The first thing you will see when you import FrameMaker content into RoboHelp by Reference is the Content Settings dialog box (shown below). Many first-timers have no idea what to do on this box and click the Next button.
And then you run face-first into the equally mysterious Style Settings dialog box.
At this point, you'd likely click the Finish button and end up with a RoboHelp project with just a few topics that are likely too long. The topics probably look okay thanks to the fmstyles.css that you edited (I discussed this CSS last week)–but they'll go on and on since RoboHelp did not know how to split your FrameMaker content into RoboHelp topics.
This week I'll discuss how to complete the Content Settings dialog box, that will allow you to use FrameMaker's Table of Contents, Index and Glossary in RoboHelp. Next week we'll deal with the Style Settings dialog box, that will control how your FrameMaker content is split into topics.
Anyway, back to the Content Settings. If you clicked the finish button, open the Project Manager pod in RoboHelp, right-click the FrameMaker book file and choose Properties to display the Content Settings dialog box.
Select Convert FrameMaker Table of Content and then select Create new associated TOC (in the example below, the new TOC was named TechComTOC).
Similarly, select Convert Index and then select Create new associate Index (in the example below, the new Index was named TechComIndex).
Click OK and you're just about done. All you need to do now is attach the new TOC and Index to your Single Source Layout.
Close all of the open RoboHelp topics (Window > Close All) and,
on the Project Manager, right-click FrameMaker book file and choose Update.
Finally, on your Single Source Layouts pod, show the properties of your layout and, from the Content area, select your FrameMaker TOC and Index from the drop-down menus.
Want to learn more about integrating the Technical Communication Suite? Click here.