Flatten FrameMaker RoboHTML WebHelp?

Is it possible to put all the WebHelp output into a single directory instead of splitting out by .fm files? That would greatly simplify some build processes.
FM10, RH9, all updates installed

WebHelp must maintain the structure in your project. If your FM docs are linked rather than imported, they each have their own folder. In addtion to those folders, RoboHelp creates some wh* folders.
If you move the stuff around after generation the help will fail.
So sorry but I think you are stuck with it.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Similar Messages

  • Glossary from FrameMaker not appearing in RoboHelp output

    We are using FrameMaker 10 and RoboHelp 9.
    We have user guides in FrameMaker that we want to publish to WebHelp from within FrameMaker.  The user guides in FrameMaker all have a glossary in its own chapter at the end of the guide.
    In FrameMaker, with the user guide book file open/selected, we select File > Publish.
    The Publish Settings window appears.
    We select WebHelp, and specify an ISF file that breaks chapters down into individual HTML files by heading level, then click Publish.
    RoboHelp opens and publishes the content from the user guide to WebHelp, then RoboHelp closes.
    We navigate to the folder that contains the WebHelp files, and launch it.
    There is a glossary node at the bottom of the TOC in the WebHelp, but it is always empty.
    Can someone please explain how to get RoboHelp to include the glossary content from the Glossary chapter in the user guide when it publishes from FrameMaker to WebHelp?  We were hoping that the handoff from FM to RH was seamless, but apparently it is not.
    Thank you!
    Tim

    Hi Tim –
    I am using a different process for single-sourcing our documentation in the TCS – FrameMaker 10 and Robohelp 9. I am creating the files in FrameMaker as book files, with TOCs, Glossaries, and Indexes. I am also conditionalizing some text for online and some for print. However, my workflow, based on a lot of research and watching tutorials, is to link the FrameMaker files in a RH9 project. Then, I use Robohelp to apply the .isf file settings, a FrameMaker template to use for conversion of things like cross-reference formats, a RH master page for the online help, the customized Webhelp skin I want to use, and to do any other small tweaks as necessary since the conversion process is about 90% seamless but not perfect.
    I found that when linking the files (rather than importing, which is a static process), I also get “empty” default TOCs, Glossaries, and Indexes. The solution that I found is:
    1.       After generating html topics from my linked FramMaker book files, I right-click on the book file in the Project Manager pod and select Properties.
    2.       On the Contents tab of the “FrameMaker Document Settings” panel, I check all 3 boxes to “convert FrameMaker” TOC, Glossary, and Index files.  For the TOC, I navigate to the FrameMaker TOC file of my book.
    3.       I select the radio buttons to “Create new associated” TOC, Glossary, and Index and RH insists I name them, so I name them Contents, Glossary, and Index.
    4.       Then, click OK to close this window.
    5.       Back to the Project Manager pod, I right-click my new TOC, Glossary, and Index files (one at a time) and select the option to set these as the Default ones.
    6.       I then have the option to right-click and delete the old (empty) ones (for simplicity’s sake). Everything is then right with my help files.
    Yes, this is a lot of steps. It’s the only workflow I’ve found that produces the result I want (Webhelp versions of my FrameMaker generated files that contain all entries at the correct levels, and are automated). FWIW, I couldn’t find documentation on this process anywhere. I found it through trial and error and hair-pulling :o)
    HTH!
    Virginia Morgan | Technical Writer
    TAKE Solutions, Inc.
    O 512.735.4316 | M 512.426.8323
    [email protected]

  • WebHelp TOC Hierarchy Indentation is Incorrect

    We are using RoboHelp 10 on a Windows 7 platform.
    We publish directly out of FrameMaker to WebHelp via RoboHelp. However, this is not a FrameMaker issue, so I hope this is the right forum.
    Note that we check the format (indentation) of the headings in our TOC in our FrameMaker source files, and the FrameMaker TOC is formatted correctly.
    When we publish to WebHelp, the format of the nodes is fine for everything that is a heading 1 or 2 in FrameMaker.
    However, the hierarchy messes up sometimes at random on headings 3 or 4.
    Here are two examples, where the underscore represents the indentation.
    How the hierarchy should appear in WebHelp (and how it actually appears in FrameMaker):
    Heading 1
    ___Heading 2
    ______Heading 3
    _________Heading 4
    How the WebHelp TOC hierarchy actually appears at times:
    Heading 1 [open book icon] (always ok)
    ___Heading 2 [open book icon] (always ok)
    ______Heading 3 [topic icon]
    ______Heading 3 [topic icon]
    ______Heading 3 [topic icon]
    ______Heading 4 [topic icon]
    ______Heading 4 [topic icon]
    ______Heading 4 [open book icon]
    _________Heading 3  [topic icon]
    ______Heading 4 [topic icon]
    ______Heading 4 [topic icon]
    Anyone have any ideas about how to fix this?
    Thank you!
    Tim

    A couple of other notes.
    First, the hierarchy is scrambled in the exact same way when publishing WebHelp from different computers.
    Second, we read this article:
    http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2010/03/demystifying_mapping_filesettingisf_and_toc_genera tion.html
    And based on the discussion in that article, we tried/verififed the following:
    Heading 1 = Arial 16 point, bold, no indent.
    Heading 2 = Arial 14 point, bold, .25" indent. (We tried both a tab indent, as well as specifying the indentation inches in the "Left" field in the paragraph designer.)
    Heading 3 = Arial 12 point, bold, .50" indent.
    Heading 4 = Arial 10 point, no bold, .75" indent.
    We still have the problem I described in the original post.
    The WebHelp TOC never scrambles H1 and H2, or H2 and H3.  However, it mixes up H3 and H4 in every chapter that has both.

  • WebHelp Searches from Tool Bar Fail

    We're generating two WebHelp help systems using FM9 (unstructured) and RH8. We use a barely-tweaked version of the Chrisi skin (we've changed the background color of the toolbar).
    In our latest build, we discovered the following problem (it might have been around before):
    When you search using a single term in the toolbar search box, no results are returned. If you search using the search pane, or if you use more than one term in the toolbar search box, it seems to work fine.
    What appears to happen is that an   is appended to the search term when using a single term in the toolbar search box.
    Does anyone know how to fix this?
    TIA,
    Shane

    Hi Shane,
    Sorry to report that I do not have a solution but I do have the same problem. If I do a search in the toolbar when I first open my published RoboHTML WebHelp help project it doesn't matter whether or not I put in a single term or a couple of words in the the search box on the toolbar a space is added to the end and no results appear. Once I get rid of the space in the sidebar and perform the search the search box on the toolbar subsequently works with any number of terms I put in.  It seems like once the search is "switched on" it is happy and does not subsequently add the space after the search term in the toolbar search box.
    I am using RoboHelp 8.0.2.208 and publishing to WebHelp. No additional options have been chosen under WebHelp General (such as MOW, 508, etc) and the options chosen under WebHelp Options are DHTML > Pure HTML and Web Site (Internet).
    Anyone able to help me or Shane out?
    Thanks,
    Greig

  • Removing some chapters and cross-reference formats in the conversion

    Hi everyone!
    I am using Frame and RH to single source creating PDFs and online help. I create the PDFs from FrameMaker, and Webhelp from RH. I use the RH linking functionality.
    Is there any way to exclude some FM chapters from being converted, without using the Exclude option in FM, and instead using an option available in RH?
    Also, is there a way to exclude certain cross-reference formats from being converted at all? I don't want to convert them to Paratext, I just want them to not appear in online help output at all (things like "procedure 1-1").
    Thanks.
    Sue

    I think the only ways to exclude stuff would be to use the Exclude option in FM (as you mention - I've never tried it with RH) or to create a different book that only has the chapters you want to bring over to RH. I do something like that when I do my printed PDFs - I create a "Print-Only" book in which I go through and set the page numbering and conditional text expressions.
    To exclude the cross-ref format, I've seen a hint that says to just put a space overtop of the style in the Conversion Settings. It still comes over, but just as a blank space.

  • Bookmarks in webhelp generated from Framemaker

    Hi all
    We're using the trial version of Framemaker 12 as part of the TCS5 suite.
    I've been experimenting with the Publish pod to create WebHelp and am wondering how to specify which Framemaker headings appear in the Webhelp TOC?
    I thought it might use settings in the Bookmarks tab in PDF setup - but have tried this to no effect.
    Certain headings do appear in the TOC, but not a new ChapterTitleHelp style I've created. How do I get this to appear?
    I've looked in the Style Mapping tab in the Publish Settings dialog (when you right-click Webhelp and select Edit Settings).  However, this seems to be more to do with the look and feel and character format than determining which headings appear.
    Can anyone help please?  We do have Robohelp as part of the suite, but to the best of my knowlege you should be able to output directly from Framemaker without opening RH. Is there a file somewhere where you can specify which headings you want?
    Many thanks
    Laura

    Of course, once I post, I work it out.
    It seems that the styles have to appear in the Framemaker TOC. I had not done this because I was still in the hard copy mindset and would never add the ChapterTitleHelp to the hard copy TOC.
    Hope this helps someone else anyway.
    Laura

  • Convert FrameMaker paragraph formats to RoboHelp styles

    This question was posted in response to the following article: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/robohelp/robohtml/WS12199CA1-968E-4a9b-9927-ED490DF6B87E.html

    Thank you Jeff for a specific reply.
    First, let me respond to, "Nobody else seems to be having any issue with this." 
    In the TechComm Central blog post, "Troubleshooting FrameMaker Content Conversion in RoboHelp Part 1," Mayank Agrawal, the author, says, "Many times, I hear from users that it appears as if Robohelp is not applying FrameMaker conversion settings or eating up the imported .isf settings."  So, what we are seeing is not unique to us.  However, we follow Mayank's steps, and the FrameMaker paragraph styles are still getting lost somewhere.
    Second, we have the standard FrameMaker paragraph styles.  For example, this is the content we see in WebHelp that has been published from RoboHelp, along with the FrameMaker paragraph style enclosed in square brackets. (Nothing is indented in WebHelp, but everyone looks fine in FrameMaker.)
    1. This is the first step. [FM: List Number 1]
    This is an indent that is not indented. [FM: Indent]
    2. This is the second step. [FM: List Number +]
    o This is a bullet that is supposed to be indented a bit. [FM: Bullet 1]
    o This is another bullet that is supposed to be indented. [FM: Bullet 1]
    3. This is the third step. [FM: List Number +]
    a) This is an alpha list that is supposed to be indented. [FM: List Alpha 1]
    b) This is another alpha list that is supposed to be indented. [FM: List Alpha +]
    o This is supposed to be a bullet 2 indented even more. [FM: Bullet 2]
    o This is another bullet 2 that is supposed to be indented,
    and the text wrap for all styles in this example comes to the left margin. [FM: Bullet 2]
    This is supposed to be a 3rd level indent. [FM: Indent 3]
    Again, everything looks great in FrameMaker.  However, FrameMaker does not appear to be automatically handing off ANY paragraph style formatting information to RoboHelp.  And when we attempt to manually set the styles in the ISF file, the WebHelp generated from RoboHelp does not appear to retain the manually-set formats.

  • How to supress creation of book layer in WebHelp output?

    Hi.
    In a FrameMaker book, I have several chapters. When I publish to WebHelp, what I want to see is just each chapter turned in to its own topic. But FrameMaker does is put each topic in its dedicated book (see graphic below). What I'd like to see is one book (5.7 ReleaseNotes) and chapter-based topics beneath it. In short, I'd like to remove the intermediate book layer.
    If there's a way to configure this, please advise as to how to do it. It's not clear how to do this from the settings.
    Thanks!
    -Kurt

    Oops, sorry – I missed the fact that you’re doing the Publish route directly out of FM – I’m not sure how you configure it. FM12 introduced more controls to be able to tweak the output, but my suspicion is that you may still not have the ability to mess with the resulting ToC. That’s why I’m still in the TCS camp of editing stuff in RH after bringing it in from FM.

  • How to add header and footer in FM12 WebHelp?

    Hi
    I am evaluating TCS 5 with the trial version.
    In FrameMaker 11, while publishing my book to WebHelp, I could associate the masterpage (.htt) file to get its header/footer in the output.
    However, I don't see that option in FM12. I have looked through the Help and it doesn't seem to offer any solution either. (Some part of TCS 5 help actually contains TCS 4 content. Have logged a bug report on that.)
    If not through the master page, what is the other way to get especially the footer in WebHelp output? Footer contains our copyright information. So, there is no way I can ignore it.
    Can somebody please point me to the right direction?
    Thanks in advance.
    Sreekanth

    We had a meeting with Adobe yesterday and one of the product managers (Kapil Verma or Vikram Verma, I am not sure) confirmed that there is no provision for getting the header/footer information from FrameMaker or RoboHelp while publishing WebHelp from FM12.
    So, unfortunately, we have to stick to the old method of importing FM to RH to get this. It is a pity that they got the browse sequence into FM but removed master page, eventually resulting in an unusable feature.
    Sreekanth

  • Is there a way to link two FrameMaker 12 books with shared content into the same RoboHelp 11 file?

    This one might require some back story.
    I'm working at a company with roughly 60 business units that will each be getting their own emergency response procedures (.FM files compiled into a single FrameMaker .book file for their department). I then want to link all of these books to a single RoboHelp so that when it comes time to publish all of these plans into WebHelp menus I can do that with a single batch generate/publish.
    My problem is that some of the FM files within the books are shared (maybe two or more departments are at the same location or all of them share the same corporate level plans) so that when I try to link two books with a shared FM file it throws an error.
    Is there away to allow multiple copies of a FM file to exist in a single RoboHelp? Or is there a better solution to the task at hand?
    Any suggestions you might have would be greatly appreciated as I am still a moderate beginner with Frame and RoboHelp.
    ---Corey---
    P.S. Just to complicate things this will all be done via SharePoint so books and FM files live there, and then the RoboHelp output will be published there.

    I think you’re looking at creating a merged RH project – one parent project that subsumes all the linked FM to RH child projects – read up on merged help on Peter’s site (grainge.org)

  • FrameMaker 11 file link broken when published out to RoboHelp 10

    Hello
    I have the Adobe Technical Communication Suite 4 and am trying to test publish a FrameMaker 11 file out through
    the FrameMaker publish button to WebHelp (by way of RoboHelp 10).
    In the FrameMaker 11, file, I have a link to a PDF that sits down in a subfolder.  I have used the following approach:
    1. Highlighted text in a FrameMaker table.
    2. Chose Special>Hyptertext
    3. From the Hypertext panel, I selected Message Client from the Command drop down menu
         and in the syntax field I entered:  message openfile Foldouts/Foldout1.pdf
    4. I then tested the link in FrameMaker by using ALT and CTRL and it works.
    5. Next, I saved the FrameMaker file as a PDF (File>Save As PDF) and tested the PDF.  The PDF links work.
    So with all that said, how come I can't select File>Publish>WebHelp and have the link information carry through to the WebHelp HTM output?
    I tried this Publish option straight out of the box and it did not work.  I also tried creating a custom RoboHelp template (.XPJ file) and it did not work.
    I believe there is a PgfId marker that is generated when the Hyptertext is created in FrameMaker (using the process stated above), but that marker is not getting
    translated into an HREF, once it gets published out through RoboHelp 10.
    I also tried saving the FrameMaker 11 file directly as an HTML file using the FrameMaker 11 - File>Save As HTML process, but no links carried through
    using that process either.
    I do not know if this is a FrameMaker issue or a RoboHelp issue, so I am now posting this in both forums.
    If someone could point me in the right direction, I would really appreciate it.
    Are there certain steps one must do to preserve FrameMaker Hypertext links that get published out through RoboHelp 10 to WebHelp?
    Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
    Jim

    I've deleted the other post as the question is being addressed here. Folks who use Fm only would not be able to help so this is the correct forum as Jeff as explained.
    See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
    @petergrainge

  • Adobe RoboHelp 7 does not recognize FrameMaker 6

    I am trying to create webhelp. It's my intention to use
    webhelp generated by RH7 as my single source output to webhelp,
    Word, PDFs, and my company's wiki.
    I tried to import FrameMaker 6 files into RH7 for HTML and
    saw the message that FrameMaker is not installed. I don't have the
    latest FM, but FrameMaker 6 is installed. So I converted my files
    to mif and then to RTF and then to MS Word doc and imported them as
    Word docs.
    I was very disappointed. This means I will have to do a lot
    of work to rebuild my TOCs, glossary, and index.
    Also, the conversion from FM to Word changed my automatic
    numbering to hard-coded and RH7 complied by applying a hardcoded
    number paragraph style in HTML. I am still new to HTML. Also, I
    converted files from my predecessor who inserted anchored frames
    for graphics in table cells in FM. So I got heavily styled HTML
    code in RH7 which made correcting the HTML code difficult.
    So I edited the ancient FM files and re-edited the Word files
    to create automatic numbering before replacing the topics in RH7. I
    still had to go into RH7 and replace the numbered paragraphs with
    the usual <ol> and <li> tags.
    In another project, I had to fix the grouping of the
    <ol> and <li> tags by hand. By itself, RH7 broke up the
    sequential numbering.
    I fear I also have to recreate all the index markings. This
    is a feature in RH7 I still have to master. I have to re-build
    cross-references internal to a topic.
    Why couldn't Adobe enable the reading of all FM versions in
    RH7?
    More immediately, how can I cross-reference a list number
    generated in HTML instead of the text or an alias, like "Step 6?"
    :brokenheart;

    Sofia Pokrzywa wrote:
    Neither Bridge CS6 or Lightroom 5.7 can recognize Canon's raw file (Canon Camera 60D).
    This only started a few months ago without any change that I made to the system
    Any clues?
    Is this only when reading CR2 files on the camera memory card or also for CR2 files that were previously imported to your hard drive (i.e. ALL of your 60D CR2 files)?
    LR 5.7.1 is only at Camera Raw 8.7. so OK. What Bridge, PS, and OS versions are installed? In Bridge go to Help> About Bridge
    From inside Bridge launch any raw file and check the ACR version:
    From inside PS go to Help> System Info and check PS and OS version:

  • WebHelp compile crashes in RH8 and RH6

    I am currently evaluating Version 8 of Robohelp and would like to get all my projects on the same version of Robohelp. Most of my projects are at Version 6. I have another project that is currently at Version x.41 that I would like to upgrade and was testing it to see how it runs with Version 8. The X4.1 project converted to Version 8 without a hitch but when I compiled the WebHelp , it crashed and I received the following error: “Adobe Robohelp 8 has encountered a problem and needs to close. “  Here are the details:
    AppName:  robohtml.exe
    AppVer:  8.0.0.203
    ModName: msvcr80.dll
    ModVer:  8.0.50727.3053
    Offset:  0008aa0
    After researching the error on line, I found that it was the conditional build statement that was causing the crash. When I compiled the WebHelp without the conditional build statement, it compiled just fine.  I could not find any help on line for dealing with this error for Version 8 so I made a new copy of the project and converted it to Version 6, which apparently had a patch I can download. I applied the patch that was in Peter Grainge’s site to my copy of Robohelp 6. The X4.1 project opened without a hitch in Version 6. But when I compiled the WebHelp, it crashed again with the same error – even with the patch installed. Here are the error details:
    AppName:  robohtml.exe
    AppVer:  6.0.99.0
    ModName:  msvcr80.dll
    ModVer:  8.0.50727.3053
    Offset:  0008aa0
    Can someone please shed some light into this? I really would like to have all my RH projects at the same version.
    Thanks!

    The TOC and Index might be easier than you think. In RH8 you can create a TOC and Index that is a copy of another one. This works well with TOCs and Indexes in the same project but usually a TOC or Index in another project will have different links to topics so they will be pretty useless. If you create exactly the same folders though, then you might be able to copy the old TOC and Index. Back up first though.
    See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
    @petergrainge

  • Change the topic icon in Webhelp TOC?

    We are using RoboHelp 9 on a Windows 7 platform.
    When we publish Webhelp, the topic icon in the published output has a question mark in it.
    We have had almost universal feedback from our target audience that they are confused by the question mark (they thought it indicated an error occurred when we published the Webhelp).  Is there a way to specify a different topic icon for the TOC in the properties of RoboHelp somewhere, but retain the "Default" skin?
    We have two alternatives that we would prefer not to use:
    1. Change the wht_toc3.gif file in the published output.  (We publish often, so we want to avoid a post-publishing clean-up task.)
    2. Go into the RoboHelp 9 application folder on the C drive where the GIF file resides and change it there.
    We guess the folder is located here, although we found the file in a few different places:
    C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp 9\RoboHTML\WebHelp5Ext\template_skin
    An icon that would be an acceptable replacement would be whd_toc3.gif (it has three horizontal lines in it instead of a question mark).
    Is there any way to make this change in RoboHelp project or Webhelp properties anywhere?
    Thanks in advance!
    Tim

    Hi Tim,
    If I understood you correctly, then here is the answer. You can go to Project Setup Pod> Skins and double click on the Default Skin, In the right hand side top corner click on Navigation, Underneath that Topic/Page> change the image of the Topic and press ok.
    Generate the webhelp.
    Hope this helps.
    Thanks
    Priyank

  • Problems with Skin display and publish options on FrameMaker 12

    Hi,
    Customising the FrameMaker output for web help is proving problematic.
    1. Here's the first issue - The Online FrameMaker help says the following:
    "You can also import WebHelp or compressed WebHelp skins defined in .skn or .zkn files, respectively. To import a skin, click Import and then select the .skn or .zkn file from the file system."   (see Adobe FrameMaker 12 * Customizing output specific settings)
    However, when importing a skin (publish settings > custom > outputs >navigation > skin selection > import), the  Import option only enables a file of type *.skn and not the compressed *.zkn.
    2.  Second issue - The customised skin is not picked up correctly in the Webhelp output.
    To be specific, the required graphic elements have not been copied over from the customised skin. The only way round this is to manually copy over the graphic skin files to the output folder and then refresh the help output. The graphics appear, but unfortunately the skin still does not display 100% correctly.
    3. Third issue. To create the customised skin, I had to create a new RoboHelp project and then create a new skin from one of the available skin galleries. Preview and generating the RoboHelp project displays the Skin correctly. Unfortunately, when using in FrameMaker, the skin does not display correctly.
    4th issue - inaccurate information in the online help regarding the ISF import options.
    The FM online help says the following:
    Important:  When you import an ISF file, the RoboHelp settings included in the file overwrite the corresponding FrameMaker STS file settings.
    To import an ISF file:
    In the Publish dialog, click the Settings button and choose Import ISF File.
    In the Select ISF File dialog, choose the settings file.
    Where's this option? There's no ISF import option on my version of FrameMaker???!!!
    Thanks

    Warren,
    In FM, Help > Updates... and configure your Update Application Manager on how often to check and how to handle updates. Or manually go the update page kisted on the main FM Forum Overview pagefor a manually download and install. You have to install the two patches in order to get up to the 12.0.2 version.

Maybe you are looking for