Styles are missing when publishing to ePub in RoboHelp 9

Question

Good afternoon,
We are developing content for Android Tablets and have learned the customary format that we used is, well, unusable.
A few posts suggest that ePub is really the only way to go with Android Tablet Help.
http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2010/04/robohelp_script_to_generate_epub_format_content_fo r_mobile_d.html
http://forums.adobe.com/message/3629956
http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/tag/mobile
http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2010/12/epub-industry-standard-file-format-for-reflowable- content.html
So, I have published using the ePub format, but I have noticed the existing styles are ignored. In another post, it was noted to ensure that the tags are lower case. I edited the css file and made sure the tags are lower case, but this did not make any difference.
Any suggestions for what may be happening here? My best guess is there is an issue with the CSS file.
Best Regards,
Eric Buterbaugh
Here is the style sheet:
/*created with adobe robohelp 9.*/
h1 {
    margin-bottom: 5pt;
    margin-top: 0.5pt;
    color: #ffffff;
    font-weight: bold;
    font-style: normal;
    font-family: arial, sans-serif;
    font-size: 18pt;
    background-color: #3f5f94;
li.h1 {
    color: #ffffff;
    font-weight: bold;
    font-style: normal;
    font-family: arial, sans-serif;
    font-size: 18pt;
h2 {
    font-weight: bold;
    margin-top: 9.5pt;
    margin-bottom: 0.5pt;
    font-size: 11pt;
    font-family: arial, sans-serif;
li.h2 {
    font-weight: bold;
    font-size: 11pt;
    font-family: arial, sans-serif;
h3 {
    font-weight: bold;
    margin-top: 9.5pt;
    margin-bottom: 3pt;
    font-family: verdana, sans-serif;
    color: #1e56b5;
    font-size: 8pt;
li.h3 {
    font-weight: bold;
    font-family: verdana, sans-serif;
    color: #1e56b5;
    font-size: 8pt;
p {
    margin-bottom: 4.5pt;
    font-size: 9pt;
    margin-top: 0pt;
    font-family: arial, sans-serif;
li.p {
    font-size: 9pt;
    font-family: arial, sans-serif;
a.expandspot {
    color: #008000;
    cursor: hand;
    font-style: italic;
    text-decoration: none;
span.expandtext {
    font-style: italic;
    font-weight: normal;
    color: #ff0000;
a.dropspot {
    cursor: hand;
    color: #008000;
    font-style: italic;
    text-decoration: none;
a.glossterm {
    color: #800000;
    cursor: hand;
    font-style: italic;
    text-decoration: none;
span.glosstext {
    font-style: italic;
    font-weight: normal;
    color: #0000ff;
p.bullet-hollow-indent {
    list-style: circle;
    margin-left: 18pt;
li.p-bulleted-indent {
    list-style: circle;
p.bulleted {
    list-style: rh-list;
    x-list-class: rl-p-bulleted;
    x-list-level: 1;
    margin-top: 4.5pt;
    font-weight: bold;
    margin-left: 48px;
    text-indent: -24px;
li.p-bulleted {
    list-style: disc;
p.note {
    font-style: italic;
    color: #0000ff;
    background-color: #cdc9b1;
    margin-bottom: 9pt;
    border-top-style: solid;
    border-bottom-style: solid;
    border-top-color: #000000;
    border-bottom-color: #000000;
    border-left-style: none;
    border-right-style: none;
    border-top-width: 1px;
    border-bottom-width: 1px;
    margin-top: 9pt;
    text-indent: 0.25in;
    margin-left: 54pt;
    margin-right: 224px;
li.p-note {
    font-style: italic;
    font-weight: normal;
    color: #0000ff;
    text-indent: -;
    list-style: url(blue_nav_index.gif);
h4 {
    font-size: 9pt;
    margin-top: 9.5pt;
    margin-bottom: 0.5pt;
    font-family: arial, sans-serif;
li.h4 {
    font-size: 9pt;
    font-family: arial, sans-serif;
p.tip {
    x-next-class: ;
    x-next-type: p;
    font-style: italic;
    font-weight: normal;
    color: #0000ff;
    border-top-style: solid;
    border-bottom-style: solid;
    border-top-color: #000000;
    border-bottom-color: #000000;
    border-top-width: 1px;
    border-bottom-width: 1px;
    background-color: #fefaa7;
    margin-left: 36pt;
    margin-right: 54pt;
    margin-top: 13.5pt;
    margin-bottom: 4.5pt;
li.p-tip {
    font-style: italic;
    font-weight: normal;
    color: #0000ff;
p.blue {
    font-size: 10pt;
    color: #ffffff;
    x-next-class: ;
    x-next-type: h4;
    margin-top: 9pt;
    font-weight: bold;
    font-style: normal;
    background-color: #87a3ed;
    margin-right: 0pt;
li.p-blue {
    font-size: 10pt;
    color: #ffffff;
    font-weight: bold;
    font-style: normal;
p.code {
    font-family: "courier new", monospace;
li.p-code {
    font-family: "courier new", monospace;
p.tasks {
    font-weight: bold;
    font-style: normal;
    margin-right: 0pt;
    font-size: 8pt;
    font-family: verdana, sans-serif;
    color: #1e56b5;
    background-color: #ffffff;
    line-height: normal;
    margin-top: 4.5pt;
    list-style: rh-list;
    x-list-class: rl-p-tasks;
    x-list-level: 1;
    margin-bottom: 4.5pt;
    x-next-class: aftertasks;
    x-next-type: p;
    text-indent: -0.23in;
    margin-left: 0.23in;
li.p-tasks {
    font-weight: bold;
    font-style: normal;
    font-size: 8pt;
    font-family: verdana, sans-serif;
    color: #1e56b5;
    list-style: disc;
    line-height: normal;
p.aftertasks {
    margin-top: 0pt;
    margin-bottom: 13.5pt;
    text-indent: -0in;
    x-next-class: tasks;
    x-next-type: p;
    margin-left: 18pt;
li.p-aftertasks {
p.normal-indent {
    margin-left: 18pt;
li.p-normal-indent {
h4.heading4-indent {
    margin-left: 18pt;
li.h4-heading4-indent {
li.h1-headingtop {
    font-size: 14pt;
rh-list.rl-p-bulleted {
    x-level-count: 1;
    x-lvl-1-format: "<x>";
    x-lvl-1-type: filled-circle;
rh-list.rl-p-note {
    x-level-count: 1;
    x-lvl-1-format: "<x> ";
    x-lvl-1-type: "folder open";
rh-list.rl-p-tasks {
    x-level-count: 1;
    x-lvl-1-format: "<x> ";
    x-lvl-1-type: filled-circle;
p.numbered-list {
    list-style: rh-list;
    x-list-class: rl-p-numbered-list;
    x-list-level: 1;
    margin-left: 18pt;
rh-list.rl-p-numbered-list {
    x-level-count: 1;
    x-lvl-1-format: "<x>.";
    x-lvl-1-type: decimal;
p.bulleted-dark-indent {
    list-style: rh-list;
    x-list-class: rl-p-bulleted;
    x-list-level: 1;
    margin-top: 4.5pt;
    font-weight: bold;
    text-indent: -24px;
    margin-left: 88px;

Answer 1

Hi,
I ran some more tests and did some reading up, and I constantly come across the limitations of the ePub format/readers. From the ePub specification:
The CSS-based style sheet constructs in this specification define required rendering functionality. To minimize the burden on Reading System developers and device manufacturers, not all CSS 2 properties are included. A few additional properties and values have been added to support page layout, headers, and footers. These, taken together, constitute the OPS CSS 2.0 required subset.
An example about using colour in a style sheet:
Current browsers support a host of keyword color names. XHTML 1.1 defines 16 named colors, as well as numeric values. OPS style sheets may use all CSS2 forms, however Reading Systems are not required to distinguish all these colors for rendering (otherwise monochrome devices would necessarily be non-conforming, which is not the intent).
Fonts are supported in the standard (the standard says that font-family and other styling must be supported). As far as I can make out, you may choose between two things:
Use generic font description: serif, sans-serif, monospace.
Use font names, such as Arial. This however would require you to use an open type font which needs to be embedded in the ePub.
See the following section in the specification: http://idpf.org/epub/20/spec/OPS_2.0.1_draft.htm#Section3.4
The answer I can give you goes contains multiple facets:
ePub does not support all the formatting you may be able to throw at it using style sheets. A list of all supported formatting is available in the specification.
ePub readers can perhaps ignore styling even though the ePub format supports it.
Some styling, such as specifying a font, may only work after manually optimizing the CSS through an external CSS editor.
I haven't read the complete specification, so I'm not in the position to tell you what will always work, what will never work, etc. The following page has some screenshots of the same ePub on different readers: http://rufus.deuchler.net/2010/10/css-and-xhtml-tags-for-epub.html That illustrates the problem.
Sorry I can't be more help, but it seems we will have to learn to live with formatting loss in ePub. It's not Robo's fault, but it's annoying none the less.
Greet,
Willam