Select File > New Project. Click the Import tab and select a new project type.

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2) Follow the prompts. The new project opens in RoboHelp.

Create a project using FrameMaker or Word documents

You can create new projects by importing FrameMaker or Word documents. While importing, you can map the styles of these documents to styles in RoboHelp.

1) Select File > New Project and click Import.

2) Select FrameMaker or Word documents and click OK.

3) Select from .book, .mif, .fm, .bk, and .frm files for FrameMaker and .doc, .docx, .rtf, and .docm files for Word. You can import multiple FrameMaker or Word documents at the same time. You can import .book and .bk files one at a time.

NOTE: For any FrameMaker format other than MIF, FrameMaker 8 or later is required. If the correct

version is not installed, you cannot import the file.

4) Enter the project title, filename, and location of the project.

5) Click Finish.

A new project wizard prompts you to select options to map the TOC, index, or glossary.

6) Select the required options, and click Next.

7) Click Edit.

8) Select styles to map to the RoboHelp styles.

For information about different conversion options for FrameMaker documents, see Conversion

basics.

For information about different conversion options for Word documents, see Converting Word

styles to RoboHelp styles.

9) Click OK.

NOTE: If you click Cancel in the wizard, no files are imported and the empty project remains open.

10) Click Finish.

Create a project using a DITA map file

IMPORTANT:For expert users only.

Before you import a DITA map file, Java JDK and the DITA Open Toolkit must be installed and running properly. Experience with DITA and the DITA Open Toolkit is also required.

1) Select File > New Project.

2) Click the Import tab.

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3) Select DITA Map File.

4) Click OK.

5) Enter the following information in the New Project wizard:

DITA Map File To Import

Specify path to a valid DITA map file that you want to import and create a project. Click the Browse button to select the file.

Location Of The Project

Specify path to the location of the new project.

6) Click Next.

7) Specify the input required on the Open DITA Toolkit Processing Options dialog box.

8) Click Finish.

RELATED LINKS:

Converting Word styles to RoboHelp styles

Add a RoboHelp project to version control

Save projects

Save frequently while you work.

• To save individual files, click Save in the Quick Access Toolbar.

• To save all files, click Save in the Quick Access Toolbar.

Disable auto-save

By default, RoboHelp saves changes when you close the project. If you prefer, you can disable the auto-save feature.

1) From the Tools menu, select Options.

2) Click the General tab.

3) Under Options, deselect Save Without Prompt.

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Opening a project

Open a project when starting RoboHelp

1) From the Starter pod listing recently opened projects, click the project name. If you don’t see the project you want, click Open.

You can use the following controls to locate the project you want to open:

My Places bar

Find documents by using the shortcuts to the left of the Folder and Files list.

Desktop

The Desktop folder lists all folders on your desktop.

My Computer

The My Computer folder lists the hard drives configured on your computer.

My RoboHelp Projects

The My RoboHelp Projects folder is the default working folder where RoboHelp stores all projects. This folder is placed in the My Documents folder when Adobe RoboHelp is installed. When you start Adobe RoboHelp, projects stored in the My RoboHelp Projects folder are automatically listed in the Starter pod under the Recent Projects list. All RoboHelp projects use the .xpj filename extension.

Look in list

By default, this list displays the My RoboHelp Projects folder. Alternatively, if you have accessed other folders, the last folder you accessed, is selected in this list. This list includes the My Computer, My Network Places, and My Documents folders under the Desktop folder.

Go To Last Folder Visited icon

Displays the last folder you accessed. Click the arrowhead to view a list of the most recent folders you visited. This icon is disabled if you do not access a folder in the dialog box.

Up one level icon

Enables you to move to the parent folder of the current folder displayed in the Look in list.

Delete icon

Enables you to delete a selected folder or file. The deleted folder or file is sent to the Recycle Bin.

Create New Folder icon

Enables you to create a folder under the parent folder selected in the Look in list.

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View Menu icon

The arrowhead enables you to choose the view in which the folder and file list must be displayed. You can view the folders and files as thumbnails, tiles, icons, a simple list, or a list with details of the folders or files.

Tools icon

Enables you to delete or rename a folder or file, add a folder or file to the My Places bar, or map a hard drive to a computer or folder on your network. You can also view properties of a folder or file.

File Name box Enables you to specify the name of the file to access (to open, to import, and so on.)

Files Of Type menu

Enables you to select the type of files to list in the folder and file list.

Open a project after starting RoboHelp

1) Select File > Open Project > Local or Network Path.

The Open Project dialog box appears.

NOTE: You can also select the last ten projects opened from the bottom of the File menu.

2) Select RoboHelp HTML Help Project (.xpj) from the Files Of Type menu.

3) Locate the project file, and double-click it.

Upgrading a project

If you open a project created in a previous version of RoboHelp, you are asked whether to convert it before opening it.

IMPORTANT:Make a copy of your project before converting it into the new format.

RELATED LINKS:

RoboHelp outputsearch

Pin a project to the list of recently opened projects

By default, the list of recent projects that appears in the Starter pod and in the File menu displays up to the last ten projects opened. Pin a recently opened project so that it always appears in the recent projects’ list. The list displays the pinned projects and recently used projects up to the number of projects set in the Max Projects field.

1) Select File > Options.

2) On the Recent Projects tab, select a project from the Recently Opened Projects list.

3) Click Pin. Click OK.

NOTE: Click Unpin to remove a pinned project from the recent projects’ list.

Change project settings

1) Choose Project > File > Project Settings.

2) On the general tab, change settings as needed:

Project Title

Enter a project title. This title appears in the window bar of the output.

Primary Output/Layout

Select a primary layout.

Language

Select the default project language.

Advanced

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Click to create or edit lists for localization. Set options in each pane.

To Do List

Click Manage to manage the To Do list for your project. For more information, see Using the To Do

list.

Index

Select an option for saving keywords:

• Index File (HHK) saves new index keywords in the project index file (HHK).

• Topics saves new index keywords in individual topic files (HTM).

• Binary Index uses a binary index in Microsoft HTML Help projects.

Set options on the Stop List pane

Use the Stop List tab to modify words contained in the Stop List file ProjectName.stp. A Stop List contains common words (for example, “a” or “the”) that the search ignores for an accurate result.

Edit

Select a word, click Edit. Type the new name. Press Enter. Right-click the word to display a drop-down box with the Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, and Select All options.

Reset To Default

Removes the new entries and restores the default list.

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New

Adds a word. Click New. Type the word. Press Enter.

Delete

Deletes a selected word.

NOTE:In Microsoft HTML Help projects, the stop list file can’t be larger than 512 K. If the file is larger,

words at the end of the file are not included in the CHM file.

Set options on the Phrases pane

Modify words in the Phrases file ProjectName.phr. This tab contains a phrase list the Smart Index Wizard includes in keyword searches. For example, make project settings one phrase, not two words. You can add, rename, and delete words.

Edit

Select a word, click Edit. Type the new name. Press Enter. Right-click the word to display a drop-down box with the Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, and Select All options.

Reset To Default

Removes the new entries and restores the default list.

New

Click New. Type the new word. Press Enter.

Set options on the “Always Ignore” Words pane

Modify words in the Always Ignore Words file ProjectName.ign. This list contains “noise” words such “as,” “the,” or “a.” The Smart Index wizard uses the list to keep the noise words out of the index.

Edit

Select a word, click Edit. Type the new name. Press Enter. Right-click the word to display a drop-down box with the Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, and Select All options.

Reset To Default

Removes the new entries and restores the default list.

New

Click New. Type the new word. Press Enter.

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Set options on the LNG File pane

Change text elements in the user interface for Multiscreen HTML5, WebHelp, WebHelp Pro, FlashHelp, FlashHelp Pro, AIR Help, printed documentation, or HTML Help output.

See the complete list of available changes you can make in the LNG file tab.

When you edit the LNG file, your changes supersede settings made in Project Settings in other locations.

1) Select an element, and click either of the following:

Edit

Modify LNG file text for each user interface element listed. In Edit mode, you can also right-click on the edited line to undo the edits, cut, copy, paste, delete, or select all.NOTE: You can change the string

to show expanding or collapsing topic TOCs in settings for master pages. For more information, see Masterpages.

Reset To Default

Erases the new entries and restores the default list.

NOTE: For quick access to these options, you can select Edit > LNG File.

Set options on the Synonyms pane

Define words as synonyms. For example, you can define “find” and “locate” as synonyms for “search.” In the generated output, when a user searches for “search,” results for “find” and “locate” are also displayed.

Reset To Default

Removes the new entries and restores the default list.

Edit

Select a word, click Edit. Type the new name. Press Enter. Right-click the word to display a drop-down box with the Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, and Select All options.

New

Click to add a new word in the Synonym table and specify a synonym for it.

Delete

Click to delete the Word and its synonyms.

RELATED LINKS:

Upgrade localized projects

View output

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Rename a project

When you rename a project, the main project file (.xpj) and all other project files are renamed.NOTE: The TOC, index, and glossary files are not renamed.

When you rename a project, the project closes and reopens. Any changes made since last saving are saved.

NOTE: You cannot rename projects under version control.

1) Open the project.

2) Select File > Rename Project.

3) In the Project Name box, enter the new project name (do not enter a filename extension).

4) Click OK. To make the changes take effect, the program closes and then reopens the project.

NOTE:If you are creating Microsoft HTML Help, the name of the compiled HTML Help file (CHM file) is

based on the project filename. If you change the project name, the name of the CHM file changes as well. You can rename the CHM file to restore the old name.

Viewing projects

Help systems are displayed in a browser or viewer, depending on the output type, the application platform, and the platforms of your end users. Help systems are displayed in a main window. Users can view topics in the right pane and navigate with tabs, buttons, and ribbons in the left pane and along the top.

View your project often to test links and make sure that styles appear properly. View each single-source in the viewer required for the specified output type.

RELATED LINKS:

Create TOCs

Define chapter layout

You can define a chapter layout for a project to order topics and folders logically in the Project Manager pod. RoboHelp uses this chapter layout to auto-create a TOC.

Notes:

• If you rename a folder or a topic, the topics and folders retain their order.

• If you delete a topic or a folder, the remaining topics retain their order.

• If you add a new topic or a folder, it is added at the top inside the parent folder.

• If you drop a topic or a folder on a non-topic/folder item (such as CSS, image, or baggage), it moves to the last position inside the parent folder of the target.

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• When you upgrade a project from an older version of RoboHelp, all the topics appear randomly. You can customize the order of topics later.

• You can right-click a folder or topic in the Project Manager pod and select Explore to open the topic or the folder in Windows Explorer.

Drag folders

• Drag a topic or a folder above or below another topic or folder. For linked documents, you can drag only above the linked documents.

RELATED LINKS:

Pin a project to the list of recently opened projects

Manage files

List topics by title or filename

1) In the Project Manager pod, open the Project Files folder.

2) Select Project > View > Display Topics > By Topic Title or By File Name.

Using the To Do list

The To Do list helps you track project tasks. You can customize the list by adding, deleting, or modifying the existing To Do tasks.NOTE: To Do settings are retained when you upgrade a project from an older version

of RoboHelp to a newer version.

You can generate a report on the customized To Do list.

Edit items on the To Do list

1) Select Project > File > Project Settings.

2) Click the General tab.

3) Click Manage.

4) Do either of the following:

• To add a task to the list, click Add. Type the name of the task item.

• To edit or remove a task, select the task and click Edit or Delete.

NOTE: From the Project Settings dialog box, you cannot see the Ran Smart Index item in the default To Do

list. This precaution ensures that you do not delete this item by mistake. By default, RoboHelp sets the option Ran Smart Index for all the topics on which you run the Smart Index wizard.

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Update the To Do list for a topic

1) Right-click a topic in the Project Manager pod and select Properties. Click the Status tab.

2) Select or deselect items on the To Do list.

Generate a status report

You can generate a Project Status report to view the number of topics using the To Do list.

1) Select Tools > Reports > Project Status.

Edit the list of recently opened projects

Recently opened projects are listed in the RoboHelp Starter pod.

1) Select File > Options.

2) Click the Recent Projects tab.

• To change the number of files listed, specify a number in the Max Projects box.

• To remove a file from the list, select it and click Remove.

RELATED LINKS:

Broken links report

Add files and folders to the Baggage folder

RoboHelp sometimes doesn’t automatically add references to external elements to the Baggage Files folder. If needed, add files to the Baggage Files folder so the external elements appear correctly in the output. Save time by importing the complete folder to the baggage files without having to add files individually. It not only adds all contents from the chosen folder, but also maintains the same folder structure within the project. Follow the steps below to add baggage file or folder to the project:

1) Select Project > Open > Pods > Project Manager.

The Pods drop-down list is also available in the Edit and Review ribbons.

2) Right-click on Project Files, select Import Baggage > select File or Folder.

NOTE: You can also access this option by Right-click the Baggage Files folder > New > select File or

Folder. If the Baggage Files folder isn’t listed, click the Toggle Project Manager View button .

3) To add a file, double-click the source file for any of the following:

• Bitmaps and icons used with HTML Help controls

• Image files used in style sheets, topic backgrounds, and scripts

• The JavaScript file that supports Dynamic HTML effects, such as pop-ups and drop-down

hotspots

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4) To add a folder, browse and select the folder containing the baggage files.

5) Click Open.

NOTE: You can create a link to a baggage file by pressing the Shift key while dragging and dropping it

into a topic.

Additional features with Baggage folder

The Baggage Files feature allows you to perform the following additional tasks:

1) Drag-and-drop content from one location to another to organize content within the Baggage Files folders.

2) Delete the unwanted files.

3) Rename files and folders.

4) Create a link to a baggage file by pressing the Shift key while dragging and dropping it into a topic.

5) Insert image from the Baggage Files by dragging and dropping it to the topic you are working on.

Remove files from the Baggage folder

To remove a file from the Baggage folder, select the file and click Delete.

Map file types

Map file types to associate them with the applications used for editing them.

Associate a file extension with an application

1) Select File > Options.

2) Click File Association tab.

3) For associated programs, click Add.

4) Enter a filename extension.

5) Select an editor to edit documents with the specified filename extension.

When you select a program, its location appears in the Edit With box. The programs appear alphabetically.NOTE: Only those programs appear in the list whose registry entry is set to “NoOpenWith.”

6) Select a program to view the file.

You can also browse to a program not listed in the program list.

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Add an HTML editor mapping

1) Select File > Options.

2) Click File Association tab.

3) For HTML editors, click Add.

4) Select from the recommended or other programs registered to edit or view .html or .htm files.NOTE:

When you select a program, its name and location appear in the Name and Location box. You can also browse for a program that does not appear in the program list.

5) Click OK. The selected program appears in the list of HTML editors.NOTE: To change the HTML editor, browse and select a new program.

Remove topics from projects

Before you remove files, back up all project files and view and print reports if your project is not under version control. To avoid broken links, don’t remove files in Windows Explorer or version control software.

1) Select one or more files:

• To remove a topic, use the Project Manager pod.

• To remove multiple topics, use the Topic List pod.

2) Press Delete. If prompted, do NOT remove references to removed topics.

NOTE: You can choose to remove the references, but if you do that, you do not get to review the effect of

the removal in other topics. Electing NOT to remove the references, forces the links to display in Broken Links, from which you can review each topic to see if any editing is required.

RELATED LINKS:

Unused files report

Define chapter layout

Manage folders

Create folders

The Project Manager contains default folders for project organization. You can create folders and subfolders only in these folders: HTML Files (Topics), Images, Multimedia, Style Sheets, and Baggage Files.

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NOTE: Do not use Windows Explorer to create subfolders to add, move, or rename files. RoboHelp does not

recognize these changes.

1) Select the Project Files folder in the Project Manager pod.NOTE: If the Project Files folder isn’t listed, click the Toggle Project Manager View button .

2) Right-click the folder, and select New > Folder.

3) Enter a name for the folder. Avoid special characters and spaces.

4) Press Enter.

Tips:

• Move files and folders in Project Manager by dragging.

• You can drag topics from the Topic List into multiple folders in the Project Manager.

Project Manager folders

In the Project Manager pod, you edit, delete, and create project files. Two views are available in Project Manager. Both views include a set of commonly used options for authoring. One view displays all the project files gathered together in a single folder called Project Files; the other view groups the project files into various virtual folders based on file type. Click the Toggle Project Manager View button or , to change views.

The Project Manager view that displays project files in various virtual folders contains the following folders:

HTML Files (Topics)

Stores the topics of a project. Files are sorted alpha numerically (A-Z, 0-9). You can add folders within this folder. You can use the structure to generate a TOC automatically and create browse sequences.

Images

Images used in your project are stored in this folder. Image maps and their associated links (hotspots) are also listed. You can drag an image from this folder into the Design Editor to add images to topics. You can also rename images in this folder by selecting the image and pressing F2.

Multimedia

All sound and video files used in your project are saved in this folder. Adobe Captivate demos (SWF files) are also stored here. You can drag sound or video files into the Design Editor to add multimedia to topics. You can also find out where the files are referenced in your project.

Style sheets

Style sheets control the formatting of topics. When you change a style sheet, all topics associated with it are updated. The RoboHelp default style sheets (CSS files) and any others you add to your project are stored in this folder. Edit a style sheet by double-clicking its icon.

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Baggage Files

RoboHelp provides a mechanism to include content that isn't directly linked to your project by uploading it as a baggage file. When you click a link to a content in the baggage file, it opens the file in the associated application. You can add files like PDFs, Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoints, and more. Certain files are automatically added to the Baggage Files folder in the Project Manager to display the following correctly in the generated project:

• Bitmap and icon files used with HTML Help controls

• Image files used in topic backgrounds and scripts

• The JavaScript file (ehlpdhtm.js) that supports Dynamic HTML effects such as related topics pop-ups, smart pop-ups, and drop-down hotspots.

• The support file for skins and the navigation pane in browser-based outputs (TOC, index, glossary, and full-text search.

You can drag files from the Baggage Files folder into topics to create links to the files.

Broken Links

Stores links to files that are not present in the project. To restore or remove a broken link, double-click it.

URLs

Stores links to web addresses, FTP sites, newsgroups, e-mail addresses, and HTML topics in external CHM files. From this folder, you can add a URL to an index. You can drag a URL into the Design Editor.

Table Of Contents

Stores the default TOC and all other TOCs created in the project.

Index

Stores the default index and all other indexes created in the project.

Glossary

Stores the default glossary and all other glossaries created in the project.

Rename folders

Use the Project Manager to rename folders.

1) Select the Project Files folder in the Project Manager pod.

2) Right-click the folder. Select Rename.

3) Type the new name. Don’t include special characters, and avoid spaces, especially for WebHelp and FlashHelp.

4) Press Enter.

Move folders

Use the Project Manager pod to move folders.

1) Select Project Files in the Project Manager pod.

2) Drag the subfolder to its new location.

Remove custom folders

Before you remove the folder, move any items in it that you want to keep.

1) Select the custom folder in the Project Manager pod.

2) Choose Project > Delete.

File and folder icons

The Project Manager icons indicate the components and files included in your project.

NOTE:Icons with a red check mark indicate that the file is checked out (applicable only to topics under version

control).

Icon Description

Closed folders. Closed folders that contain files display a plus sign. Click the plus sign to show the folder contents. Right-click for more options.

Open folders. Open folders display a minus sign with the contents shown below. Click the minus sign to collapse the folder.

Toggle view. Click to switch between a simplified view with fewer folders or one showing all folders.

Show/hide files. Click to select the files you want to show in the Project Manager.

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Icon Description

Empty folders. Empty folders display no signs.

HTML files (Topics). Double-click page icons to open a Design editor. Right-click for more options.

HTML topics with bookmarks. Topics with bookmarks have a plus sign. Click the plus sign to show all bookmarks.

Missing files. A red X indicates files that the program cannot locate. These files are not in the project path. Either they have been deleted, or they are saved in a different folder of the project.

Bookmarks. Bookmarks appear alphabetically below their respective topics. Double-click to open a topic. Drag bookmarks into topics in Design Editor to create links.

Framesets. Double-click to open a dialog box for changing frame attributes.

URLs, web addresses, FTP sites, newsgroups, e-mail addresses, or HTML topics in external CHM files. Double-click to open a dialog box for adding keywords to a link. Drag URLs into topics open in Design Editor to create links.

Images (GIF, JPEG, and JPG formats). Double-click to preview the image, identify topics that use it, and view file information. Drag images into topics in Design Editor to add them.

Image maps. Images with clickable links or hotspots. Click the plus sign to display links. Double-click to preview the image, identify topics that use it, and view file information. Drag the image maps into topics in Design editor to add them.

Image map links (hotspots). Double-click to identify topics that use image maps.

Sound files (AU, MID, RMI, and WAV formats). Double-click to identify topics that use them and view file information. Drag sound files into topics in Design Editor to add them.

Video files (AVI and MOV formats). Double-click to identify topics that use them and view file information. Drag video files into topics in Design Editor to add them.

Adobe Captivate files (SWF files). Double-click to identify topics that use them and view file information. Drag Adobe Captivate files into topics in Design Editor to add them.

Custom windows. Double-click to modify window properties.

Style sheets (CSS). Double-click to modify styles.

Text-only files For What's This? Help (.TXT format). Double-click to create or modify text-only topics files.

Map Files For Context-Sensitive Help (.HH) Includes imported map files or automatically generated files.

All map IDs. Links map IDs to HTML topics for context-sensitive Help. Double-click to work with map IDs and map files.

Icon Description

Table of contents folder. Shows the default and other table of contents in the project.

Table of contents folder. Expand to view the table of contents listed.

Table of contents. Double-click to open the selected table of contents pane.

Index folder. Shows the default and other indexes (if any) listed.

Index folder. Expand to view the indexes listed.

Index. Double-click to open the selected index pane.

Glossary folder. Shows the default and other glossaries (if any) listed.

Glossary folder. Expand to view the glossaries listed.

Glossary. Double-click to open the selected glossary pane.

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See also. Double-click to open the See Also pane and add to See also keywords.

Baggage files (BMP, ICO, XML, JS, other image files). Files such as bitmaps and icons used with HTML Help controls, including custom buttons for link controls and startup screens. If your project includes Dynamic HTML, the file EHLPDHTMJS is included in your Baggage Files folder. Other image files are included as well, such as topic backgrounds and scripts.

TIP:You can map filename extensions to applications. For example, map GIF files to Adobe Photoshop

When you right-click a GIF file from the Images folder and select Edit, the file opens in Photoshop.

RELATED LINKS:

Define a languagefor a paragraph

Authoring content in multiple languages

You can change the language of an existing project or a new project. The language affects the window text, as well as the dictionary for the spell checker and the automatic indexing (Smart Index Wizard) customized settings.

You can also customize the display text, such as the text in browse sequence buttons, previous and next buttons, show/hide buttons, some messages, and more. The text can be anything you specify. For example, the default text “Search” on the Search tab can be changed to “Find” in the language of your choice.

When delivering the project to translators, always provide the source files and not the output files.

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NOTE:In HTML Help systems, the end user’s operating system must be in the same language as the one used

in your project. Otherwise, the end user’s operating system overrides the language specified in your project. The dictionary and index sorting are not affected in the end user’s system.

Support for multiple languages

RoboHelp provides multiple language support at the paragraph, topic, and project level. You can set the language at the paragraph level and topic level through the RoboHelp user interface. Language defined at the paragraph level takes precedence over language defined at a topic level. Language set at the topic level takes precedence over language defined at a project level. Language defined at the project level can never take precedence over language defined at paragraph level. You can think of the prioritized language as the effective language. Effective language is used in spelling checks, in a dictionary or a thesaurus, in generating a smart index, and in preparing a full-text search.

The project language is defined at the project level. You can apply different language settings using Project > Project Settings.

You define the topic language using the Topic Properties dialog box.

You define the paragraph language using the Paragraph dialog box. Select any paragraph in the Design view and choose Paragraph from the context menu.

RoboHelp supports the following languages:

Languages Spell Check User Dictionary Thesaurus Auto correct

A r a b i c Ye s Ye s Ye s Ye s

Danish (Denmark) Yes Yes Yes Yes

German (Germany) Yes Yes Yes Yes

En g l is h (US ) Yes Ye s Yes Yes

En g l is h (UK ) Yes Ye s Yes Yes

Spanish (Spain) Yes Yes Yes Yes

French (France) Yes Yes Yes Yes

H e b r e w Ye s Ye s Ye s Ye s

Italian (Italy) Yes Yes Yes Yes

Dutch (The Netherlands) Yes Yes Yes Yes

Norwegian Bokmâl (Norway) Yes Yes Yes Yes

Norwegian Nynorsk (Norway) Yes Yes No Yes

Languages Spell Check User Dictionary Thesaurus Auto correct

Port u g ue se (B r a zi l) Ye s Ye s No Yes

Swedish (Sweden) Yes Yes Yes Yes

Croatian (Croatia) Yes Yes No Yes

Port u g ue se (Por t u g al) Ye s Ye s No Ye s

French (Canada) Yes Yes Yes Yes

Finnish (Finland) Yes Yes No Yes

Catalan (Spain) Yes Yes No Yes

Rus s i an (R us sia) Ye s Ye s No Ye s

Bu l g ar ian ( B u l garia ) Yes Ye s No Ye s

Czech (Czech Republic) Yes Yes No Yes

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Poli s h (P o l an d) Yes Ye s No Ye s

Romanian (Romania) Yes Yes No Yes

Hungarian (Hungary) Yes Yes No Yes

Greek (Greece) Yes Yes No Yes

Tu r ki sh (Tu r ke y) Yes Ye s No Ye s

Estonian (Estonia) Yes Yes No Yes

L a t v ian (L a t vi a) Ye s Yes No Ye s

Lithuanian (Lithuania) Yes Yes No Yes

Slovenian (Slovenia) Yes Yes No Yes

German (Switzerland) Yes Yes Yes Yes

Japanese (Japan)NoNoNoNo

Korean (Korea) NoNoNoNo

Traditional Chinese (Taiwan) No No No No

Simplified Chinese (China)NoNoNoNo

Thai (Thailand) No No No No

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Languages Spell Check User Dictionary Thesaurus Auto correct

Vietnamese (Vietnam)NoNoNoNo

RELATED LINKS:

Create a topic

Create andedit single-source layouts

Translation workflows

You can create content for multiple languages in a single RoboHelp HTML project by translating the English content in the same project. You can then create tables of contents, indexes, glossaries, and conditional build tags in the project for the desired languages. Finally, you can apply conditional build tags to content authored in the various languages, and generate conditional output.

Follow the steps in this workflow, which uses translation from English to French and Japanese as an example:

1) Apply French language project settings by selecting French Language.

2) Open an English topic, create a topic for the French language, and translate the content, including the topic title from English to French. (Do not translate topic filenames.)

3) Create French tables of contents, indexes, and glossaries.

4) Create a conditional build tag, such as FrenchContent.

5) Apply the FrenchContent conditional build tag to French content and topics.

6) Generate output for the French language.

7) Apply Japanese language project settings by selecting the Japanese Language.

8) Open an English topic, create a topic for the Japanese language, and translate the content from English to Japanese.

9) Create Japanese tables of contents, indexes, and glossaries.

10) Create a conditional build tag called JapaneseContent.

11) Apply the JapaneseContent conditional build tag to the Japanese content.

12) Generate output for the Japanese language.NOTE: To view the Japanese output, you must change your

PC’s language to Japanese.NOTE: To translate a WebHelp project, first make a copy of the project, open that copy in RoboHelp and author in your desired language.

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Compare content in different languages

1) Open topics created in different languages.

2) In Design Editor, position the topics side by side: Drag a topic tab slightly down or to the right, and release the mouse when the page icon appears. Choose New Horizontal Tab Group or New Vertical Tab Group.

Select a different language for translating a project file

1) Select Output > Stop Words.

2) In the Advanced Settings for Localization dialog box, use the following tabs:

Stop List

Click New to add words that must be ignored during a text search.

Phrases

Click New to add a phrase for the Smart Index Wizard to include when searching topic content for keywords.

Labels

Click Edit to modify the text for each user interface element listed.

"Always Ignore" Words

Click New to add a word or phrase that the Smart Index Wizard ignores when generating the index.

Synonyms

Click New to add a synonym for a word. This option enables you to search for words and their synonyms. The results are always returned for the searched words.

Create a project with a different language

1) Select File > New Project.

2) In the New tab, double-click Project Type. The New Project Wizard appears.

NOTE:To create a JavaHelp or Oracle Help project, first create a Microsoft HTML Help project, and

then add a new layout to that project.

3) Enter project information.

4) From the Language menu, select the language. Click Save As Default to keep the language as the default.

5) Click Finish.

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The first topic opens in the Design Editor. Generate and view your project to view the results.

RELATED LINKS:

Importing and linking Microsoft Word documents

Customizing text for localization

You can customize certain text in the user interface for WebHelp, WebHelp Pro, FlashHelp, FlashHelp Pro, and HTML Help outputs. Here is what you can change for each format:

WebHelp, WebHelp Pro, FlashHelp and FlashHelp Pro

• With a skin Customize text in the Skin Editor. If you do not change the default text (such as “Contents” for the Contents button), the text is automatically translated using the project language setting.). If you customize text in a skin, the skin text overrides any customizations you make in the LNG file. For FlashHelp, the Flash developer uses the Skin Development Kit to customize the text.

WebHelp only

• Without a skin Edit the language file. You can localize browse sequence button text; text on the Glossary tab, Previous button, and Next button; certain messages; and the Contents, Index, and Search tabs. For example, you can change the text on the Search tab from “Search” to “Find.”

HTML Help

You can customize browse sequence button text and all text on the Glossary tab. Change window titles in the Windows Properties dialog box.

Edit the Labels file

1) Create or open a project.

2) Select Output > Labels.

3) Select the interface text. Click Edit.

4) Type the edits. Press Enter.

Notes:

• If RoboHHRE.LNG is already in your user's Windows folder, it overrides the file in the Baggage Files folder.

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• If you do not include the RoboHHRE.LNG file, or omit some values, your project defaults to the English values shown in the example.

• If you are using a skin, the default text is translated to the default language. If you customized the text in a skin, the skin text overrides customizations in the LNG file.

Change the default project language

1) Open the project.

2) Select Project > Project Settings.

3) Click the General tab and select the language.

4) Click OK.

5) Generate and view your project.

Notes:

• If you use a skin, the default text uses the language setting of the project. Customized skin text overrides text settings in the LNG file.

• Localize window captions in the Windows Properties dialog (not applicable to WebHelp projects).

Language support for associated dictionaries

If your project contains content authored for multiple languages, define RoboHelp language settings in the project, topic, and paragraph separately. The effective language is used for dictionary or thesaurus association and for spell checking. For example, suppose you set the project language to UK English and the paragraph language to French for several paragraphs. The French spelling checker is activated for French paragraphs while the UK English spelling checker is used for the rest of the content.

NOTE:Updated language settings for each language are stored at a common location in the project folder. You

can access the language settings information in the Projects\ !Language! folder.

Index localized text

Use the Smart Index wizard to index your localized project. You can assign keywords for each topic based on the topic content. The index is generated based on language and search criteria you define in the Smart Index wizard. The Smart Index Wizard suggests keywords based on topic content.

1) Select a language for a new or existing project.

2) Follow the steps for automatically creating your index.

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Universal character sets

RoboHelp enables you to create content in multiple languages. However, authoring content in a multilingual environment can be challenging when the languages span multiple Microsoft Windows code pages. Support for the Unicode character encoding standard in RoboHelp overcomes many of these challenges.

Without Unicode, operating systems use a code-page-based environment, in which each language script has its own table of characters. Content based on the code page of one operating system seldom translates correctly on an operating system that uses another code page. For example, suppose you are running the English version of the Microsoft Windows® XP/Vista operating system with the German code page. Then suppose you open a plain text file created in the Japanese version of Windows XP/Vista. In this case, the code points of the Japanese code page are mapped to unexpected or nonexistent characters in the Western script. The resulting text is unintelligible.

Support for Unicode text encoding standards

RoboHelp HTML supports Unicode text encoding. You can create a topic in multiple languages, regardless of the language used by the operating system running RoboHelp.

You can perform the following tasks related to Unicode:

• Author documents containing multilingual paragraphs and words. For example, you can have a set of Greek characters followed by Russian characters, and then by French text in the same paragraph.

• Use the relevant language spelling checker to check Unicode content.

• Create, open, or edit Unicode-encoded HTML and text files (UTF-8 and UTF-16 encoded files).

• Enter Unicode characters in input forms and dialog boxes.

• Generate TOC, index, and glossary by using Unicode strings.

• Convert and import text of non-Unicode encoded file types (HTML, XML, MIGF, and so on).

• Publish content to a non-English server by adding multibyte characters in the complete path name.

• Create, open, or edit Unicode-encoded HTM files (UTF-8 and UTF-16 encoded files).

• Provide Unicode-encoded input and view Unicode content in fields, dialog boxes, wizards, and forms.

Set up input languages on Windows

Before you start typing non-English text or Unicode characters in the HTML files, ensure that RoboHelp HTML 8 is running on a UTF-8 locale. Configure the regional language or locale settings on your computer to add additional languages for keyboard input, across operating systems.

Use the Windows® XP regional and language settings to add additional languages for keyboard input. These languages and speech settings appear in the Language bar on the desktop. After you select a language

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from the bar and a localized keyboard, you can start typing the required text in the document. Microsoft® defines the keyboard layouts.

1) Open the Control Panel and double-click the Regional And Language Options icon. The Regional And Language Options dialog box appears.

2) Click the Languages tab.

3) Click the Details button. The Text Services And Input Languages dialog box appears.

4) In the Settings tab, click the Add button.

5) Select a language from the Input Language list.

6) Click OK. The selected language is included in the Installed Services list.

7) Select the desired language in the Default Input Language list.

8) Click Apply and click OK to save the settings and close the Text Services And Input Languages dialog box.

9) Click the Regional Options tab, and choose the language you selected in the Default Input Language list.

10) Click Apply and click OK to save the settings and close the Regional And Language Options dialog box. The Language bar appears on the desktop of your computer.

11) Open RoboHelp, and type the content. The text appears in the selected language.

You can change the language in the Default Input Language list and the Regional Options tab. The language selected in the Language bar is updated automatically to reflect your new choice.

Upgrade localized projects

Product-level customization is moved to [install_folder]\Language in RoboHelp. For example, English is renamed as en_US and en_UK, and French is renamed as fr_FR.

The project-level customization is moved to[project folder]\!Language!\[language folder].

Minor customizations

1) Open Notepad.

2) Open the file to modify. These files reside in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp [version]\RoboHTML\!Language!\en_US.

3) Open the project. Do the following:

• Edit the LNG file.

• Edit the custom word lists.

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Major customizations

1) Open Notepad.

2) Open the old file in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp [version]\RoboHTML\Language.

3) Open the new file in a separate window in Project folder\Language.

4) Copy the customizations from the old file to the new file. See the table for filenames.

File description Pre-7 filenames 7 Filenames

Phrase list Phrases.wlf ProjectName.phr

Always Ignore list AlwaysIgn.wlf ProjectName.ign

Stop list *.stp ProjectName.stp

Language file *.lng ProjectName.lng

NOTE: The above procedure is NOT the recommended way. The recommended way is described in

Change project settings

Import PDF files

You can convert an Adobe PDF file (version 1.4 or later) into a single topic or multiple topics for a new or existing project.

• You cannot import SWFs, PDF portfolios, and encrypted PDF files (files that require a password).

• If the PDF contains 3D images, save the PDF in version 5 to import the images.

• TOCs or index field codes convert to PDF.

•Adobe Reader® or Adobe Acrobat® is not required to import PDF files.

• Sometimes fonts in PDF files do not convert correctly when imported into HTML.

Create a project by importing a PDF file

NOTE:You cannot import encrypted PDF files (files that require a password).

1) Select File > New Project.

2) Click the Import tab. Select PDF Document and click OK.

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3) Click the browse button to select one or more PDF files from a single folder. Click Open, and then click Next.

4) Enter the project information. Click Next.

5) Select options in the Conversion Options dialog box.

Topic

Select how to split the PDF into topics.

Create New Topic(s) Based On Style(s)

Activates the Next button. Click to select styles.

Create A Single Topic

Creates one topic from the entire PDF.

Create A Topic For Each PDF Page

Choose additional options.

Convert As HTML

Creates a topic for each PDF page.

Convert As Image

Renders each PDF page as a separate image.

Convert As Absolutely Positioned HTML (Advanced)

Creates a topic for each PDF page. Positioning the content can require advanced HTML and subsequent editing can be difficult. Use this option if the other options don’t produce the results you want. This option is not recommended for printed documentation.

Image (JPG/GIF/PNG)

Select the format for images converted from the PDF. To exclude images, select None.

Page Range

By default, all PDF pages are converted. Alternatively, enter the page numbers on which to start and end.

Create new topics based on styles

Styles are converted based on the following:

• The most common style becomes the Normal style, which cannot be used to split topics.

• The remaining styles are ranked from largest point size to smallest. Style ranking also considers boldness (highest precedence), italics, and normal (lowest precedence).

• Styles are ordered and numbered using “Heading 1” for the dominant heading style and “PdfParaStyle01” through “PdfParaStyleX” for all other styles. Rename these styles using this dialog.

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Create New Topics Based On

Lists the styles used in the PDF document.

NOTE: RoboHelp splits the documents into topics using the specified styles. The style text is

included by default in the filename of the topic file created. Any non-ASCII characters in the topic file names are automatically converted to ASCII characters.

Description

Displays a description of the selected style.

Paragraph Preview

Displays a preview of the selected style.

Rename Style

Renames the selected style in your project.

Finish

Completes the import process.

Back

Returns to the Conversion Options dialog box.

Import PDF files into a project

1) In the Project Manager pod, right-click Project Files.

2) Select the file to import into.

3) Select Project > Import > PDF Document.

4) Select one or more PDF files. Click Open.

5) Select options in the Conversion Options dialog box.

6) If Create New Topic(s) Based On Style(s) was selected, click Next to select styles.

7) Click Finish.

Importing and linking Word and FrameMaker documents

You can import Microsoft Word and Adobe FrameMaker documents to your RoboHelp projects.

RELATED LINKS:

Importing FrameMaker documents

Custom HTML tags

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Importing and linking Microsoft Word documents

In RoboHelp, you can import or link Microsoft Word documents (files with .docx, .docm, .doc, or .rtf extensions after the filename). You can create new projects by importing or linking Word documents. Or, you can use the Word documents as source files for an existing RoboHelp project. You can use this workflow to integrate content created by different authors in Word.

The settings for importing and linking Word documents are applied at the project level. For this reason, you have consistent settings for all documents that you import or link to RoboHelp projects. You can also export the conversion settings that you define and reuse them across multiple projects. Defining a set of standard settings for conversion ensures consistency across projects. See Word conversion settings.

Steps to import a Word document into RoboHelp

1) Locate your Word document.

2) Optimize the Word document for import. See Optimizing Word documents for online output.

3) Read through the differences between linking and importing the Word document. See Linking

versus importing Word documents.

4) Open RoboHelp, and either create a project or use an existing project to import the Word document.

5) Import the Word document. See Import a Word document into a RoboHelp project.

6) Export your conversion settings and reuse it when you import another Word document. See Export

conversion settings.

Steps to link a Word document from RoboHelp

1) Locate your Word document.

2) Optimize the Word document for linking. See Optimizing Word documents for online output.

3) Read through the differences between linking and importing the Word document. See Linking

versus importing Word documents.

4) Read through the options for linking Word documents. See Linking options for Word documents.

5) Open RoboHelp, and either create a project or use an existing project to link the Word document.

6) Link the Word document. See Link a Word document to a RoboHelp project.

7) Synchronize your linked Word document with RoboHelp when you edit your Word document. See

Synchronizing linked Word documents with RoboHelp projects.

8) Export your conversion settings and reuse it when you link another Word document. See Export

conversion settings.

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Linking versus importing Word documents

You have two options for integrating content from Word documents into RoboHelp projects: linking and importing. The following table lists the differences between the two methods:

Option Linking Importing Remarks

Ability to update generated topics

Ability to automatically update TOC, index, and glossary changes from the source document

Ye s . You can update the generated topics whenever the source document or your RoboHelp project settings change.

Ye s . When you link a document, separate TOC, index, and glossary files are created and associated with the linked Word document. When the linked Word document is updated, the linked TOC, index, and glossary files are also updated.

No. When you import a Word document into a RoboHelp project, RoboHelp copies the contents of the Word document into RoboHelp project. RoboHelp generates topics based on conversion settings. If the source document changes, delete the generated topics and reimport the Word document.

No. When you import a Word d ocument , the generated TOC is appended and index and glossary are merged into the selected TOC, index, and glossary file.

Use the link option when the source Word document can change. Typically, if multiple projects share the Word document, you link the Word d ocument . If, however, you are bringing in content as a one-time activity, you can use the import option.

Use the link option if you want to automatically update the TOC, index, and glossary whenever these components are updated in the Word document.

Ability to regenerate deleted topics

Ability to preserve changes in generated topics

Ye s . You can delete a topic that is generated from an imported Word document, and then regenerate the same topic when you update the Word d o c um ent.

Ye s . You can m a r k t op i c s generated from a linked Word document to ensure that the marked topics are not updated when the linked document is updated. In this way, you can preserve any changes you made in RoboHelp.

No. Import the source document again to generate the deleted topic.

No. When you re-import a Word document, all topics previously generated from the imported document are recreated, overwriting any changes you made in RoboHelp.

Use the linking option when you share the source document across multiple projects.

Use the link option if you need to retain updates made to both the linked Word document and the generated topics.

Option Linking Importing Remarks

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Ability to change the filenames and topic titles of generated files from Project Manager

No. When you link a Word d o c um ent, yo u cannot change the filenames or topic titles of generated files from Project Manager.

Ye s . When you import a Word d ocument , you c a n change the filenames or topic titles of generated files.

Use the import option if you want to customize the filenames and topic titles from Project Manager.

Optimizing Word documents for online output

If you are importing Word documents that have been published in printed or online format, consider the following before linking or importing them into RoboHelp projects.

Heading hierarchies

Determine the best mapping of Word heading styles to RoboHelp styles so that you can achieve automatic pagination (splitting the document into topics) based on heading styles. If your document does not employ hierarchical heading styles, apply them before conversion. For example, you can apply Heading 1 style to standalone articles in your Word document. Then map this style to a similar RoboHelp style and define pagination to create an HTML topic for each Heading 1 style. See Pagination

and topic naming in converted Word files.

Inline styles and style overrides

You can convert inline styles to CSS styles in RoboHelp. However, converting inline styles to CSS styles can lead to numerous styles that share the same formatting. See Converting Word styles to

RoboHelp styles.

Header and footer information

RoboHelp can convert headers and footers. However, to ensure consistency across your topics, you can define a master page that contains the required header and footer information. By using master pages, you can also suppress page numbers in headers and footers. Convert headers and footers in

Word documents.

Chapter versus topic

In printed documentation, the chapter is the logical and physical unit for grouping content. In online Help, the organizational unit is the topic, and users see topics one at a time. Although you can group the content into folders that expand when the user navigates the table of contents, only one topic appears on the screen at a time. Try to provide comprehensive information without adding redundancy by grouping related topics. See Pagination and topic naming in converted Word files.

TOCs

As you import Word documents, you can also import the Word TOC into the RoboHelp TOC. You can define the topic hierarchy and represent that hierarchy in the RoboHelp TOC. See Importing a

Word TOC, index, and glossary.

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Context sensitivity

In online Help formats, you can link specific topics to dialog boxes and other elements that users encounter in the application workflow. You can assign map IDs to topics in RoboHelp. However, you can also assign context-sensitive Help markers in Word documents using custom footnote entries. RoboHelp reads these footnote entries and assigns the map IDs to the generated topics. Ensure that topics in the source Word document are not overly fragmented. A topic must contain sufficient information to make sense as a standalone unit.

For example, if a short task doesn’t make sense without some introductory conceptual information, don’t display that task as a standalone topic. To avoid overly fragmented content, assign context-sensitive Help markers to topics at a higher level. In this way, the generated Help topic can contain the concept, the task, and any relevant graphics. See Convert context-sensitive Help markers

in Word to map IDs.

Linking options for Word documents

For linking Word documents to a RoboHelp project, you can specify one of the following options in the Import tab of project settings (Project > Project Settings):

Create A Reference

You create a reference to an external Word document. In this case, the source Word document is not copied into the RoboHelp project folder. It remains outside the project. You can edit and update the Word document independently in Word. Later, in RoboHelp, you can update the topics generated from the linked document.

Use the linking by reference option to bring in content that is shared across multiple projects. Because only a single copy of the document exists, any change in the source document is reflected in all projects to which this document is linked.

Create A Copy And Link

You create a copy of the source document and link to the RoboHelp project. In this case, a copy of the source document is copied into the RoboHelp project and is visible in the Project Manager pod. You can edit and update the Word copy without affecting the source document. You update the topics generated from the copied Word document whenever you edit the document.

Use the Create A Copy And Link option to maintain the Word document in RoboHelp, and restrict access to the source document and allow editing only in the copy available in the RoboHelp project. For example, if you want to bring in content from a static Word document, link the document by copying it to the RoboHelp project.NOTE: This option is available only when you link Word docu-

ments. When you import a Word document, RoboHelp does not keep any link to the source Word document.

Projects

Link and import Word documents

• Create a RoboHelp project by linking to or importing a Word document. You can import DOCX, DOC, DOCM, or RTF files.

• Link or import Word documents into a RoboHelp project.

• (For linked documents)Update the generated topics whenever any of the conversion settings or the source documents changes.

HTML files are not created until you define the conversion settings and generate the Help topics. The source Word documents are unaffected by linking and subsequent editing. RoboHelp creates a copy of the linked or imported Word documents before applying the conversion settings.

Create a project by importing a Word document

You can create a RoboHelp project by importing a Word document. To import Word files, you must have Microsoft Word installed on your computer. NOTE: DOCX and DOCM formats are not supported by

versions earlier than Microsoft Word 2007. See Microsoft Word Help for more information.

1) In the Starter pod, click Word Document under Import.

2) Select Word Documents from the Files Of Type pop-up menu, select the Word document, and click Open.

3) Enter relevant details in the New Project wizard and click Finish.

Link a Word document to a RoboHelp project

1) Create a project in RoboHelp.

2) Select Project > Link > Word File.

3) Click Browse to select one or more Word documents and click Open.

NOTE: To import multiple documents with separate TOCs, select them in the order they should appear

in the master TOC.

4) Right-click the linked file in Project Manager, and select Properties.

5) In the Word Document Settings dialog box, do the following:

• To generate a TOC from the source document, select the Convert Table of Contents option,

and specify a filename.

• To generate an index from the source document, select the Convert Index option, and specify

a filename.

• To generate a glossary from the source document, select the Convert Glossary option, and

specify a filename.

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NOTE: You can define the paragraph styles for a glossary term and definition in the project

settings. See Convert Word paragraph styles to RoboHelp styles.

NOTE: RoboHelp associates the generated TOC, index, and glossary files with the source Word docu-

ment. So when the source document is updated, the TOC, index, and glossary files are also updated.

6) Click OK.

Import a Word document into a RoboHelp project

1) Create a project in RoboHelp.

2) Select Project > Import > Word Document.

3) Click Browse to select one or more Word documents and click Open.

NOTE: To import multiple documents with separate TOCs, select them in the order they should appear

in the master TOC.

4) In the dialog box, set conversion options for the TOC, index, and glossary, and click Next.

For information about various conversion options, see Importing a Word TOC, index, and glossary.

5) (Optional) To edit the conversion settings, click Edit.

6) Check the Import Max checkbox and specify the number of different headers footers to be imported from the MS Word document.

NOTE: New master pages will be created with the headers and footers from the imported MS Word docu-

ment.

7) Modify conversion settings according to your requirements, and click OK.

For information about converting headers and footers, see Convert headers and footers in Word

documents

For information about converting paragraph, character, and other styles, see Converting Word styles

to RoboHelp styles.

8) Click Finish.

Importing a Word TOC, index, and glossary

When you import a Word document into a RoboHelp project, you can also import the table of contents (TOC). Import the TOC into the RoboHelp project to retain, in Help, the navigation structure you defined in your Word document. If you import a Word-generated TOC, the first heading becomes a book. Lower-level headings become pages (unless a book exists at a lower level).

To import multiple documents with separate TOCs, select the Word documents in the Open dialog box in the order that they should appear in the master TOC. The converted TOC is based on the {TOC} field codes of the Word document. Ensure that:

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• Headings for main books have lower-level headings.

• Headings for sub-books appear under main headings and have lower-level headings.

• Headings for pages do not have lower-level headings.

For example, suppose you import a document with more styles than the TOC contains: The document contains heading levels 1 through 3, but the TOC contains only heading 1 and 2 entries. To ensure that heading 3 styles appear in the TOC, either include heading 3 in the Word TOC or auto-create the TOC in RoboHelp.

Import a Word TOC

1) Select Project > Import > Word Document.

2) In the Content Settings dialog box, select Convert Table Of Contents.

3) Select one of the following options:

Add To Existing TOC

Appends the TOC entries to any existing RoboHelp TOC present in the project. Select an existing RoboHelp TOC from the list.

Create New Associated TOC

Enter a name for a new associated TOC that is added to the RoboHelp project.

Import Word index entries

RoboHelp creates an index based on the index markers in the document you are importing.

1) Select Project > Import > Word Document.

2) Select Convert Index in the Content Settings dialog box, and select one of the following options:

Add To Existing Index

Add the Word index entries to the existing RoboHelp index of the project.

Create New Associated Index

Enter a name for a new associated index that is added to the RoboHelp project.

Add To Topic

Add the Word index entries to individual topics in which they appear.

Import Word glossary entries

RoboHelp creates a glossary from the Word document you are importing, based on the paragraph styles defined for the glossary terms and definitions in project settings.

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NOTE: RoboHelp creates a glossary entry by finding a term and a definition in the specified styles in the Word

document. Consecutive instances of term styles or definition styles are rejected.

1) Select Project > Import > Word Document.

2) Select Convert Glossary in the Content Settings dialog box, and select one of the following options:

Add To Existing Glossary

Add the Word glossary entries to the existing RoboHelp glossary of the project.

Create New Associated Glossary

Enter a name for a new associated glossary that is added to the RoboHelp project.

Convert headers and footers in Word documents

You can convert the header and footer text in your Word documents to headers and footers in the generated HTML topics. NOTE: Don’t use this procedure if your projects have topics natively created in RoboHelp

and imported or linked from other sources as well. Instead, use the master page feature in RoboHelp. Using master pages, you can define consistent layouts and consistent headers and footers.

1) Select Project > Project Settings .

2) In the Import tab of the Project Settings dialog box, click Edit under Word Document.

3) In the Conversion Settings dialog box, select Other Settings and then do the following:

• To convert the header and footer in Word documents, select Convert Header and Footer.

Converting Word styles to RoboHelp styles

You can select the cascading style sheet (CSS) that RoboHelp uses to map Word styles to RoboHelp styles. RoboHelp saves all the style conversion settings in this CSS file. By default, RoboHelp uses the RHStyleMapping.css file for your project.

You can also use a custom CSS for your project. You can later edit the styles either in RoboHelp or in an external CSS editing application, such as Adobe Dreamweaver®. You can define how the Word styles convert to RoboHelp styles at the project level. All Word style definitions in the Word document appear in the mapping dialog box, irrespective of whether they are used in the document.

Select CSS for style mapping

1) Do one of the following:

• Select Project > Import > Word Document.

• Select Project > Link > Word File.

• Select Project > Project Settings.

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2) In the Import tab of the Project Settings dialog box, do one of the following:

• Select the CSS file from the CSS For Style Mapping menu. RoboHelp lists CSS files in the root folder of your project, from which you can select a CSS file.

• Select Browse CSS from the CSS For Style Mapping menu, and select the CSS file that you want to use. Use this option to specify a custom CSS for your project. When you select this option, RoboHelp copies the selected CSS file into the root folder of your project, and uses the selected CSS for style mapping.

NOTE: You can edit the CSS file you want to use for style mapping. The Edit With option lets you select an

editor from a predefined list, which includes RoboHelp CSS Editor and other registered CSS editors.

Automap styles

RoboHelp provides a quick option to map paragraph, character, and table styles in the Word files to the corresponding styles in the CSS selected for style mapping. The style names in the Word files and the CSS should be same for automap to work.

1) Select Project > Project Settings.

2) Click the Import tab of the Project Settings dialog box.

Do one of the following:

• Select the CSS file from the CSS For Style Mapping menu.

• Click Add next to the CSS for Style Mapping pop-up menu, and select a CSS file.

Use this option to specify a custom CSS for the project. When you select this option, RoboHelp copies the selected CSS file into the root folder of the project, and uses the selected CSS for style mapping.

3) To edit conversion settings for Word documents, click Edit.

4) In the Paragraph tab, select Automap Paragraph Styles.

5) In the Character tab, select Automap Character Styles.

6) In the Table tab, select Automap Table Styles.

Convert Word paragraph styles to RoboHelp styles

By default, RoboHelp converts all Word styles to CSS, thus retaining the appearance and behavior of the Word styles in the RoboHelp project. If you want to ensure consistency of your online Help projects, you can map the Word styles to RoboHelp styles and edit them.

If the style names in the style sheet selected for style mapping match RoboHelp style names, follow the steps described in Automap styles.

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To manually map the styles, follow these steps:

1) Do one of the following:

• Select Project > Import > Word Document.

• Select Project > Link > Word File .

• Select Project > Project Settings .

2) In the Import tab of the Project Settings dialog box, click Edit under Word Document.

3) In the Conversion Settings dialog box, select the Word style from the Paragraph group.

4) From the RoboHelp Style pop-up menu, select the RoboHelp style that you want to map to the Word style. To retain the appearance of Word text in your online Help format, select [Source].

5) Select the properties for the selected Word style. To edit the selected RoboHelp style, click Edit Style.

To mark a style for glossary

• Select Glossary Definition Style to mark the style to consider for the glossary definition.

• Select Glossary Term to mark the style to consider for the glossary term.

NOTE: Follow Glossary Definition Style with Glossary Term Style for a complete a Glossary Term

Definition pair. RoboHelp uses the terms marked with the selected styles, to create a Glossary.

• To set up pagination: Select Pagination (Split into topics based on this style) to create a Help

topic at each occurrence of the selected Word paragraph style. For example, if you select Heading 1 and Pagination (Split into topics based on this style), RoboHelp starts a new topic at every instance of Heading 1. For more information on Pagination, see Set pagination for online

Help topics

• Using a user-defined HTML tag: Select or enter a user-defined HTML tag for the selected

paragraph style.

For example:

A paragraph with styleParaStyleOne is imported in RoboHelp as <p class=ParaStyleOne> Paragraph Text </p>.

Specifying this string as Pre for the style ParaStyleOne causes RoboHelp to import the paragraphs with the style ParaStyleOne as <pre> Paragraph Text </pre>.

Convert Word character styles to RoboHelp styles

You can map the Word character formats to character styles in RoboHelp. You can also edit the styles in RoboHelp.

If the style names in the style sheet selected for style mapping match RoboHelp style names, follow the steps described in Automap styles.

Macromedia RoboHelp - 2017 User Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Getting started

Basic workflow

Create a project

Author the content.

Import files.

Develop the navigation.

Customize the output.

Generate, test, and distribute the Help package.

Activation and registration

Install the software

Help with installation

License activation

Adobe Product Improvement Program

Register

Help and support

Adobe Community Help

Accessing RoboHelp help

Accessing help using a web browser

Accessing help from within RoboHelp

Services, downloads, and extras

Adobe Exchange

Adobe downloads

Adobe Labs

Adobe forums

Adobe TV

RoboHelp sample projects and output

RoboHelp Developer Center

Previous RoboHelp Help

What’s new in RoboHelp (release 2017)

Produce stunning interactive content with next- generation HTML5 publishing

Do more in less time

About RoboHelp Server

Tracking and reporting

Automatic project merging

Support for languages other than English

Integration with SharePoint

SharePoint version matrix

Exploring the workspace

Workspace overview

Quick Access Toolbar

RoboHelp Tabs

Tabbed document pane

Pods

Working with the RoboHelp tabs

Working with pods

View a pod

Arrange pods

Types of pods

Starter pod

Project Manager pod

Output Setup pod

Snippets pod

Styles And Formatting pod

User Defined Variables pod

Error List pod

Output View pod

Toolbox pod

Resource Manager pod

External content search pod

RoboHelp Server pod

Environments

Create and save an environment

Load an environment

Restore the default environment

Delete an environment

Create or remove keyboard shortcuts

Create keyboard shortcuts

Remove or reset keyboard shortcuts

Configure general settings

Set the default language and other preferences

Enable or disable confirmation

Enable, disable, or reset notifications

Projects

Project basics

About projects

Help project components