An Overview of RoboHelp 7

Who Am I? Neil Perlin - Hyper/Word Services.

– In tech. comm. since ‘79 at DEC.

– Hypertext since ’85, WinHelp since ‘90.

– HTML since ‘91.

– Using RoboHelp etc since ’91.

– Training/consulting on RoboHelp etc since ’95.

– Training/consulting on XML, single-sourcing, mobile, structured authoring since ‘98.

– STC’s lead W3C rep – ’02 – ‘05.

Purpose of This Workshop

Look at what’s new in RoboHelp 7. Look briefly at the larger Technical

Communication Suite. Show RoboHelp’s overall ease of use.

Seminar Contents

1 – Review of RoboHelp and TCS 2 – Create a RoboHelp Project 3 – Link to a Captivate Movie

1 – Review of RoboHelp and TCS

RoboHelp 7 TCS

RoboHelp 7

What Is RoboHelp?

An online content authoring tool – not a help authoring tool used to create:– Online help, plus...

– Online documentation.

– Online tutorials.

– Online sales brochures.

– Other online material.

A Quick Tour

RoboHelp essentially consists of:– WYSIWYG and HTML editors.

– Contents, index, glossary, and other editors.

– A topic previewer.

– Project management and reporting features.

– An image map editor.

– Output creation and conversion features.» Easy to convert between HTML-based formats.

RoboHelp 7’s Main Screen

Compared To RoboHelp 6’s

What’s New In RoboHelp 7?

“Pod-ized” and customizable workspace. Allows multiple ToCs and indexes for

single sourcing. Snippets.

– And variables, if you’re coming from X5.

– Note that snippets, variables, and build tags let you create a virtual, quasi-CMS.

Cleaner code – RIP kadov. FlashHelp Pro.

What’s New In RoboHelp 7?

Updated RoboSource 3 VCS.– Actually updated in RoboHelp 6…

Support for:– Unicode and double-byte characters.

– Word 07.

– Vista.

– Framemaker 8 support.» Imports FM and book, in addition to MIFs.

– MDI (Multiple Document Interface).

What’s Not In RoboHelp 7?

Authoring in native XML.– Not consistent with FrameMaker 8’s support

for XML and DITA.

No multi-directional workflow.– FrameMaker RoboHelp but not RoboHelp

FrameMaker.

No Web 2.0 features (depending on your definition of Web 2.0).

No workflow support.

TCS (Technical Communication Suite)

What Is TCS?

Suite consisting of:– RoboHelp 7

– FrameMaker 8

– Captivate 3

– Acrobat 3D 8

RoboHelp and TCS Integration

Some integration at the interface level:– Can launch Captivate and import Captivate

movies.

– Can import FrameMaker files in FM, book, MIF formats.

– Cannot export to FrameMaker.

2 – Create a RoboHelp Project

Output Language and Format Start a New Project Create Content Add a Contents Tab Add an Index Tab Create Links Add Graphics Generate the Output

Start a New Project

Output Language and Format

Language – HTML. Format – WebHelp, a now-common format

pioneered in RoboHelp.– Pros:

» Platform and browser independent.

» Runs locally, from network drives, or servers.

» Easy to learn – “Everyone knows the web.”

– Cons:» Proprietary codes.

» IT may balk at having “100s or 1000s of HTMs!”

WebHelp Distribution Requirements

Distribution– All files in the project’s WebHelp subfolder.

Configuration– A modern browser, and that’s it.

– Essentially a “zero footprint” installation.

New Project Dialog Box

New Project Dialog Box

The format you select becomes the default. But you can test-output the project in any

other format or change the default at any time.

WebHelp – WebHelp project. WebHelp Pro – Adds server-based usage

reports, virtual merge, natural-language search.

New Project Wizard Screen

New Project Wizard Screen

Title… – The project title. File name… – The name for all the project

control files – HHP, HHC, etc. Location… – The drive and folder that will

contain the project’s files. …first topic – The first topic in the project.

– Can be the first real topic or just a throwaway to get the project started.

Ex. 1: Start the Project

Create Content

Creating New Topics

Topics contain the content, graphics, links, and formatting.

Each topic is a separate HTML file. You can:

– Create new topics in RoboHelp, using it like Framemaker or Word.

– Import existing HTML, DOC, Framemaker MIF and FM, PDF, and XML material.

New Topic - General Tab

General Tab

Topic Title – The title of the topic. File name – The topic’s HTM file name. Template – The template for this topic.

– The default is the one previously used.

– None – uses the settings from the default CSS.

Previewing Topics

To preview a topic without compiling the entire project:– Display the topic in the topic pane and select

View > Item or press Ctrl/W, or...

– Right-click the topic on the Project Manager tab or Topic List tab and select View from the popup menu.

Ex. 2: Add Topics

Add a Table of Contents Tab

The Contents Tab in WebHelp

No skin With a skin

Contents Tab Objects

Headings – Shown by and .– Can have an unlimited number of sub-heads

and/or topics.

– RoboHelp refers to headings as “books”.

Topics – Shown by .– RoboHelp refers to topics as “pages”.

– Note – You lose the tab effect if you use skins.

TOC Pod Mini-Toolbar

Located at the top of the TOC pod.– New TOC Book – Add a head

or subhead.

– New TOC Page – Add a topic under a head.

– New Merged Project – Merge modular projects.

– Left/Right/Up/Down – Change a head’s or topic’s hierarchy level or sequence.

New TOC Book - General Tab

General Tab

…Title – Head on the Contents tab. …Variables – Variable to use for the head. …With Link – Links the head to a topic. …Destination – The target for a book with

a link. New… – Create a target topic for this

head. Find… – Find a topic to which to link. Link To – The link’s target address.

New TOC Page - General Tab

General Tab

…Title – Title to appear on the Contents tab.

…Variables – Variable to use for the title. …Destination – The target topic or anchor. New… – Create a new topic. Find… – Search for a topic to which to

link. Link To – The link’s target address.

Ex. 3: Add a Contents Tab

Add an Index Tab

The Index Tab in WebHelp

No skin With a skin

How to Add Index Keywords

The New Topic dialog box’s Index tab.– Which you tried when you added the topics.

The Index and Topic List pods together. Existing text. The Smart Index Wizard.

“Existing Text” Method

The Index tab and pod methods take you out of the topic that you’re indexing.

The “existing text” method keeps you in the topic.

You can select text to use as an index entry and code it with just a few mouse clicks.– Highlight the desired word(s), right-click, and

select Add To > Index Keyword.

Ex. 4: Create the Index Tab

Create Links

Jumps (Hyperlinks)

Take you from a starting topic to a target topic.– The target topic usually replaces the starting

topic in the same window.

– The target topic may open in another window.

You can turn text or graphics into jumps. You can add “bookmarks” to target topics

and jump to them rather than to the top of the target topic.

Ex. 5: Create Links

Inserting a Graphic

Image Dialog Box

Image Dialog Box Fields

Image Name – The image file name. Text Wrapping – To specify how the image

aligns with any surrounding text. Screen Tip – To specify text to pop up if a

user hovers the pointer over the image.– The <IMG> tag’s ALT attribute.

Size/Margins/Borders – To set the image’s height, width, margins, and borders.

Ex. 6: Insert an Image

Generate the Output - WebHelp

Building the WebHelp

There are two ways to build:– If you already set the build options, click

Generate Primary Layout on the toolbar.

– To set or change options:» Select File > Generate Primary Layout or

» Double-click WebHelp (Primary Layout) on the Single Source Layouts pod.

WebHelp General Screen

WebHelp General Screen

Select Output Folder/Start Page – Output folder and start page for the project.– … folder – WebHelp folder under !SSL!.

– … start page – Launcher – <projname>.HTM.

Use Lowercase… – Converts file names to lower case for use on Unix servers.

Conditional Build Expression – To create a build formula, if you used build tags.

WebHelp General Screen

Skin – A “faceplate” for the project.– Default – Uses eHelp’s default skin.

– Traditional... – Does not use a skin.

– Gallery – To select a skin from the set supplied with RoboHelp.

Table of Contents – The TOC to use if you created more than one.

Index – The index to use if you created more than one.

WebHelp General Screen

Glossary – The glossary to use if you created more than one.

Default Topic – The topic to display when the WebHelp starts – the home page.

Variables – To change a variable’s value for this output.

Section 508… – Enables Section 508 features.

WebHelp General Screen

W3C Compliant… – Ensures clean code but may cause problems in older browsers.

Add Mark… – To run the help locally w/o getting the “blocked content” message.– Use during development or for a local output.

– But disables links to external files (DOC, XLS, PDF) and links in the preview window with no warning.

To Change the Default Format

You can change a project’s default output format if necessary.

Right-click the desired new format on the Single Source Layout pod and select Set As Primary Layout.

This means you’ll never paint yourself into a corner by picking the wrong format at the beginning of a project.

Ex. 7: Build

3 – Adding the Movie

The Pre-Created Movie Connecting the Help and

the Movie

The Pre-Created Movie

I’ve created a Captivate movie for use in this help system.

It demonstrates how to change the base of a number using Windows’ calculator – the movie does most of the work as you watch.

Demo of the movie.

Connecting the Help and Movie

You can now link from a topic in the help file to the movie.– Note that you could also create links from the

movie to topics in the help file.

You’ll create a “Show Me” link that runs the demonstration.

Ex. 8: Link the Help and Movie

Thank you... Questions?

Hyper/Word Services978-657-5464

nperlin@concentric.netwww.hyperword.com

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