Printed Documentation Research

I would like to put some proposals to Adobe to let them know
well or otherwise the current workflow for producing a printed
document works for you. Also what do you particularly like or
dislike, things you want to do but cannot.
I would welcome your feedback on that so please email me via
my site.
It would be very much appreciated if your subject line starts
- RH Printed Documentation. Also start your email by indicating
which release you are using (RH6, X5 etc) and whether you are using
RoboHelp HTML or RoboHelp for Word.
Thank you.

Similar Messages

Unable to Generate Printed Documentation in PDF Format

This past week I started having a consistent error when attempting to generate a Printed Documentation layout. This error reads "Internal error encountered, Failed to generate Printed Documentation." Prior Printed Documentation builds on this same project completed fine. Nothing was done to the Help project between the times when this worked and when it no longer was able to create Printed Documentation.
I receive this error even if I generate an entirely new "blank project" build, and then attempt to create a Printed Documentation build from this new blank project. Researching this error, I see this has been a reoccuring problem with this product for some time. The few threads that list the problem as having been "fixed" provide resolution steps that have not worked in my case. Right now I am waiting for our IT Helpdesk people to re-install the Suite. Hopefully this will resolve this problem.
Additional information on this problem - PDF Printed Documentation is failing - the HTML build works fine. If I select just a .DOC Printed Documentation output, this also works correctly. The resulting Word document looks good, although hyperlinks do not work within this Word document. I have reloaded Office 2003 as a troubleshooting effort, but this has nbot resulted in any change in symptoms.
The entire error text is enclosed below, although several other people have also done this in past entries. The few lines that read "Warning, and then report a style issue is NOT the problem here. As stated earlier, when I do this same Printed Documentation build on an entirely new "blank project" it does not work, and the Output text in that case does not contain any such "Warnings" about Styles.
Error text below:
Starting to build Printed Documentation...
Printed Documentation processor 8.0.1.204
Building C:\Documents and Settings\tcleary\My Documents\My RoboHelp Projects\Adobe RoboHelp 8\10515-0366-5004_7800v-hh rsp\!SSL!\Printed_Documentation.doc ...
Preparing to create Printed Documentation...
Clearing output folder...
Preparing files for Print Document...
Copying files...
Updating files...
Finished preparing in 2 seconds.
Preparing environment...
Printed Document Generator Environment: Word 11.0.8313, OS 5.1.2600, RAM 2048 M Bytes
Building Printed Documentation 'Printed Documentation'...
Building Single Document 'Printed_Documentation.doc'...
Building 'RF-7800V-HH About this Help'...
Building 'Table of Contents'...
Preparing to build chapters...
Building 'RF-7800V-HH Help and Support'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Welcome'...
Building 'RF-7800V-HH RSP Help'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Station Information'...
Building 'RF-7800V-HH Features'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Features'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Anc. Connector Mode'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH No-Sync Beeps'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Power Management'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Retransmit'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH USB Mode'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Broadcast Gateway'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH IP Routing'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Voice Settings'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Time and Date Settings'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Position Reporting'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH User Interfaces'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Net Switches'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Ethernet Interface'...
Building 'RF-7800V-HH Global Settings'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Global Settings'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Radio Passwords'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH GPS'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Locksets'...
Building 'RF-7800V-HH Network Types'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Network Types'...
Building 'RF-7800V-HH Fixed Frequency LOS'...
Processing 'General Information - Fixed Frequency LOS'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH FF Network Information'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH FF Preset'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH FF General'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH FF Comsec'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH FF Data-Voice'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH FF Squelch'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH FF Advanced'...
Warning: style (p.Heading7) is not defined and will be mapped to 'Normal'.
Building 'RF-7800V-HH Quicklook'...
Processing 'General Information - Quicklook'...
Processing 'Hopset Creation - Quicklook'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH QL Network Information'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH QL Preset'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH QL General'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH QL Comsec'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH QL Data-Voice'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH QL Advanced'...
Building 'RF-7800V-HH Sample Plans'...
Processing 'General Information - Sample Plans'...
Processing 'Simple Fixed and Quicklook Nets'...
Processing 'Single Fixed and Quicklook Nets'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Manage Keys'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Program Radio'...
Building 'RF-7800V-HH Tech Support'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Technical Support'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Radio Firmware Compatibility'...
Building 'FAQs'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH FAQ Index'...
Processing 'FAQ 01'...
Warning: style (span.strong) is not defined and will be removed.
Warning: style (p.para) is not defined and will be mapped to 'Normal'.
Processing 'FAQ 02'...
Processing 'FAQ 03'...
Processing 'FAQ 04'...
Processing 'FAQ 05'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Glossary'...
Warning: style (p.FM_CellRowHead) is not defined and will be mapped to 'Normal'.
Warning: style (span.Glossary) is not defined and will be removed.
Warning: style (p.FM_CellBodyLeft) is not defined and will be mapped to 'Normal'.
Warning: style (p.FM_GLOSSARY) is not defined and will be mapped to 'Normal'.
Warning: style (p.FM_Para) is not defined and will be mapped to 'Normal'.
Completed building chapters...
Building 'Index'...
Updating list paragraphs...
Updating images...
Updating page numbers...
Updating page headers...
Updating Table of Contents...
Updating Index...
Saving 'Printed_Documentation.doc'...
Generating 'Printed_Documentation.pdf'...
Failed the generate PDF file 'C:\Documents and Settings\tcleary\My Documents\My RoboHelp Projects\Adobe RoboHelp 8\10515-0366-5004_7800v-hh rsp\!SSL!\Printed_Documentation.pdf'...
Failed to save 'Printed_Documentation.doc'...
Cleaning up temporary files...
I am pretty sure nobody will have any fix suggestions that work to solve this problem, but I am making this entry for historical purposes. I will add an entry stating whether the Suite reload resolves this issue.
Thanks,
Tim C @ Harris

If I select ONLY the Word DOC Output format in the Printed Documentation
setup, the output is created without an error (output text below). Links do work within
this Word document (a symptom change since installing patch 8.0.2).
When I use this Word document to create a PDF (using the Adobe PDF
printer driver) a PDF is successfully created, however no bookmarks are
created in the bookmarks panel and none of the links in this PDF work
(although they are created looking like they will work, i.e., blue
underlined text).
Regards,
Tim
------------- Output Text --------------------------
Starting to build Printed Documentation...
Printed Documentation processor 8.0.1.204
Building C:\Documents and Settings\tcleary\My Documents\My RoboHelp Projects\Adobe RoboHelp 8\10515-0366-5004_7800v-hh rsp\!SSL!\Printed_Documentation.doc ...
Preparing to create Printed Documentation...
Clearing output folder...
Preparing files for Print Document...
Copying files...
Updating files...
Finished preparing in 3 seconds.
Preparing environment...
Printed Document Generator Environment: Word 11.0.8313, OS 5.1.2600, RAM 2048 M Bytes
Building Printed Documentation 'Printed Documentation'...
Building Single Document 'Printed_Documentation.doc'...
Building 'RF-7800V-HH About this Help'...
Building 'Table of Contents'...
Preparing to build chapters...
Building 'RF-7800V-HH Help and Support'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Welcome'...
Building 'RF-7800V-HH RSP Help'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Station Information'...
Building 'RF-7800V-HH Features'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Features'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Anc. Connector Mode'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH No-Sync Beeps'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Power Management'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Retransmit'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH USB Mode'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Broadcast Gateway'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH IP Routing'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Voice Settings'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Time and Date Settings'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Position Reporting'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH User Interfaces'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Net Switches'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Ethernet Interface'...
Building 'RF-7800V-HH Global Settings'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Global Settings'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Radio Passwords'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH GPS'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Locksets'...
Building 'RF-7800V-HH Network Types'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Network Types'...
Building 'RF-7800V-HH Fixed Frequency LOS'...
Processing 'General Information - Fixed Frequency LOS'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH FF Network Information'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH FF Preset'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH FF General'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH FF Comsec'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH FF Data-Voice'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH FF Squelch'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH FF Advanced'...
Warning: style (p.Heading7) is not defined and will be mapped to 'Normal'.
Building 'RF-7800V-HH Quicklook'...
Processing 'General Information - Quicklook'...
Processing 'Hopset Creation - Quicklook'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH QL Network Information'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH QL Preset'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH QL General'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH QL Comsec'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH QL Data-Voice'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH QL Advanced'...
Building 'RF-7800V-HH Sample Plans'...
Processing 'General Information - Sample Plans'...
Processing 'Simple Fixed and Quicklook Nets'...
Processing 'Single Fixed and Quicklook Nets'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Manage Keys'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Program Radio'...
Building 'RF-7800V-HH Tech Support'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Technical Support'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH Radio Firmware Compatibility'...
Building 'FAQs'...
Processing 'RF-7800V-HH FAQ Index'...
Processing 'FAQ 01'...
Warning: style (span.strong) is not defined and will be removed.
Warning: style (p.para) is not defined and will be mapped to 'Normal'.
Processing 'FAQ 02'...
Processing 'FAQ 03'...
Processing 'FAQ 04'...
Processing 'FAQ 05'...
Building 'RF-7800V-HH Glossary'...
Warning: style (p.FM_CellRowHead) is not defined and will be mapped to 'Normal'.
Warning: style (span.Glossary) is not defined and will be removed.
Warning: style (p.FM_CellBodyLeft) is not defined and will be mapped to 'Normal'.
Warning: style (p.FM_GLOSSARY) is not defined and will be mapped to 'Normal'.
Warning: style (p.FM_Para) is not defined and will be mapped to 'Normal'.
Completed building chapters...
Building 'Index'...
Updating list paragraphs...
Updating images...
Updating page numbers...
Updating page headers...
Updating Table of Contents...
Updating Index...
Saving 'Printed_Documentation.doc'...
Completed building Printed Documentation...
Preparing output directory...
Cleaning up temporary files...
Finished Printed Documentation generation in 5 minutes 36 seconds.
Building Printed Documentation complete.

Customizing header and footer in the printed documentation

Hi,
I'm using a trial version of RoboHelp 2007 and Word 2003.
I have two question about customizing the header and footer
of the printed documentation.
In the printed documentation the footer repeat at the bottom
of each page and contain page numbers, which appear left-justified
on even-numbered pages and right-justified on odd-numbered pages.
How can I customize the footer, that pages numbers appear
always right-justified?
In the printed documentation the header repeat at the top of
each page and are blank on the first page of sections. The name of
the manual appears on even-numbered pages, left-justified. The name
of the root chapter appears on odd-numbered pages, right-justified.
How can I customize the header, that
on every page the name of the root chapter and the name oft
the manual appears? Furhermore I want to include a picture in the
header. How can I realise this?

You can't from RH. See the article on my site.
Images in the header are tricky. If you use the setting that
I think enables that, you will also get the images in the TOC. Try
putting a two cell table and putting the heading in one and the
image in another.

Unable to generate printed documentation

I am running RoboHelp 9 HTML using Microsoft Word 2010 on a Windows 7 machine.
Whenever I try to generate printed documentation using a single source layout that is set up for generating either a .docx file or a .doc file the program hangs up after printing the output message "Processing Topics". This occurs with the simple "Test" sample provided by Adobe that contains only one topic as well as with a more complicated project.
I read some posts that said things about anti-virus software that may affect RoboHelp. On my system the security department at my company has control of that, so I am not really sure what anti-virus software I have. When I look in my "All Programs" list under the "Start" menu, I do not see any anti-virus software programs except something called "System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection". I believe this is the anti-virus software that the security department uses, and there is an icon for it in my System Tray. Has anyone ever heard of issues involving that software and RoboHelp?
Meanwhile any other insights any of you may have into this problem would be greatly appreciated.

Are you generating to a local drive or a network drive? If the latter, try the former.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Footer image not resizing in printed documentation

RH11
Does anyone know why an image inserted into a footer master page is not automatically resizing to the width of the printed page when applied to a print layout and output to Word? If you insert an image into the body of a topic or a master page and generate printed documentation, the image automatically resizes.
I'm trying to insert a high-res footer image (300 dpi) into my footer so that it appears on every page, but at the moment it's being embedded at full-size.
Thanks
Jonathan

Firstly, your better off using liststyles than paragraph list styles, I screwed around a long time before I had to set everything to liststyles rather than paragraph ones. So dont worry about that.
The first issue, of not seeing the style - it is there, if you open the Styles tab on screen (click in a topic to get the cursor, then Format > Styles), not just the dropdown like youve shown youll see a list of all your styles, almost, it will show paragraph styles, click the drop-down and select All available styles, this will display your list styles as well!
Im not sure about the style settings, I have the same text setting applied in my list style as I use for my 'normal' text. Though I think you can select the text in a list and apply a paragraph style to it....i just tried and it worked, but to be on the safe side you might want to set the text formatting in the list style css too..
mine looks like this
li.NumberList {
    font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;
    font-size: 10pt;
    color: #524C45;
    list-style: decimal;
    margin-bottom: 6pt;
    margin-top: 6pt;
As for printed formats not indenting lists, this is an issue. So far I have found no way around it because you cannot map a list styles in RH to a list style in Word. This has also created errors for line spacing and indents - and I found the indents are severly messed up when using list styles in snippets. Everytime I create printed documentation I have to manually fix it, a pain but it doesnt take too long....you could use macros etc to speed it all up for you.
Submit a Wish Form.
Hope it helps.
Nick

Images not in printed documentation

When generating printed documentation from RH7 (selecting
embed images, MS Word doc, etc.), the images do not show up in the
results. All I see are the {bmc <file name>.bmp} references.
I know this worked in version 5 and I read the release update for
7.0.1 (which I installed) that indicates it was fixed; but no joy.
BTW, I have tried this with a new test document, re-booted the
computer, etc.
What is going on here?

A point of interest with this problem. I have noticed that,
with this installation, when I highlight a true code image in my
Word project file (indicated by {bmc <file name>.bmp} ) then
click the "New Help Image" button (or use Ctrl-G) the image view on
the General tab (Insert Help Image Window) is vacant. This is
interesting, in that, as I recall in RH5 it would show the graphic
that was selected. For some reason this installation is not making
the connection back to the inserted image. I'm thinking this is the
root of the problem. Now, the question is: How do I correct it?
Also, you will note that I previously indicated "this
installation". This is due to my experimenting with an installation
on a different computer (it never having any prior version of a RH
installation) and the Printed Documentation feature works - sort
of. The issue I see on that computer is at the end of the process
RH7 shuts down. It doesn't lock up, it literally closes before the
final step where the pop up dialog box indicating the process
completed, and provides the view file button, is shown. However, I
can find the word document it created an view it - interesting
behavior.

Error when trying to create printed documentation in RH 7

Hello,
I've created a WebHelp project in RH 7 that I'm trying to
make a PDF for, as well. An error always appears when trying to
generate printed documentation, even if only the PDF option or the
Word option is selected. RH 7 processes and builds each of the
pages, index, images, etc. It gets to the very end on the status
bar and an error appears that it failed to generate the PDF.
In the output view, I see that it successfully processed
everything until the end when it says (the last four lines are the
error):
Updating Table of Contents...
Updating Index...
Saving 'GVE_Help_.doc'...
Generating 'GVE_Help_.pdf'...
Failed the generate PDF file '(The path is written here but
has been removed for this post)'...
Failed to save 'GVE_Help_.doc'...
Cleaning up temporary files...
Internal error encountered, Failed to generate Printed
Documentation.
Is there any way to get the Printed Documentation to work
properly in RH 7? I receive the same error for any of the WebHelp
projects I've opened in RH 7. I'm using Windows XP and have Word
2003 on my PC if that helps. I believe, but not too sure, RoboPDF
is still on my PC. May this have something to do with it?
Thanks so much, in advance, for any feedback and help.

Try generating just to Word and then creating the PDF from
there. There is a known problem which affects some users but not
others. Cause not known.

Application Error while generating printed documentation

I have Rh 10 installed in my 64-bit machine with Windows 7 OS.
The problem is when I click Printed Documentation and click Next in the Printed Documentation screen, Rh crashes.
Without clicking Next, if I click Save & Generate, pdf is generated with missing topics.
When I check the event log, I see Application Error. What exactly is causing this crash? Please help.

Which version of Word do you have installed and is it the 32 or 64 bit version?
The latter will not play nicely and even Microsoft recommend the 32 bit version for compatability with other apps.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

HP Photosmart Premium C309g-m unable to print ("check printer documentation")

My printer is: HP Photosmart Premium C309g-m
My computer is: Mac (Mac OS X system)
After removing a jammed paper (probably the incorrect way), I now receive a message to check "printer documentation" and then press "okay". Tried everything I could find, including uninstalling and reinstalling. Still receive same message, and still unable to print.
Can anyone tell me in very simple terms how to fix this?

Hi there chnich,
This article should cover the issue you are experiencing. Give the steps outlined a shot and let us know if it helps.
Best of Luck!
You can say thanks by clicking the Kudos Star in my post. If my post resolves your problem, please mark it as Accepted Solution so others can benefit too.

Visual C++ runtime library error when generating printed documentation from RH9

I just upgraded a project from RH 7 to RH 9. I tried generating printed documentation in Word from it, but as soon as the Printed Documentation dialog opened, a Visual C++ Runtime Library error displayed. RoboHelp stopped working and I had to restart.
I tried using one of the sample projects -- same thing happened.
I then created a brand-new project. This time, opening the Printed Documentation dialog worked. I selected "Generate Word Doc" and the .docx extension, since I have Word 2010, and tried to generate printed documentation. However, the following message then displayed: Cannot find Microsoft Word installed on your system.
So I have two questions:
- How can I avoid crashing RoboHelp when generating printed documentation?
- How can I ensure that RoboHelp finds the Word 2010 installation on my system?
Thanks for any help!
OK, just played around a bit more and I was able to help myself on the first question:
- I created a new Printed Documentation Layout in the Single Source Layouts pane, and from there I was able to generate .pdf files, without encountering the Visual C++ runtime error.
- But the "Cannot find Microsoft Word installed on your system." msg still pops up when I try to generate .docx files. (When I generate .doc files, they have no content.)
Message was edited by: mizotto

First the fact that the problem is with old layouts suggest they were using an old template.
The PDF creation relies on a Word document being created in the background. The fact that you cannot generate a good doc or docx makes it odd that you get a PDF. The PDF is OK I take it?
I'm wondering if you have not applied the 901 patch and are running Word 2010 64 bit?
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Missing topics in printed documentation

I am using RoboHelp V7 and WebHelp as my Primary Layout. My project has approximately 100 topics.
The project is basically an A-Z with various topics saved into 26 folders (A-Z). The printed documentation prints perfectly except that the H1 headings for all the 'A' topics are missing from the resulting Word document.
The table of contents in the Word document is correct, with "A" listed but none of the topics are listed in the TOC. The topics appear in their correction location in the word document except the H1 headings is missing. The heading "A" appears in the correct location in the Word document.
In each topic the H1 is in the header and draws its text from the name of the topic.
All the 'A' topics were created manually and the rest 'B-Z' were imported from an Word Document. This appears to be the only difference between the topics!!
All the topics (A-Z) are connected to the same template and access the same CSS file.
On the final screen of the Print Documentation Wizard (Print Document Appearance - Pninted Documentation) I have tried connecting to different templates from the drop down list under MS Word Template. I have also created my own *.dot file out of a resulting document (i.e. stripping all the text and saving as *.dot). But no luck.
Any thoughts?
Many thanks in anticipation.

The HMTL for the two types of pages looks identical
An 'A' page
<div placeholder id=header style="width: 100%; position: relative;">
<h1><variable name=title x-format=default x-value="Air conditioning">Air conditioning</variable></h1>
</div>
A 'D' page
<div placeholder id=header style="width: 100%; position: relative;">
<h1><variable name=title x-format=default x-value="dress code">dress code</variable></h1>
</div>
The only obvious difference in the HTML for the two types of pages is that the pages imported from Word have the following line in their metadata:
<meta name=OriginalFile content="Orientation Guide - Draft Wording_V2.doc">
And both types of pages are clearly connected to the same style sheets.
Stumped?

Problems with RH 9, CBT, and Printed Documentation

When I upgrade an x5 project in the new RH9, all appears to go fine until I try to generate the Printed Documentation. I was disappointed that the printed documentation STILL requires so much cleanup. Text tagged with the Online condition sometimes displays on some topics, even when Online is excluded from the output. Also, some of the cleanup issues surrounding headings and index entries are still necessary.
The four biggest issues are:
1) If a "book" TOC heading also has content (a topic associated with it), a double-heading appears in the printed output. You have to manually remove all these extra headings in the cleanup process.
2) All index entries appear in the paragraph BEFORE the actual heading they mark, instead of after the heading, resulting in the Index not being correct (if a heading appears at the top of the page, the Index points to the previous page where the index entry resides, instead of the correct page). I have to manually go through the entire document and move each index entry to the paragraph AFTER the heading it marks.
3) Robohelp ignores the exclusion of Online conditions on some random topics. There is a workaround to "trick" Robohelp, but it takes *a lot* of time to do. To "trick" Robohelp, I had to generate a printed manual and make a list of all topics that "slipped" through. And, then edit each topic where the online condition was ignored, by adding an extra, empty paragraph to the end of each topic that had:
·         a single paragraph of text (aside from header and footer info)
·         ends with bulleted list (and no extra paragraph marker following)
·         ends with a table (and no extra paragraph marker following)
·         ends with a figure (and no extra paragraph marker following)
·         ends with see also\How do I\misc button text (and no extra paragraph marker before the seealso/how do I listings)
4) I noticed that when I opened a topic for the first time in Robohelp, the Online condition sometimes gets applied to incorrectly tagged text (it wasn't tagged this way in the x5 content). This requires me opening each topic in the upgraded project, and checking each topic to make sure the online condition is applied correctly in each one (a very tedious process, especiallly if you have a doc set of over 1 mil words!).
Expected results:
Printed doc does not contain double headings. Index entries appear after headings. Conditional text behaves as it is supposed to behave (and if you tell Robohelp to exclude the ONLINE condition, it does it for ALL topics).
Does anyone have any suggestions/recommendations for this? Yes, I have the latest build. We held off on upgrading to previous releases of Robohelp because of the Printed Manual problem too (it seems like each version created more clean up work). :-( I logged a bug on the Adobe forum.Any and all suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

Mr. Grainge,
Thank you so much for your thoughtful answers back! I appreciate you taking time out to write such a thorough reply. I hope Adobe appreciates you! You're number one in follow ups!
Unfortunately, your answers did not solve my problems. But, you did give me some ideas on where the problems could be occurring. So, thank you!! Before I begin: In answer to your question, yes I *am* using the supplied Style Mapping template (I never had luck with the custom one myself). Also, I am going to hold off on replying to 1) and 2), but I'd like to share my answer on 3) and 4), which is really just what I need to get Printed Documentation working in Robohelp 9 the same way it worked in x5.
A little history: I have a set of about 50 help projects that span many versions of our company's product, and multiple versions of Robohelp (some even go back to the 90s!). They even include some help projects that were originally in Frame/WebWorks but were later ported to Robohelp. There's a lot of history to them.
Investigating the Problem: When I opened an x5 project in RH 9, I noticed that some of the timestamps on the .htm files didn't match the rest of the files. It turned out, that these very same files that were the ones giving me problems with the Conditional text! That's when your thoughts about the mapping came to mind...As I said, my project spanned mutiple versions of Robohelp. I wondered if some of the coding on the .htm page was being parsed incorrectly on upgrade, and if if that was the reason why RH couldn't update the pages (which explain the unchanged timestamps). In other words, I wondered if Robohelp was mapping the styles correctly on import. So, I compared these unupgraded .htm files with ones that did upgrade, to see if there was something on the code page that could be causing the problem.
Solution to Fix 3) and 4) above:
I'm going to list out everything that I did below, however, not everything on this list applies to everyone. But, hopefully it will help you, if you ever run into this scenario yourself, and it might give you some ideas on how to get your HTML files working. So, before upgrading, here is what I did:
I opened my old CSS in a text editor and removed all the Robohelp autogenerated comments.
In Homesite, I did a bunch of Search and Replaces on a copy of the older x5 project. I looked for code that may have been generated in an earlier version of RH,and for unusual structures in the meta and style declaration area that could be causing conflicts. Here is a list of my search and replaces below:
Search for:

Replace With:
nothing
Search for:

Replace With:
nothing
Search for:

Replace With:
nothing
Search for:
<p> </p>
Replace With:
nothing
Search for:
<p> </p>
Replace With:
nothing
Search for:
<html>
<head>
Replace With:
<html>



<head>
Search for:

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">

<link href="MyHelp.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">

<script language="javaScript" type="text/javascript" src="MyHelp.js"></script>
<script language="javascript" src="eHlpDhtm.js"></script>
</head>

<body TABINDEX=1>
Replace With:

<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<meta name=generator content="RoboHELP by eHelp Corporation - www.ehelp.com">
<meta name=generator-major-version content=0.1>
<meta name=generator-minor-version content=1>
<meta name=filetype content=kadov>
<meta name=filetype-version content=1>
<meta name=page-count content=1>
<meta name=layout-height content=597>
<meta name=layout-width content=662>

<link href="MyHelp.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">

<script language=javaScript
type="text/javascript"
src="MyHelp.js"></script>
<script language=javascript
src="eHlpDhtm.js"></script>
</head>

<body TABINDEX=1>
Search for:
<a class=toplinks href="#top"> Top</a>
…or…
<a class=toplinks href="#top">Top</a>
Replace With:
<a class=toplinks
href="#top">Top</a>
Search for:
<h3 id=SeeAlsoTitle
class=SeeAlsoTitle
style="x-condition: Online;">See Also</h3>
<div id=seeAlso
Replace With:
<h3 id=SeeAlsoTitle
class=SeeAlsoTitle
style="x-condition: Online;">See Also</h3>
<div id=seeAlso
After I did these all these search and replaces in the copy of the x5 version of the project, I opened the project again in RH 9 and upgraded it. After the upgrade, I checked the timestamps on the .htm files to make sure they all changed. They did! It worked! Everything upgraded properly this time... I tested the Printed Manual output and no conditional text slipped through this time. Yay!
In Summary:
This is what I learned if you are having problems with Conditional text and Printed Manuals in an upgraded RH project:
Always make backups of your older projects before you upgrade anything. I know this is elementary, but I thought it was worth reminding.
Check the timestamps of the files after you upgrade the project. If there are a group of files with timestamps that aren't similar to the rest of the files, chances are Robohelp was having trouble converting those files.
Try looking at the HTML code in those files and see if anything looks out of the ordinary. Some examples are above.
If you have already ported the RH project and it's too late to go back, go look at the file timestamps anyhow. For all the older files, try opening each one in Robohelp and add a space or something (to force RH to change it), and save it. I didn't have the time to verify this, but it seemed on most instances: when I forced RH to save the file manually, it updated correctly and the problem with the conditional text went away. (This option takes longer, especially if you have to do each page individually, but it's worth a try, IMHO.)
Aside from the initial Printed Manual woes, which are resolved, the upgrade process from RH 9 really was seamless! Best I have ever seen! Everything just works! Awesome is a word that comes to mind.
Printed Documentation output does work on upgrade, but in my opinion is: it is no better than it was before, in previous versions.
I wish there were more fixes to the Printed Manual output. When you have a product help system that spans multiple versions, contains over 2.5 million words, and 10,000+ topics, having a lot of cleanup on the production end is costly. What use to take a person on my team less than a day to generate 50+ PDFs in FrameMaker, takes 4-5 weeks man-time in RH. I will outline my opinions in my next reply to this thread.
Thanks again, Mr. Grainge!

Problem with RoboHelp 7 and Batch Generate "Printed Documentation"

Hello people! I have a problem with Batch Generate of Word documenttion in RoboHelp 7, when launch the Batch Generate with "Printed Documention" option selected send me a error message like this "Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Elments version 7 or Higher is not installed on your system".
RoboHelp generate de .chm file without problems.
I have the last version of Adobe Acrobat Reader Installed in my computer, my RoboHelp's project is not very complicated, the only to remarks is in spanish lenguage and the computer is in spanish too, but anothers projects in english US generate documentation without problems, I dont know if this had anything to do..
I have windows XP SP 3,so I test in another computer to generate documentation and I have the same problem. What´s happend ??
Thank you for all.

I too am having this issue with the TOC. Firefox simply
doesn't handle it correctly and I have no idea how to fix
it.

List style not visible in printed documentation

Robohelp 8.0.2
Is this a bug??? I opted to use a numbered list style rather than a numbered paragraph style to label procedural steps. The advantage of a list style is that skip numbering would not work properly using the paragraph style. i.e.:
'Steps' Paragraph style with numbering associated:
First step.
          Result of first step.
Second step.            * Bullets and Numbering does not allow me to consistently "Restart numbering at 2" (and HTML this produces is faulty).
'NumberedStep' List style with numbering:
   1. First step.
           Result of first step.
   2. Second step.               * Bullets and Numbering allow me to consistently "Restart numbering at 2."
Now I see the consequences of my decision: My 'NumberedStep' style is not included in the styles dropdown. Inconvenient, but not itself the end of the world.
The real problem is this: Printed Documents are not consistent with the style defined in 'NumberedStep'.
The font is larger than it should be, and indents are all over the place:
This is the selection I made on Generate Printed Document:
On first review, all the styles in my source translated easily to Word, but the style for NumberedStep text was not. That text is now 'Normal'.
I've hunted high and low to solve this issue, so a direct reply is appreciated.

Firstly, your better off using liststyles than paragraph list styles, I screwed around a long time before I had to set everything to liststyles rather than paragraph ones. So dont worry about that.
The first issue, of not seeing the style - it is there, if you open the Styles tab on screen (click in a topic to get the cursor, then Format > Styles), not just the dropdown like youve shown youll see a list of all your styles, almost, it will show paragraph styles, click the drop-down and select All available styles, this will display your list styles as well!
Im not sure about the style settings, I have the same text setting applied in my list style as I use for my 'normal' text. Though I think you can select the text in a list and apply a paragraph style to it....i just tried and it worked, but to be on the safe side you might want to set the text formatting in the list style css too..
mine looks like this
li.NumberList {
    font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;
    font-size: 10pt;
    color: #524C45;
    list-style: decimal;
    margin-bottom: 6pt;
    margin-top: 6pt;
As for printed formats not indenting lists, this is an issue. So far I have found no way around it because you cannot map a list styles in RH to a list style in Word. This has also created errors for line spacing and indents - and I found the indents are severly messed up when using list styles in snippets. Everytime I create printed documentation I have to manually fix it, a pain but it doesnt take too long....you could use macros etc to speed it all up for you.
Submit a Wish Form.
Hope it helps.
Nick

How can I include merged projects in the printed documentation?

I have a master project with several merged projects. This works splendid with online documentation, but when I am asked to provide a printed version, it seems I have to create separate documents for each merged project.
Is there any setting or fix that enables print also of merged projects and topics when I create printed documentation?
Pretty please with sugar on top :-)

Hm - there is a contract with the customer, saying that he wants documentation both as word and pdf, and as we now aim at only writing online documentation, these tasks create extra work, as we are delivering updates each month
But yes - two beasts, where only chm is actually needed we think.
-Tone
Date: Tue, 3 May 2011 06:53:04 -0600
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: How can I include merged projects in the printed documentation?
Hi there
I'm a bit curious as to the reasoning behind your "persuation process for using chm-files only".
CHM files and printed documentation are two entirely different beasts.
Cheers... Rick
| http://www.robowizard.com/pc.gif | Helpful and Handy Links
http://www.Adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform&product=38
http://www.gooberguides.com/ProductPages/RoboHelp/RoboHelp82Day.htm
http://www.ShowMeSolutions.biz
http://sorcererstone.wordpress.com/
http://www.gooberguides.com |
>

Printed Documentation Research

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for