adobe robohelp – The Logical Blog

August 21, 2024

Adobe RoboHelp: Consistent Image Sizes

I recently had a student from one of my vILT RoboHelp classes ask how they could quickly control the size of multiple images for an entire project. Her supervisor wanted several images displayed at 50% of their original height and width.

This is a reasonably simple task via CSS.

To begin, open the assets folder and open your project CSS. In the example below, I opened the default css that comes with every new RoboHelp project.

Create a New Style.

In the Class area, type a name. In the example below, I've named my new style Images. Note that the same name will automatically be added to the Selector area.

Click the Done button.

With the new style open, open the Layout category. Because my student wanted the images 50% smaller than the original, I set the Height and Width to 50%.

Save the project.

Open a topic with an image or import an image into a topic.

At the far right of the RoboHelp window, click Styles.

Select the image in the topic and click your Images style from the list of styles.

Use the style on as many images throughout the project as appropriate.

To change the size of the images using the Images style, go back to the CSS file and edit the Images styles. After saving the CSS file, all images using the Images style will instantly update.

October 26, 2023

Integrate Adobe Captivate eLearning Output with Adobe RoboHelp Projects

Integrating interactive eLearning with your use assistance or help documentation is super easy if you use the Adobe Technical Communication Suite.

Check out this full training session that I taught for Adobe at DitaWorld: https://youtu.be/FdM148qDjTQ?si=-5Dq7o-QYAh_tzi6

You'll learn to use Adobe Captivate Classic (Captivate 2019) to create an interactive software simulation and publish the lesson as HTML5. Then, you will learn how to incorporate the training into an Adobe RoboHelp project.

March 9, 2023

Adobe RoboHelp 2022: Update 1 Now Available

Adobe recently released the first update for RoboHelp 2022. The update contains several improvements, including a redesign of the CSS editor, table header row styles, an additional field for topic notes, a collapsible right panel, integration with DeepL translator, and custom metadata for PDFs. There are fixes for Word import and security-related issues as well.

To get the update, start RoboHelp and choose Help > Check for Updates.

Here's a list of what's new and changed:

And here's a list of the bugs that were fixed.

February 6, 2023

Adobe RoboHelp: Searching Made Even Better

When I teach RoboHelp, I tell my students and the three main areas users will rely on to get help in a help system are the table of contents (TOC), Index, and Search. Of the three, Search wins the award for being the most used feature.

One thing to avoid in a TOC is bloat–a TOC that has so much content that it's difficult, if not impossible, to find anything quickly. Because users will first rely on Search, keeping the content on the TOC streamlined is a great idea. However, if a topic is not on the TOC or referenced by a link or cross reference by something on the TOC, the topic won't be searchable. This presents a conundrum. If you want to keep your TOC streamlined, but the TOC is tied to Search, what's a RoboHelp developer to do?

The solution is to create an extra section on the TOC. Put anything you want to be searchable in that section. (You can add all of your topics if you'd like.)

On the Content Properties panel, select Hide in output.

Generate the output. The "hidden" TOC content will not appear on the TOC, but will be searchable.

Check out this video demonstration of the process.

January 19, 2023

Adobe RoboHelp: Microcontent

One of the most powerful features in any Help System is Search. In my experience, more people will use the Search feature to quickly try to find answers to questions than will use the Table of Contents or Index combined.

Search has been an essential part of RoboHelp's output for years. If a searched word is contained within a topic, and the topic is included or referenced on the TOC, the topic will be shown to the user. However, it's possible to use RoboHelp Microcontent feature and allow the user to pose questions to the Search feature using full sentences. You can prepare for those questions and create short bursts of information–microcontent–and have that content appear onscreen.

Here a quick video that shows Microcontent in action.

And if you're looking for vILT classes on RoboHelp, look no further!

April 21, 2020

ADOBE ROBOHELP: Master Projects and Merging Help Content

You've got two RoboHelp projects. The projects have been maintained independently for years, but now you need to combine them.

One strategy for combining multiple RoboHelp projects into one is to simply import all of the assets from one project into the other. If you go that route, one of the original project(s) would no longer be needed.

However, if you want to keep the projects working as independent projects but have them share content, a TOC, and an Index, you've created the perfect scenario for project merging.

To merge projects, create child RoboHelp projects as you normally would. In this example, I've created two child projects. One project is about dogs. The second project is about cats. The goal is to combine the child projects into a third project called Cats and Dogs. The third project is the master or parent project.

In the image below you can see a sample Cats project I created with placeholder content. The project includes a small Table of Contents. Because this project is going to be added to a master project, let's call it Child 1.

In the image below you can see a simple Dogs project. It also has placeholder content and a simple Table of Contents. This is Child 2.

Now for the master or parent project. A master project does not need much content. Keep in mind that its main role is to allow you to combine content from child projects.

To allow the master project to combine assets from child projects, I went to the Table of Contents panel and clicked New Merged Project.

In the Merged Project dialog box, I opened each child project. You can see in the image below that I've loaded the Cats project. I repeated the process for the Dogs project.

On the Table of Contents for the master project, the child projects are shown as merged project icons (as shown in the image below).

Generate and Publish the master project.

When you browse to the published destination, you'll see that RoboHelp has automatically created a mergedProjects folder. This folder is key. All that you need to do now is publish each chlid project into this folder.

Back in each child project, access the Publish settings, create a new Server, and publish each child project to the mergedProjects folder for the master project.

When you open the start page for the parent project (from the Publish destination folder), the three projects have been merged into one. On the TOC shown below, the first page is the only topic that was in the master project. The remaining content on the TOC came from the child projects.

***

Looking for Adobe RoboHelp training? Check out these live, online, instructor-led training classes (all Guaranteed to Run).

***

Kevin Siegel is the founder and president of IconLogic, Inc. He has written hundreds of step-by-step computer training books on applications such as Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, Adobe RoboHelp, Adobe Presenter, and TechSmith Camtasia. Kevin spent five years in the U.S. Coast Guard as an award-winning photojournalist and has three decades’ experience as a trainer, publisher, technical writer, and eLearning developer. Kevin is a Certified Master Trainer (CMT), Certified Technical Trainer (CTT+), Certified Online Professional Trainer (COTP), and a frequent speaker at trade shows and conventions.