Adobe RoboHelp – Page 4 – The Logical Blog

January 29, 2015

Adobe RoboHelp: Embed a Vimeo Video

by Willam van Weelden

I have previously taught you how to embed YouTube videos in a RoboHelp project. While immensely popular, YouTube is not the only video site. This week, let's focus on embedding videos located on the Vimeo website.

First, access the Vimeo site, locate the video you'd like to use, and then click the Share button located on the video.

Next, go to the Embed field and copy the embed code.

Vimeo: Embed Code

Now that you've got the embed code copied, the rest of the work occurs in RoboHelp. Go ahead and open a RoboHelp topic, switch to HTML mode, and then paste the embed code in the topic as shown below.

Adobe RoboHelp: Embed code added to RoboHelp's HTML.

Lastly, you'll need to edit the HTML just a bit. In the src attribute, type http: in front of the url.

Adobe RoboHelp: HTTP added.

Save the topic, generate the layout, and open the topic in your browser to see the embedded video.

Adobe RoboHelp: Embedded Vimeo video.

Note: Vimeo includes a hyperlink with a description below the video. Retain this link unless you have the correct license for removing it.

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Looking to learn RoboHelp? We offer a live, two-day online RoboHelp class once a month. Feel free to contact us to learn other ways to meet your RoboHelp training requirements.

November 20, 2014

Adobe RoboHelp: Embed a YouTube Video

by Willam Van Weelden

Last week, Kevin taught you how to embed YouTube videos in your eLearning projects. This week I'm going to keep with the YouTube theme and show you how you can embed YouTube content into your RoboHelp project.

Go to YouTube and locate the video you'd like to use.
Click the Share button below the video.
Go to the Embed tab and copy the embed code.
In RoboHelp, open a topic and switch to HTML mode.
Paste the embed code in the topic.
In the src attribute, type http: in front of the url.
Save your topic and generate your output.

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Looking to learn RoboHelp? We offer a live, two-day online RoboHelp class once a month. Feel free to contact us to learn other ways to meet your RoboHelp training requirements.

October 23, 2014

Adobe RoboHelp: In Word We Trust

by Willam Van Weelden

If you have attempted to create printed documentation with RoboHelp, there is a good chance you have run into a macro error. RoboHelp uses Word for printed documentation, and this error occurs if Word's security settings don't allow macros.

You can enable macros in Word, but that may not be enough. Some Help Authors receive unspecified errors when generating printed documentation even with macros enabled. To solve this, RoboHelp projects must be added to Word's trusted locations. I'll show you how to both Enable Word Macros and add projects to the trusted locations.

Enabling Word Macros

Start Word.
Click the Office button (Word 2007) or go to the File tab (Word 2010-2013).
Click Options.
Select Trust Center and then click Trust Center Settings.
From the Macro Settings area, select Enable all macros.
Close the Trust Center and the options.

Go to RoboHelp and generate the printed documentation. In most cases, RoboHelp will create a Word document out of your Help System. If RoboHelp still doesn't generate the printed documentation, you likely need to add your RoboHelp projects to Word's Trusted Locations.

Add RoboHelp Projects to Trusted Locations

Start Word.
Click the Office button (Word 2007) or go to the File tab (Word 2010-2013).
Select Options.
Select Trusted locations and then click the Add new location button.
In the Microsoft Office Trusted Location dialog box, click the Browse button and open the folder containing your RoboHelp projects.
Select Subfolders of this location are also trusted.
Click OK to close the Microsoft Office Trusted Location dialog box.
Close the Trust Center and the options.

Go to RoboHelp and re-generate the printed documentation.

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Looking to learn RoboHelp? We offer a live, two-day online RoboHelp class once a month. Feel free to contact us to learn other ways to meet your RoboHelp training requirements.

October 3, 2014

Adobe RoboHelp: Multilevel List Sub-Numbering

by Willam Van Weelden

A few weeks ago I showed you how you can use multilevel lists to easily create complex lists with multiple levels. But multilevel lists are far more powerful than I could show you in a single article. This week, I'm going to expand on the multi-level list theme by teaching you how to add sub-numbers to lists:

Sub-numbering is important for many procedures and legal documents. You simply can't have sub numbering in RoboHelp without multilevel lists, unless you want to manually type in all sub-numbers. But with multilevel lists, you control this behavior right from the style sheet!

To add sub-numbering to a Multilevel List, first Create a multilevel list. Then, on the Project Manager pod, double-click your style sheet to open the Styles dialog box.

In the Styles dialog box, select your multilevel list. From the Apply Formatting To drop-down menu, choose a level that will use the sub-numbers.

Click in the Edit Style field and, from the Insert Level drop-down menu, choose 1.

Click OK to close the Styles dialog and save your changes.

And that's it. From this point forward, any of your multilevel lists can include sub-numbering (as shown in the image below):

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Looking to learn RoboHelp? We offer a live, two-day online RoboHelp class once a month. Feel free to contact us to learn other ways to meet your RoboHelp training requirements.

September 17, 2014

Adobe RoboHelp: Multilevel Lists

by Willam Van Weelden

Multilevel lists are an often overlooked RoboHelp feature… a shame because multilevel lists are very powerful. As the name suggests, Multilevel lists allow you to create complex lists with multiple levels. For example: consider what you would have to do if you need a list that uses upper alphanumeric characters on the first level, lower roman on the second level and bullets on the third level.

You can achieve the numbering scheme shown above by using a standard numbered list, but you would need to assign the correct list styling to every list level. That's a lot of manual labor. And it's not easy to quickly change the list style, especially if you've applied the style manually across multiple topics.

With multilevel lists, you create a single style that can be used in multiple topics throughout a RoboHelp project. And best of all: you control everything through the style sheet, allowing you to change all the multilevel lists in a central location.

In this article I will show you how to create and use a multilevel list. I will focus on the basic settings first. With these basic settings you can use Multilevel Lists in your projects. In a future article I will show you some cool things you can do with multilevel lists.

Create a Multilevel List

On the Project Manager pod, double-click your style sheet to open the Styles dialog box.
In the Styles dialog box, right-click Multilevel Lists and chooseNew.
Enter a name for your list style and press [enter].
From the Apply Formatting To drop-down menu, choose Level 1.
From the Paragraph Style drop-down menu, choose a paragraph style. (I recommend using the Normal style so that the list uses the default topic formatting.)
From the List Style drop-down menu, choose a list style. (In my example I chose upper-alpha.)
Return to the Apply Formatting To drop-down menu and select and format other levels as needed. (In the sample list pictured at at the beginning of this article, I formatted the first three levels.)
When finished, click the OK button to save your changes.

The Multilevel list is now set up and ready to use.

Apply a Multilevel List To Topic Text

Open a topic and select some text.
Click the Create a Multilevel List tool.
Select your Multilevel List in the Available Lists Styles field and then click the OK button.

Note: To change the level of a list item, click the Increase Indent or
Decrease Indent tools.

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Looking to learn RoboHelp? We offer a live, two-day online RoboHelp class once a month. Feel free to contact us to learn other ways to meet your RoboHelp training requirements.

August 20, 2014

Adobe RoboHelp: Get the New Responsive Layout

by Willam Van Weelden

One of the hottest new features introduced in Adobe RoboHelp 11 is Responsive HTML5 layouts. The Responsive HTML5 output dynamically changes the way the content is presented based on the device the reader is using. For example, while a reader on a desktop might see a traditional table of contents on the right side of the page, someone using a smart phone will see a table of contents that is optimized for touch:

Responsive HTML5 output uses Screen Layouts, the skins for HTML5 output. With these skins you can control how your output will look for your users.

If you have used Responsive HTML5 before, you may have seen the following layout in the gallery:

The image above shows the Responsive Layout as it was delivered when RoboHelp 11 was released. You'll be happy to know that Adobe released an update of this layout with the RoboHelp 11.0.1 patch.However, even if you have installed the patch you may still be using the old layout.

While Adobe provided instructions on how to manually install the new Responsive HTML5 layout, they are hidden away in the release notes and you likely missed them. If so, here they are:

Close RoboHelp.
Using Windows Explorer, search for%appdata%\Adobe\RoboHTML.
(The RoboHTML folder hidden within your AppData folder opens.)
Rename the folder 11.00 to 11.00_old.
(A new 11.00 folder will be created when you restart RoboHelp.)
Start RoboHelp.

You can now use the improved Responsive Layout for your output:

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Looking to learn RoboHelp? We offer a live, two-day online RoboHelp class once a month. Feel free to contact us to learn other ways to meet your RoboHelp training requirements.

June 6, 2014

Adobe RoboHelp: Show Variables in Topics

by Willam Van Weelden

In previous articles you've learned about RoboHelp's User Defined Variables (how to create them, group them, and use them in topic titles).

As a brief review, variables can contain information that occurs frequently in your project, such as a product name, company name, or copyright notice. After creating the variable, you can insert it into any RoboHelp topic or onto a template by simply dragging and dropping. Now here's the cool part. Assume your company name now appears throughout your project and now you want to change it. Without the variable, you would have to search your entire project and update the company name. Thanks to variables, all you will need to do is update the definition of the CompanyName variable, and you will change the displayed company name project-wide in just a few seconds.

One issue you'll come across when inserting variables within a topic is that, by default, the variable text looks like regular topic text. In the picture below, I challenge you to locate the variable.

Adobe RoboHelp: Find the variable text

Did you find the variable text? I'm betting that the answer is no. So what's the big deal? This can be particularly frustrating if you need to replace regular text with a variable. For example, you can highlight regular text in a topic and convert it to a variable by dragging the variable on top of the text. That's an awesome feature. Before I begin however, I need to be able to tell, at a glance, if the text I'm looking to replace is already a variable. As it stands, I have no idea since I cannot tell the difference between a variable and regular text.

Luckily, RoboHelp has a handy feature that allows you to distinguish between variables and regular text in topics. To enable this feature, simply choose View > Show > Fields.

Adobe RoboHelp: Color coding for Variable Text.

Voila. All variables in topics are now shown as green text. Best of all, variables only show up green in your project… when you generate a layout, the green color will not be visible to your users.

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Looking for instructor-led training on RoboHelp? We offer live, online training once each month. We can also bring the same great training onsite to your facility. Interested? Contact us for details.

April 4, 2014

Adobe RoboHelp: Master Pages for Word Headers and Footers

by Willam Van Weelden

When importing or generating Microsoft Word documents with RoboHelp, one of the chief weaknesses has always been the lack of support for Word's headers and footers. When importing, the Word headers and footers were ignored. When generating Printed Documentation, there was no support for controlling the resulting headers and footers from within RoboHelp. Instead, you had to edit them in the Word document.

With the new Adobe RoboHelp 11, you can now control the headers and footers for Printed documentation with Master Pages. This allows you to control the information displayed in the headers and footers of Word and PDF documents generated by RoboHelp.

A master page is a template for your topics. You can assign a style sheet to a master page, and set up headers and footers. If you apply a master page to a topic, the topic will use the style sheet and display the header and footer. When you create printed documentation, the printed documentation can use the header and footer you set up on the master page.

Setting up headers and footers in a Master Page

To change the header and footer of a master page, follow these steps:

Open the Project Set-up pod. (View > Pods > Project Set-up)
Open a master page (or create a new one)
Choose View > Header to open the header pane
Add content to the header just as you would add content to a topic
Choose View > Footer to open the footer pane
Add content to the footer, just as you would add content to a topic

Using the Master Page for Printed Documentation

Once you have set up the master page, you can use the master page when generating printed documentation.

Open the Single Source Layouts pod (View > Pods > Single Source Layouts).
Double-click a Printed Documentation layout to open the Print Document options.
From the Header/Footer area, select the master page you set up earlier.
Click Save and Generate to create the printed documentation.

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Looking to learn RoboHelp? We offer a live, two-day online RoboHelp class once a month. Feel free to contact us to learn other ways to meet your RoboHelp training requirements.

March 18, 2014

“Adobe RoboHelp HTML 11: The Essentials” Workbook Now Available on the Kindle

I'm pleased to report that my newest book, "Adobe RoboHelp HTML 11: The Essentials" has gone to the printer. While the hard copy version of the book won't be available for a week or so, the Kindle version is available now from Amazon.com.

During the activities presented in this workbook, you will create RoboHelp projects from scratch and add such best-in-class features as TOCs, Indexes, Glossaries, images, links, DHTML effects, eLearning videos and much more. You'll also learn how to use the hot new Responsive HTML5 output to create content for any device, anywhere.

More information.

March 12, 2014

Adobe FrameMaker 12: Single Source to Responsive HTML5 and ePub

by Kevin Siegel

Adobe's new FrameMaker 12 allows you to quickly generate Responsive HTML5 and ePubs. If these features sound familiar, they should… you'll find both in Adobe RoboHelp 11. Now that FrameMaker has these output options,you can take content that was traditionally confined to print or PDF, and deliver it to users over the web.

Your customers can use Responsive HTML5 or ePub content via desktop computers, mobile devices… just about anything. And you don't have to take the variety of screen sizes users might use into account. If the user is viewing your content on a desktop, they will automatically see an appropriate arrangement of the screen components; if they view your content on an iPhone or Android phone, they will see the components resized and rearranged in a layout to best suit the smaller display size.

Generate Responsive HTML5

Create or open a single FrameMaker document or a book file.
Choose File > Publish to open the Publish pod.
On the Publish pod, right-click Responsive HTML5 and choose Edit Settings to open the Publish Settings dialog box.
Click the Gallery button to open the New Screen Layout dialog box.
Select a Theme and click the OK button. (You will be presented with a series of options that allow you to quickly customize many components that make up the original design. What I really like about this area is that the Adobe engineers have labelled everything so you know what each area controls.)
When you're finished customizing the Theme, click theSave button to return to the Publish Settings dialog box.
Click the Save and Close button to close the Publish Settings dialog box.
To generate the layout, return to the Publish pod, right-click Responsive HTML5 and choose Generate.

In the first image below, you can see the chapter structure in my FrameMaker book file. In the second image, you can see how that structure appears in my web browser thanks to Responsive HTML5.

Generate an ePub

On the Publish pod, right-click ePub and choose Edit Settings.
On the Meta Information tab, fill in the information as necessary.
Click the Save and Close button.
To generate the Pub, return to the Publish pod, right-click ePub, and choose Generate.

In the image below, you can see how my FrameMaker book looks when viewed with an ePub reader (I'm using Adobe's free Digital Editions).

All in all, this is some pretty awesome stuff. Keep in mind that you will only need Adobe FrameMaker 12 to generate these layouts. I mentioned at the outset that Responsive HTML5 and ePub layouts were once the domain of Adobe RoboHelp. However, with FrameMaker 12, you don't need RoboHelp or any of the other tools that make up the Adobe Technical Communication Suite. Once you've created the FrameMaker content, you can output content for any audience, no matter the end-user device used to view your content.

If you would like to see a demonstration of the FrameMaker single sourcing workflow, click here to see a video I created on the IconLogic YouTube channel.

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Looking for training on Adobe FrameMaker? We offer multiple live, online FrameMaker classes each month. We can also bring the same great training onsite to your facility. Interested? Contact us for details.