Seems like you can't get there from here...

Question

Okay, so here's the deal. I've authored a delightful software
manual in
Word. Now I want to bring it into RH X5 with the option of
outputting both
.CHM and .HLP (preferably WinHelp 2000).
* If I import my .DOC file into RH for Word, it loses the
complex structure
and doesn't have any way for me to recreate it easily. I'd
have to recreate
the TOC and index from scratch (and in the Word document, the
TOC and index
each cover three full pages). Not only that but the import
process seems to
have lost all of the graphics... almost every topic has a
screen capture and
they're all gone after a six-hour import process... wahhhh!!!
All of the
graphics in the document file are linked by reference. The
import process
seems to have converted all of my .GIF references to .BMP
references with
the .BMP references apparently non-functional.
* If I import my.DOC file into RH HTML, it retains the
complex structure
but ignores the "non-traditional" heading styles in the
original document. I
have a number of heading styles that were created from the
default heading
styles but with variations on the formatting or just a
slightly different
name so I can exclude them from the Word TOC. So yes, they
actually are
heading styles. However when importing the .DOC file, RH
presents a list of
style choices to make topics from and those aren't in the
list and there's
no way to add them to the list. So I end up with a whole
boatload of topics
that have text in them that should have been broken out into
individual
topics.
* I think I can manage the problems in the previous paragraph
by doing a
search and replace on a copy of the Word document before
importing it into
RH HTML, replacing all instances of my "non-traditional"
heading styles with
Heading 1, Heading 2, etc. However, if I've got the whole
project in RH HTML
to my liking, there's no way to get .HLP output and as far as
I can tell, no
way to import the RH HTML project into RH for Word.
I know the received wisdom is that I shouldn't even consider
WinHelp because
it's officially been deprecated. Nonetheless, I want to
retain that option
and make it available to the folks I'm working with as long
as I have the
tools to create it. The marketplace for our products doesn't
tend to include
early adopters so I don't expect the number of Vista users to
be of any
consequence for quite some time. If we decide to stick with
WinHelp, it
wouldn't be difficult to manage on our end.
So is there any way I can get the import tool in RH for Word
to retain the
complex structure of the original document?? What do I have
to do to get RH
for Word to bring in the graphics?
Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

Bumping to see if anyone will respond
"Mike Starr" <[email protected]> wrote
in message
news:[email protected]...
> Okay, so here's the deal. I've authored a delightful
software manual in
> Word. Now I want to bring it into RH X5 with the option
of outputting both
> .CHM and .HLP (preferably WinHelp 2000).
>
> * If I import my .DOC file into RH for Word, it loses
the complex
structure
> and doesn't have any way for me to recreate it easily.
I'd have to
recreate
> the TOC and index from scratch (and in the Word
document, the TOC and
index
> each cover three full pages). Not only that but the
import process seems
to
> have lost all of the graphics... almost every topic has
a screen capture
and
> they're all gone after a six-hour import process...
wahhhh!!! All of the
> graphics in the document file are linked by reference.
The import process
> seems to have converted all of my .GIF references to
.BMP references with
> the .BMP references apparently non-functional.
>
> * If I import my.DOC file into RH HTML, it retains the
complex structure
> but ignores the "non-traditional" heading styles in the
original document.
I
> have a number of heading styles that were created from
the default heading
> styles but with variations on the formatting or just a
slightly different
> name so I can exclude them from the Word TOC. So yes,
they actually are
> heading styles. However when importing the .DOC file, RH
presents a list
of
> style choices to make topics from and those aren't in
the list and there's
> no way to add them to the list. So I end up with a whole
boatload of
topics
> that have text in them that should have been broken out
into individual
> topics.
>
> * I think I can manage the problems in the previous
paragraph by doing a
> search and replace on a copy of the Word document before
importing it into
> RH HTML, replacing all instances of my "non-traditional"
heading styles
with
> Heading 1, Heading 2, etc. However, if I've got the
whole project in RH
HTML
> to my liking, there's no way to get .HLP output and as
far as I can tell,
no
> way to import the RH HTML project into RH for Word.
>
> I know the received wisdom is that I shouldn't even
consider WinHelp
because
> it's officially been deprecated. Nonetheless, I want to
retain that option
> and make it available to the folks I'm working with as
long as I have the
> tools to create it. The marketplace for our products
doesn't tend to
include
> early adopters so I don't expect the number of Vista
users to be of any
> consequence for quite some time. If we decide to stick
with WinHelp, it
> wouldn't be difficult to manage on our end.
>
> So is there any way I can get the import tool in RH for
Word to retain the
> complex structure of the original document?? What do I
have to do to get
RH
> for Word to bring in the graphics?
>
> Thanks for the help.
>
>