How to fix styles in RoboHelp 8

Question

I have upgraded to RoboHelp 8. After many other problems, now the styles are all fouled up. When I try to select a disc in the autonumbering list for a paragraph style, the text shows up with a number in front. Or when I try to apply a circle, no circle appears. When I move the text over using the indent button, the text randomly becomes bold. Indent distances that I set in points show up later in inches. When I apply the Normal style to a bullet style, the bullet does not disappear.
In short, nothing works. Nothing stays as I set it. Nothing moves or aligns the way I try to align it. My CSS worked previously through several RoboHelp versions, but it is not working at all with this one. My HTML skills are not good enough to bypass the UI and make all changes in the html directly.
Anybody have any ideas as to what is going on?
John

Answer 1

RH8 is designed so that lists should be entirely defined by the LI tag. That does not mean you cannot apply both a LI tag and a P tag. What needs to be understood is that in earlier versions you could define the bullets and numbers in the P tag, now that part of the style must be via the LI tag.
Let's say you want square bullets and instead of your normal text style you want a different font style and font colour.
The LI tag must define the bullet as in say round or square, the LI tag may also define the text as in Verdana 10 point and blue. Alternatively you could set the font style and colour by applying a paragraph style that gives you what you want.
The advantage of doing it all via the LI tag is that you get what you want as soon as you apply the list style.
The disadvantage is if you produce printed documentation and you use a Word template. You cannot map list styles so what you see in the printed document will not be as in the online help.
Using a paragraph style to define parts of the appearance can also be an advantage if you want lists to be the same in terms of the bullets or numbers but want some to have say blue text and some green. There you would apply the list style and then the appropriate paragraph style. What you can no longer do is define the bullet or number via the <P> tag.
The indent icon overrides what you set via the styles.That seems to be the same question as in your other post so please add an answer there for the benefit of anyone else finding that thread.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge