Adobe RoboHelp 7: What the WYSIWYG? Use HTML!

by Kevin A. Siegel

When working with RoboHelp topics, many new Help Authors (and even a few seasoned professionals) forget that every RoboHelp topic is actually a Web page created using the hypertext markup language (HTML). 

I can't really blame a RoboHelp author for forgetting this fact because many Help Authors are not familiar with HTML (or have limited HTML experience). Thanks to RoboHelp's What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) window, you can type and edit a RoboHelp topic oblivious to the HTML code being spun behind the scenes as you work.

 

While it is not necessary to be a Web master to create killer Help Systems, if you have even minimal experience using HTML, you may find it helpful to work in the HTML window.

 

Why should you bother with the HTML window? Great question! The WYSIWYG window is wonderful. However, every once in a while you'll find yourself attempting to make a change to your topic (remove a hyperlink or text formatting) and the change you are trying to make simply will not work. What the heck? It's likely that there is conflicting HTML code in the code window (likely caused by poor HTML structure when the topic was originally created and imported into RoboHelp).

 

How on earth can you fix the problem when clicking a RoboHelp tool that is supposed to do the trick simply doesn't work? Another great question. Read on...

 

1. Open a topic in RoboHelp
   
   
2. Click the HTML button at the bottom of the topic
   
   
   
   
3. At this point, you can quickly edit the HTML code to make changes to how your content will look back in Design view (the WYSIWYG window). In the example below, the size of the headline (currently a heading level 2 will be changed to a larger headline, a heading level 1).
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

It's as simple as that. Once you switch back to Design view, the headline will grow from a level 2 to a level 1. In the images below, you can see how the two headlines would render in Design view (the heading 2 is shown first):

Want to learn more about Adobe RoboHelp 7? Click here.

 

Want to learn more about HTML (I think it's a good idea for RoboHelp authors to have basic HTML skills)? Click here.