Numbered List and Bulleted List w/ Custom Style Sheet

Question

Hi,
I am a new user to RoboHelp 7, and must say I find it useful
but also painful to use. Currently I’m trying to solve
something that feels like a bug in RoboHelp 7, but before I give in
and accept defeat I wanted to check with the forum.
I have FrameMaker 8, and import the files to RH where I use
them to create WebHelp projects.
Here’s a short procedure:
1. I Import my files with a predefined style sheet matching
the FM styles.
2. I also check the Convert to HTML list option and set all
numbering and bullet styles to User defined.
- After import RH does the usual thing and creates a bunch
of style sheets on its own
3. I select all the files from the Topic List pod and apply a
new custom style sheet. This enables me to have one style sheet for
all the HTML files with the right layout and formatting
4. I generate the output, and RH uses the new style sheet
reference
The resulting HTML files shows that the output is not the
same as the generated HTML shown in RH’s HTML editor view
- Editor view: <li class=”style”>
- Browser view: <li>
6. If I make a change (e.g. add a space) and save the HTML
file, and generate the project again the HTML is correct in the
browser
One could argue that it’s not a big problem; however,
with a large project this is starting to look more like a nightmare
Does anyone know of this problem, and if so can it be fixed?
Kind regards,
Jon

Answer 1

Is this the time when I get really angry at Adobe for creating the worst FrameMaker/RoboHelp integration ever? No! However, I must admit that I'm amazed that they are unable to solve an important feature as conversion of lists from a FrameMaker document to a RoboHelp WebHelp project. When I say conversion I mean a clean conversion with minimal interference from RoboHelp that allows me to use CSS to its full extent.
Here's the problem, and this was also the problem with RoboHelp 7 and FrameMaker 8. BTW, I use standalone versions (not TCS 1 or 2).
Figures: First image depicts FrameMaker 9's Paragraph Designer and the Autonumber format for a paragraph named VizNumbered. Second image depicts the RoboHelp 8's conversion setting.
FrameMaker uses Autonumbering in front of paragraphs to create lists. This means that you in RoboHelp need to manage two formats, the autonumber and the paragraph style.
RoboHelp does of course not (by default) use Autonumbering in front of paragraphs because a RoboHelp WebHelp project is HTML based, and list tags in HTML can perfectly handle any formatting of text etc.
RoboHelp will convert, when "Convert Autonumber to HTML List" is selected, the Autonumber in FrameMaker to a list tag (LI). By default this will generate a list with a lot of margin, font and other CSS properties that tries to simulate the way the list is laid out in the FrameMaker document. In addition to the list tags it will convert the FrameMaker paragraph to a P tag which it inserts within a list tag. The issue you will experience with this is that indentations with the paragraph tag does not align properly between line 1 and 2. At the same time the WebHelp project will not look the same in IE, Firefox or Chrome. That is, Chrome and Firefox will look the same, and IE different. IE has the WYSIWYG feel, but it does not comply well with W3C standards (i.e. using P tags enclosed by LI tags is not a good idea ...).
Selecting "Convert Autonumber to RoboHelp List" does something similar, but is not recommended at all!
So, here's the big question. How can I make sure RoboHelp understands that I ONLY need to define a list tag with a CSS class attribute attached to it?
Today I basically only get the following:
<li><p class=""></p></li> or,
<p class=""></p>
What I want is the following:
<li class=""></li>
Can this be solved with today's versions, can anyone help me, or do I have to wait for the Adobe development team to realize this and to fix it?