Deleting conditional build expressions

I have created a project in RH7 and it has expanded to become
our company's single source for user documentation. This is a good
thing. However, as I've added information for different audiences,
I've ended up with a number of conditional build expressions that I
no longer need. I'd like to delete them so I don't have to search
through a long list on the WebHelp General screen.
I've searched the forum and don't see any information about
deleting conditional build expressions (tags, yes; expressions,
no). Can anyone tell me how to do this?
Thanks for your help!

Dear Mr. Grange,
Forgive me for resurrecting such an old post. In your reply you state: "any layout that contains the build expression). By 'layout' do you mean the topics?
Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Similar Messages

How can I delete Conditional Build Expressions in RH7?

I have a project with some Conditional Build Expression artifacts that I simply cannot get rid of.
For example, I have created two Conditional Build Expressions:
Internal OR Foo1
Foo1 OR Foo2
It has been determined that the second expression is the one we want. But, the first one still shows up as an option in the SSL. Furthermore, when I view a page, the first expression clutters up my list of possible Conditional Build Expressions.
How can I lose a Conditional Build Expression? I have quite a few possible arrangements, and I don't want to confuse other authors by having too many choices (especially with similar names).
Kevin

Hi Kevin.
I think you have to do this by manually editing the project's .pss file (projectname.pss). If you take a backup of this file and open it in Notepad you'll find a [Global Build Tag Expressions] section and hopefully in there will be your "Internal OR Foo1" expression preceded with a date/time stamp. If you remove this line it should no longer appear in your project.
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Can't Define Conditional Build Expression

HI -
I want to define a couple different Conditional Build
Expressions to generate print and .chm output, but the Define
button is dimmed. This feature was working for me a couple days
ago, but now not.
In my project I have used the conditional build tags for
Printed, and in each of the topics where I used it, the red hash
marks show in the topic - but when I open the conditional build
tags pod, there is nothing there. Wierd.
Hmm.. and now RH crashed for the 2nd time in 2 days -
ugh......
Any suggestions?
thanks, Leisa

Hi Leisa.
Is this the same project with which you were having problems
with yesterday? If so, try recreating the build tags exactly as
they were (e.g. case sensitive) and you will be OK.

Help with conditional build expressions

I'm using RoboHelp HTML and creating WebHelp Pro layouts. I
want to create five (or more) different versions of the Help tool
for our various groups of users.
Here's what I'd like to do: Create a conditional build tag
for each of the versions (i.e. each of our groups of users). I
could name them as follows:
group1
group2
group3
group4
group5
Then, I would associate each topic with one or more of the
build tags. For example, topic1 may be for group1 and group2;
topic2 may be for group1 and group4. Etc.
The problem is thus: When I want to create the version for,
say, group1, my expression ends up excluding the other groups. In
the end, this omits any topics associated with group1 that are also
associated with the other build tags (i.e. the other groups).
Is there an expression I can use to prevent these topics from
being omitted? Perhaps the use of parentheses?
The only solution I've used is tedious: I create many build
tags--one for each variation. For example, I'd have a
group1group2group3 build tag, a group1group3 build tag, a
group1group4 build tag, etc. Then, I just associate one build tag
with each topic. When I'm creating a version for group1, for
example, I'd just include all topics with a build tag that includes
group1 (e.g. group1, group1group3, group1group2group3, et. al.). I
omit the others (e.g. group2group3, group2group4,
group2group3group4group5...et. al.).
As you can imagine, this solution is problematic. First, I
have to create and keep track of many many build tags. Then, if I
want to create another version of Help, I need to change all the
build tags to include this new group.
I'm sure there must be a better build tag expression for what
I'm trying to accomplish. Please help! Thanks!

There is indeed an expression! Unfortunately, the option is
normally hidden, so it can be tricky to find. Here's what you do:
1. Define the build tags.
2. Apply them to your topics. OVERLAPPING IS ENCOURAGED! That
is to say, you can assign tag1, tag2, and tag3 to a single topic.
3. Right-click the desired layout and select Properties.
4. Click the Define button to the right of the Conditional
Build Tag drop-down menu. The Define Conditional Build Tag
Expression dialog will appear.
5. Click the Advanced button. The Advanced area will appear
at the bottom of the dialog.
6. Select a tag from the Available Conditional Build Tags
drop-down menu.
7. Click the Add Tag button. The selected tag will appear in
the Conditional Build Tag Expression display window.
8. Click the AND button.
9. Select another tag from the drop-down menu.
10. Click the Add Tag button.
11. Repeat steps 8-10 for each tag you wish to add to the
expression.
12. Click the OK button to close the dialog.
13. Click the Save button to save your layout with the new
build expression.
That's it! The trick is to use the ADVANCED button in the
Define Conditional Build Tag Expression dialog. Doing so allows you
to build inclusional expressions rather than exclusional
expressions, so you can avoid the hassle you described in your
post. Using this method, I defined two build tags (A and B) and
applied them to three topics as follows:
* Topic 1: Tag A
* Topic 2: Tag B
* Topic 3: Tags A and B
I then defined an expression that simply included tag A. When
I compiled my help, topics 1 and 3 appeared in the output, but
topic 2 did not.

How do I generate output with a certain conditional build expression?

Hi,
I am learning how to use conditional tags in RoboHelp 9. I see how to create and apply the tags. How do I apply the conditions in the output? And can I apply the conditions to the Web output and printed output?
I am going to be working on a project with variations to suit each customer, so I am wondering if RH 9 is a good tool to use for this. (I have access to XMetaL 5 also.)
Thanks,
Erin

You pick them in your Single Source Layout recipe

Conditional build tags/expressions in the TOC

Hello all,
I've run into another issue with my conversion, this time with Conditional build tags and expressions.
All seems to be fine in my topics, but not in my TOC.
Some of my topic titles have words that have conditional text applied in the source FrameMaker document.
These topic titles also appear in the TOC that's automatically generated when I link my Frame book to Robohelp.
I set the conditional build expression in the Webhelp settings dialog and then Save and Generate.
These topic titles appear to pick up the correct conditional build expression in the topics themselves, but the TOC heading shows multiple conditions (including the condition I've set to "Exclude").
So, for example, if my topic title is
"Conventions in this documentonline help"
WHERE
document > should appear in PDF only
and
online help > should appear in Webhelp only
I can get the Webhelp topic to use the title "Conventions in this online help"
but the corresponding TOC heading looks like this:
"Conventions in this documentonline help"
Any ideas?
Thanks.
Sue

Conditional build tags are not imported to TOC from FrameMaker content. However, one can follow another approach to achieve this. One can manage the Conditional build expression in FrameMaker itself and import the filterted content in RoboHelp. Inorder to achieve this, set the conditional build expression in FrameMaker. Turn on the setting in RoboHelp to "Apply FrameMaker Conditional Text Build Expression". [File->Project Settings->Import->Edit(FrameMaker Settings)->Other Settings]
This way RoboHelp will import only the filtered content with Conditional Build Tags resolved as per the expression applied in FrameMaker.
Mayank

In the paragraph after a conditional build tag, an inline image gets wrapped in a div tag

Hi,
TCS5, so FM 12 and RH11. I have successfully applied some conditional build tags by turning off the apply conditional build tag setting and using the Conditional Build Expression in the WebHelp properties instead.
In RoboHelp, everything looks correct. I generate WebHelp and suddenly, a div tag is wrapped around the inline image in the paragraph that followed the text marked conditional.
This did not happen with TCS 4 (FM11, RH10). I am not sure why this div tag is applied only when I generate the help. Any thoughts on what to check?
Lauren

Hi lauren,
I tried to replicate the above mentioned issue, but did not get the <div> around the image in Webhelp output. Would it be possible for you to provide more information on this:
At what point does the <div> start appearing around the image, as soon as the CBT expression is applied?
If yes, what is the expression?
What happens when expression is set to None again and individual CBT is under application
Is there a spacing or the CBT text just follows the inline image?
Please send us a sample file for the same, if possible. Thanks!
Amit

Conditional Build Tags...weird behavior?

If I apply a conditional build tag to a topic from the TOC
tab, the topic gets included in the output even if I have specified
that tag to be excluded.
However, if I apply the same conditional build tag to a topic
from the Project tab, then the topic gets excluded (as expected)
from the output because I have specified that tag to be excluded.
Is this inconsistency in behavior by design? I looked at the
RoboHelp Help, and it appears there is nothing wrong with adding
conditional build tags to topics from the TOC tab.
Can someone shed light on this? I am using Adobe RoboHelp
HTML 6, Build 099.
Thanks,
K
P.S.: It appears RoboHelp is completely ignoring the
conditional build tags that I am adding to topics from the TOC tab.
If I see these tagged topics from the Project tab or the Topics
tab, there is no color shading for these topics. The color shading
for the topics shows only if I tag the topics from the Project Tab
or the Topics tab.

Here's a copy-paste from the RH Help...It didn't explain
things the way you did. :-(
Applying conditional build tags to Table of Contents
Use conditional build tags to design and create multiple
versions of your project from a single set of source files. After
creating the conditional build tag, you can apply it to both books
and pages in the TOC for maximum control over the final results.
From the TOC view, you can apply conditional build tags to Topics
also. When you generate a project, you can define conditional build
expressions to include or exclude the book or page in the TOC, from
the output.
Show Me
Use this procedure to apply conditional build tags to books
and pages in the TOC. When you exclude such a tag from your output,
the book or page in the TOC, is not included in the output.
To apply a conditional build tag to a book or page in the
TOC:
Option 1:
Create the conditional build tag.
Click the TOC tab to view the Topic list.
Select a book or page to which you want to apply a
conditional build tag.
Right-click and select Apply Conditional Build Tag, and
choose the Tag you want to apply. The tag is applied to the
selected book or page.
When you generate the project, you can define conditional
build expressions to include or exclude the tagged books or pages
in the TOC, from the output. (A TOC to which a tag has not been
applied, will be included in the output.)
Option 2:
Create the conditional build tag.
Click the TOC tab to view the Topic list.
Select the book or page to which you want to apply a
conditional build tag.
From the Format menu, select Apply Conditional Build Tag, and
then choose a tag. The conditional build tag is applied to the
selected book or page in the TOC.
When you generate the project, you can define conditional
build expressions to include or exclude tagged books or pages in
the TOC, from the output. (A TOC to which a tag has not been
applied, will be included in the output.)
To apply multiple tags:
From the Format menu, select Apply Conditional Build Tag, and
choose New/Multiple. The Conditional Build Tag dialog box appears.
Click Check All to apply all the tags, or select specific
tags to apply to the book or page in the TOC.
Click OK.
If your project is under version control, these steps may
include more options. Click here for more information.
Tips:
You can also apply conditional build tags to topics, topic
content, folders, and Index.
To verify the tags applied to topics, topic areas, TOC, and
Index, or rename a tag, or change the color of a tag, click the
Project tab, expand the Conditional Build Tags folder, and
double-click the tag. You can make the desired changes in the
Conditional Build Tag Properties dialog box.
Ensure that you remove textual references to the excluded
book or page, such as text links, which refer to the tagged book or
page in the TOC. (Hotspots are not active for excluded topics.)
If you generate Printed Documentation, TOC with Conditional
Build tags are not excluded from printing.

Conditional Build Tags Ignored in Header

Using RoboHelp HTML 8.
When generating Microsoft HTML help, I have a conditional build tag which has been applied to the contents of the header and footer.
Once I view the .chm, I still see the header and footer. There is a graphic in the header and text in the footer which are excluded, but the header and footer both have pattern backgrounds, which are images, that do not get excluded.
Has anyone else seen this behavior, and/or know a workaround?
Thanks!

Conditional build tags are not imported to TOC from FrameMaker content. However, one can follow another approach to achieve this. One can manage the Conditional build expression in FrameMaker itself and import the filterted content in RoboHelp. Inorder to achieve this, set the conditional build expression in FrameMaker. Turn on the setting in RoboHelp to "Apply FrameMaker Conditional Text Build Expression". [File->Project Settings->Import->Edit(FrameMaker Settings)->Other Settings]
This way RoboHelp will import only the filtered content with Conditional Build Tags resolved as per the expression applied in FrameMaker.
Mayank

Conditional build tags with character styles and ignored text

RoboHelp HTML v8.0.2.208
Windows XP Professional Version 2002 Service Pack 3 with 2 GB of RAM
Output: WebHelp and HTML Help
I have recently moved my projects from RH HTML X5 to RH HTML 8 and this is when the following problem appeared. I use lots of conditional build tags within the help projects. Some of these tags are for my own use for reference and I combine these with character styles containing a coloured background (highlight) so that they show up in the WebHelp or HTML Help output (e.g. text to identify the software version that the field/feature/text was added, reminders to check details, insertion of bug ID numbers, design document names, etc.). These areas of text are stripped out of the final build for customers by using a conditional build expression.
What I have noticed is that if a paragraph contains text with a conditional build tag applied AND that tagged text has a character style applied AND an unknown word within the conditional build tag is ignored (with the HTML tag <?rh-ignored text="word_to_be_ignored" ?>), saving the topic, closing it, then re-opening it shows that the conditional build text has stretched to the next conditional build tag, or to the end of the topic if there aren’t any other conditional build tags. This also happens by switching from Design View to HTML View. Note that this doesn’t happen if Ignore All is applied to the unknown word.
This doesn’t just apply to projects converted from RH X5. I created a new test project in RH8 and the same behaviour was observed. Similar behaviour occurred very occasionally in RH X5 but that seemed to be down to HTML tags being nested incorrectly.
The largest project contains around 1200 topics and with many hundreds of conditional build text areas this now causes a problem. I’ll probably have to locate every ignored word in an area of conditional text within each project, set it to Ignore All and then manually remove and re-apply the conditional build tags, unless someone can come up with something clever. Can anyone else replicate this and should it be logged as a bug?

Hi Daggins,
Thanks - that is good info to have. But as we all agree, that does take away from the point of single-sourcing.
You aren't misunderstsanding exactly... I am doing all my conditional tagging in FM and it works like a charm in terms of the PDFs that I generate from FM, and even the conditionally tagged text in RH shows/hides correctly. The issue is I am also importing my index and TOC from FM... and even if I have an entire file in FM tagged as conditional (all the text is tagged as conditional, I don't know if you can tag a file as conditional), the file name as a heading it still appears in the RH TOC. There is no text... but in my view it shouldn't appear in the TOC either (it looks like just a broken link when I generate my online help) - this is not ideal.

RH6 - Conditional Build limitations

We discovered in RH Office X5 that there appears to be a
limit of 258 characters (including "AND" and "NOT" and underscores)
for a conditional build expression in a layout, which for a large
project with many conditional tags forced us to greatly shorten tag
names to 2 characters each and build a matrix to decipher
everything. Our client would like us to create additional build
expressions using additional tags, but we're just about "maxed" out
with RH X5.
Does RH 6 allow for longer build expressions?
Thanks,
Jim

Hi Jim
In additon to the thread Colum mentioned, you should also
know that RoboHelp 6 has a feature that can dramatically reduce a
need for build tags. This feature is called a Variable. So where
you may have in the past wanted to personalize output by using
Company1Company2Company3 and on and on and on, you now insert just
a single variable that can be changed at the time you compile or
generate.
Download the trial and check it out!
Cheers... Rick

Conditional build for chm and printed doc produce different outputs

I'm using RoboHelp HTML 9.0.2.271
In my TOC, I have two "books" of topics that I want to exclude from output because the topics won't be required at this time.
I right-clicked each book in the TOC and applied a condition ("Defer").
For the HTML Help (.chm), I made my build expression say NOT Defer and NOT Comment.
I generated the help.
The two books (and their topics) were excluded, as I expected.
For printed documentation (.doc), I made my build expression say NOT Defer and NOT Comment and NOT Online.
I generated the Word doc.
The two books were NOT excluded; they appeared in the printed doc.
The workaround is to delete them from the Chapter Layout window when I generate the printed doc, but I expected that since my build expression said to NOT include them, that they wouldn't be included.
Is my method wrong, or is it my expectation?

You're right (of course!). My .chm file does actually contain those topics.
So, applying a condition to a TOC entry and then excluding it in the build has this effect:
HTML Help file (.chm): Now the topic entry will not appear in the TOC. The topic itself still exists in the .chm file, though, and you can find it by searching.
Printed output (Word): There doesn't seem to be any effect. That topic entry still appears in the Word TOC and the topic itself still exists in the .doc (or .docx) file.
So, to exclude a topic, I have to place the condition on the topic itself, by either right-clicking the topic in Project Manager and applying the condition or by opening the topic and applying the condition. Then I have to exclude that condition in the build.
Do I have it right yet? :-)

RH6 crashes with th and conditional build tags

Hello together,
The attached code worked fine with RH X5, but leads to a
crash with X6. To fix, you have to replace the <th> by
<td>, but it is not too easy to find the topic within a
project. The fix is quite easy, but it is hard to find in a big
project.
This happens, when the conditional build tag is used.
Thanks and best regards,
Katrin Lusser

Hello Peter,
My wife created the topic with X3 or X5.
She just tried again with X6 and after several changes (set
heading, insert, delete, etc.) she had the same constellation.
Unfortunately, until now, she could not find out the exact way to
reproduce. But it is definitely possible. We will post here, when
we find out, how to do it.
Best regards,
Michael

Quotes conditional build tag

I am using Office Word 2003 and Robohelp 7 for Word and I
need to apply conditional build tag to document contents.
I’m compiling the help for Microsoft HTML help but
opening the chm file I can still see the following text (in a small
font) at the place of the conditional text removed:
I tried to change the font/size/colour of text and marker but
it doesn’t help.
My text is in Italian language.
I tried to compile for WinHelp layout, but characters
‘’‘’‘’ are still there, in the
middle of my page.
Any idea?

See Build Expressions on my site.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Conditional build tag for folders

I was told this might be a new feature in coming updates but
have not seen an update in about 4 years (glad i didn't buy the
maintenance) - does anyone know a way to edit core files to enable
a folder to link a conditional build tag without code being
rewritten when you generate a new file set?
Thanks,
Steve

Hi Steve
Believe it or not, Adobe is hard at work on a new version of
RoboHelp to make an appearance some time next year. Maybe there
will be a feature that allows different ways of applying
conditional tagging. If you want to be sure this suggestion reaches
Adobe, you can click the link below and submit a Wish Form.
Click
here to visit the Wish Form
Note that if topics are excluded, they don't appear in the
output. So essentially, if you apply conditions to all topics
inside a folder and all are excluded via the build expression, that
folder is effectively moot.
Sincerely... Rick

Deleting conditional build expressions

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