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Question of the Week: Adobe RoboHelp Projects... How Big is Too Big?

Question:

My team and I are preparing to work on projects in RoboHelp 8 and are looking into how to best publish the files. We're very interested in FTPing because it would give us the flexibility to publish on our own without depending on IT for deploying the !SSL files to the intranet (I have used FTP before, and it worked very well). However, we will need to request some server space so we can FTP our projects to an IIS server, but we are not sure how much IIS space to request. So, my question is, in your experience, is there an "average" MB per published project? In my own experience, the average published project has about 300 files (around 3.5 MB), and doesn't contain many attachments or graphics.  I don't foresee our team having more than 10 RoboHelp projects to publish, and I think we would be safe in asking for 5 GB of space (10 at the most) for the published files.

Also, is there a recommended limit on the MB size for a RoboHelp project? At which size would they become "clunky," and what would the !SSL size be for a project that big??


Answer:

That's a tough question to answer emphatically. The output folder within your SSL will get bigger depending on two things: the number of topics and, more telling, the number of images, audio files and animations you add to those topics.

In any event, you can get an exact size of your output folder with a simple right-click on the folder within the SSL folder after you generate. When you Publish the folder to your server, the storage requirements will be the same as the size of the output folder. As for exact size requirements for the space on your server, a few gigabytes should suffice for now (unless your project contains thousand of topics). As for RoboHelp projects that are too big, I wouldn't worry about project size unless your project has more than two or three thousand topics.

Adobe RoboHelp 8: Start Page, Project Title and Default Topic... Let's Get Them Straight Once and For All!

by Kevin Siegel

As I've continued to teach my online RoboHelp class to students who attend from all over the world, one recurring issue has been confusion over the following three RoboHelp features: the start page, the project title and the default topic. The three files/names are totally different, having nothing to do with each other, but are commonly confused.

By the time you are finished reading this text, I'm hoping that the confusion is a thing of the past.

The Project Title: The Project Title is determined when you create the project (you type the name into the "Enter the title of this project" field).



You won't come into contact with the Project Title again until you Generate the project. At that point, the Project Title appears in the browser's title bar (and the tab title if the browser supports tabbed browsing).



You can change the Project Title via the General tab on the Project Settings dialog box (Edit > Project Settings). A Project Title can, and should, contain spaces.




The Start Page: The Start Page is a file that is created automatically by RoboHelp when you generate the project. The start page is the frameset that displays the toolbars at the top of the help screen, the navigation panel at the left and the default topic at the right. The Start Page is, in no way, the Default Topic (which is discussed next). Instead, the Start Page is simply the page that gets your whole system to display once it has been called by an application.

The name of the Start Page is typically the same as your project name (which you determine when you first create the project). However, once the project has been created, you can easily change the name of the Start page via the Properties of your layout (on the Single Source Layouts pod) by typing a new name in the Select Output Folder and Start Page field (name.htm). The name of the Start Page can never contain spaces.



The Default Topic: Once the Start Page has done its job and the Help System opens, the Default Topic open and appears at the right side of the Help System. By default, the Default Topic will always be the first topic you created when you first created the topic. However, you can easily change the Default topic via the Properties of your layout (on the Single Source Layouts pod).



And there you have it... the Project Title, Start Page and the Default Topic all work together in a generated project. While the Default Topic and Start Page can be changed in the same basic place (the Properties of a layout), I am hoping that any confusion is now a thing of the past.

***

 

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Worried about your class canceling? You'll be happy to hear that we never, ever cancel our classes (even if there's just one student registered). Click here to learn more about our other online classes.

***

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Adobe RoboHelp 8: User Defined Variables

by Kevin Siegel

RoboHelp allows you to quickly create and use variables. What are variables and how can they help you? 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.

Let's say you want to have your company name appear throughout the project. You could accomplish the task the old-fashioned way by typing the company name over and over again. Or you can create a variable called CompanyName, whose definition is your actual company name. After creating the variable, it's a simple matter of dragging the CompanyName variable into any topic.

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.

Create a Variable

1. Show the User Defined Variables pod by choosing View > Pods > User Defined Variables.
   
   By default, the User Defined Variables pod is empty. Let's create a variable that will link text to your corporate Web site.
   
   
2. At the top of the User Defined Variables pod, click the Create a new variable button.
   
   
   
   The New Variable dialog box appears.
   
   
3. Type a name into the Variable Name field (no spaces allowed).
   
   
4. Type your company name into the Variable value field.
   
   
   
   
5. Click OK.
   
   Your unformatted variable text appears in a panel to the right of the variable list. You will add a hyperlink to the variable text next.
   
   
   
   
6. Highlight the variable value (your company name).
   
   
7. Right-click the selected text and choose Insert Hyperlink.
   
   The Hyperlink dialog box appears.
   
   
8. Select Web address from the Link to drop-down menu.
   
   
9. Type your corporate Web address into the field to the right of http://
   
   
   
   
10. Click OK.
    
    
11. Save your work.
    

Insert a Variable into a Topic

1. Open a topic.
   
   
2. Drag your variable from the User Defined Variables pod into your topic.
   
   The variable value will appear in the topic. The value will be formatted to match the CSS attached to your topic and contains a hyperlink.
   
   
3. Drag the variable into more topics.
   
   
4. Save your work.
   

Edit a User Defined Variable value

1. At the right of the User Defined Variables pod, double-click the linked text to your company.
   
   The Hyperlink properties appear. If the Web address you typed a while ago was incorrect, you could fix it now.
   
   
2. Click OK.
   
   Anywhere you used the variable (two times or 10,000), the value instantly updated. How cool is that?
   

***

 

Looking for Adobe RoboHelp training? Need it fast? IconLogic has a two-day, live, online RoboHelp 8 class coming up October 22-23, 2009. Worried about your class canceling? You'll be happy to hear that we never, ever cancel our classes (even if there's just one student registered). Click here to learn more about my online classes.

***

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Adobe RoboHelp 8: Shortcuts Anyone?

by Kevin A. Siegel

During just about every one of my online RoboHelp classes, someone asks the following question about the keyboard shortcuts that I teach during class. "Do you have a list of these keyboard shortcuts?"

Um, no. Although I always promise the group that I'll whip up a list of shortcuts and post them here. Of course, since I'm old(er), I quickly forget to post the shortcuts until the next class, when the cycle repeats. Until now...

The following is courtesy of Adobe's online RoboHelp Help system.

Task	Keyboard shortcut
Basic operations
Open project	CTRL+O (letter O)
Save All	CTRL+S
Undo	CTRL+Z
Redo	CTRL+Y
Cut	CTRL+X
Copy	CTRL+C
Paste	CTRL+V
Delete	Delete button
Close All	Ctrl+Alt+X
Select all	CTRL+A
Find	CTRL+F
Replace	Ctrl+H
Go to bookmark	F5
Print from active pane	CTRL+P
Help	F1
Spell check active pane	F7
Thesaurus	SHIFT+F7
Create a topic	Ctrl+T
Duplicate a topic	Ctrl+D
Edit item	Ctrl+E
Close a topic	Ctrl+F4
Rename	F2
Paragraph markers	CTRL+SHIFT+8
Preview topic	CTRL+W
Insert hypertext link*	CTRL+K*
Insert image	CTRL+G
Insert text-only pop-up window*	CTRL+ALT+P
Open Project Settings dialog	CTRL+SHIFT+/
Open Topic Properties dialog	ALT+ENTER
Display Conditional Build Tag dialog*	CTRL+N
Generate the Primary Layout	CTRL+M
Text formatting in Design Editor
Bold	CTRL+B
Italicize	CTRL+I
Underline	CTRL+U
Format - Paragraph menu	CTRL+SHIFT+D
Format - Font menu	CTRL+D
Font change	CTRL+SHIFT+F
Increase font size to next size in menu*	CTRL+SHIFT+>
Decrease font size to previous size in menu*	CTRL+SHIFT+<
Increase font size by 1 point*	CTRL+]
Decrease font size by 1 point*	CTRL+[
Styles in Design Editor
Apply a style*	CTRL+SHIFT+S
Apply the Normal style	CTRL+SHIFT+N
Apply a Bullets or Numbering style	CTRL+SHIFT+L
Apply Heading 1*	ALT+CTRL+1
Apply Heading 2*	ALT+CTRL+2
Apply Heading 3*	ALT+CTRL+3
TOC pod
Move book or topic up in the table of contents	CTRL+Up Arrow
Move book or topic down in the table of contents	CTRL+Down Arrow
Move book or topic to the left in the table of contents	CTRL+Left Arrow
Move book or topic to the right in the table of contents	CTRL+Right Arrow
Index pod
Change index keyword to lowercase	CTRL+L
Change first letter of index keyword to uppercase	CTRL+J
Version Control
Refresh version status on File Status tab	F5

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***

Reviews from Students Who Have Attended My Online RoboHelp Class

Here are some unedited reviews from students who have recently taken my online RoboHelp class:

"Great class--content and pace were perfect."

"The instructor was incredibly dynamic and personable!"

"I have sat through MANY hours of mandatory training and yours was, by far, some of the best training I've experienced."

"This is really the first online 'class' that I've attended. It was very interactive. I was worried that I would just be sitting here and listening, but it was awesome. Thank you for a great experience."

***

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Adobe RoboHelp 8: Customize Your Favorite Toolbar Buttons

by Kevin A. Siegel

If you've spent any time formatting text, surely you've changed the text style for selected text to bold using myriad programs--MS Word, PowerPoint, QuarkXPress, WordPerfect, Dreamweaver.

What's that you say? You've never, ever made text bold? Well then, stand back and I'll teach you the trick. First, select some text. Now, click the "B" tool in any of the programs mentioned above. Go ahead, look around and you'll find that pesky "B" tool. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guarantee that clicking the "B" tool will make your selected text bold. Look at me... I'm the second coming of Joe Willie! There's your cool trick of the week. Enjoy.

Of course, if you're a RoboHelp developer, you know that making text appear bold isn't as easy as clicking the "B" tool. Why? There isn't a "B" tool. Silly me, it's a "T" tool.

Granted, it's a thicker "T" than the "T" tool right next to it (which is the "Italic" tool... I bet you were thinking that you'd find the standard "I" tool for italic, but nooooo! And don't get me started on the missing "U" tool!)

So that's the bad news in RoboHelp 8... the tools on the toolbars don't necessarily look the way you're used to. However, there is very good news indeed... you can easily customize the look of any tool on RoboHelp's toolbars (you can make your own toolbars too). Want to learn how to customize the tools? Read on...

Start RoboHelp 8 and choose View > Toolbars > Customize to display the Customize dialog box. While this dialog box is open, you can add or remove commands from any toolbar and you can customize the look of any tool.

Right-click the tool you'd like to customize, choose Change Button Image and then select an image you'd like to use.

Your button will quickly show your change (and its new attitude).

Of course, if you want to go hog-wild (and you have superior drawing skills), right-click the button and choose Edit Button Image. The resulting Button Editor will open offering you more opportunities to customize the button than you might have hoped for.

And finally, I couldn't close this week's article without a helpful tip should you have "button regret" and long for the good old days and your simple, yet elegant "T" tool. With the Customize dialog box open, right-click any edited button and choose Reset to remove your button edits.

***

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Adobe RoboHelp 8: What's Another Word for Easy? How About Synonyms?

by Kevin A. Siegel

Creating an Index in RoboHelp is as simple as opening the Index folder, double-clicking the default index, right-clicking within the Index pod and then selecting Smart Index Wizard. A few clicks later, you'll have an Index pod full of keywords that have been magically associated with topics in your project.

Will the Smart Index Wizard create an Index that's ready to be generated? Um, sorry... but not likely. After running the Smart Index Wizard, you will likely have to scroll through the resulting Index and remove several keywords (especially if you select Automatically add index keywords for all topics from the How do you want to add index keywords? area of the Smart Index Wizard).

One key to creating an effective Index is adding synonyms to the Index as keywords that will get your customer's to the topic they were looking for. What's that you say? You're not synonym-savvy and creating them is a chore? You don't have a thesaurus handy? No worries... read on and learn how RoboHelp can help create synonyms on the fly.

Add Synonym's as Index Keywords

1. Open or create a RoboHelp project.
   
   
   
2. Open the Index.
   
   
   
3. Right-click within the Index and choose Smart Index Wizard.
   
   
   
4. Click Next to move to the second screen of the Smart Index Wizard.
   
   
   
5. Select Confirm adding index keywords for each topic from the How do you want to add index keywords? area.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Click the Next button.
   
   
   
7. Select a keyword (put a check in the box).
   
   
   
   
   
8. Click the Options button at the right and select Synonyms from the drop-down menu.
   
   
   
9. Select a Category from the list at the left.
   
   
   
10. Select a Synonym from the list of Synonyms at the right.
    
    
    
    
    
11. Click the Add to Topic button.
    
    
    
12. Click the Close button.
    
    Notice that the Synonym has been added to the list of keywords. If you leave the keyword selected, it will appear on the Index pod.
    
    

***

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Adobe RoboHelp 8: Mini-TOC... Mighty Result

by Kevin A. Siegel

 

Mini TOCs allow you to display heading content directly within a topic. The content contained within the Mini TOCs will be made up of clickable hyperlinks, providing users not only a quick overview of longer topics, but easy navigation to the information. You can elect to use Mini TOCs with a Master Page, or insert Mini TOCs on the fly (possibly within only the longest topics in your project).

 

Add a Mini TOC Placeholder within a topic

1. Using Adobe RoboHelp 8, open any of the longer topics in your project. Ensure that the topic has been formatted using Heading 1 and Heading 2 styles. If so, you will be able to use the contents of the Heading 2 styles in the Mini TOC.
   
   
2. Click where you'd like the Mini TOC to appear and choose Insert > Placeholder > Mini TOC.
   
   The Mini TOC Options dialog box opens.
   
   
   
   
3. Click OK to accept the default settings.
   
   The Mini TOC appears in your topic.

Format the Mini TOC

1. Double-click the Mini TOC.
   
   The Mini TOC Options dialog box appears again.
   
   
2. From the Structure area, select Bulleted List.
   
   
3. Ensure default is selected from the Bulleted List drop-down menu.
   
   
4. From the Format area at the bottom of the dialog box, ensure Mini TOC is selected from the Apply formatting to drop-down menu.
   
   
5. Change the Font and the Font Size to suite your taste.
   
   
6. From the Format area, select Caption from the Apply formatting to drop-down menu.
   
   
7. Change the Font and the Font Size to suite your taste.
   
   
8. Change the Type Style to Bold.
   
   
9. Click OK.
   
   The Mini TOC should look similar to the picture below.
   
   

Test the Mini TOC

1. Press [Ctrl] [w] to preview the topic.
   
   The Mini TOC, including its clickable links, appears within the topic. You can click any of the links to jump around the topic. You can also click the word Hide to collapse the Mini TOC.
   
   
   
   
2. Close the preview.

***

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Adobe RoboHelp 8: Custom Search Terms

by Kevin A. Siegel

 

If you've spent any time using the Search feature in any Help system created with Adobe RoboHelp 8, you may have noticed that the Search results are ranked based on their relevance.

In the example below, I searched for the word procedures.



If a word being searched appears in the title of a topic, its rank will be higher than the word in the Index keyword list. In addition, a topic with the word appearing in a paragraph using a Heading 1 style would rank higher than the same word appearing in a paragraph using a Heading 2 style.

In the steps below, will learn how to add search terms to a topic when those terms do not actually appear in the topic. Using this technique, you'll be able to guide users to relevant topics using synonyms and antonyms.

Add Custom Search Terms to a Topic

1. Using RoboHelp 8, right-click within any open topic and choose Topic Properties.
   
   
2. On the General tab, type the term(s) you would like your customers to be able to type into the Search field.
   
   
   
   
3. Click OK.
   
   
4. Generate the layout (if the layout is your primary layout, a fast way to generate is to press [ctrl] [m] on your keyboard). View the project after the project generates.
   
   
5. On the Search tab, type the term(s) you added to the topic. The topic will be found even though the text you added to the Search field via the topic properties dialog box is not actually in the topic.

 

Note: If you want to exclude a topic from appearing on the Search tab, you can simply right-click and choose Topic Properties. On the General tab, select Exclude from Search.

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Adobe RoboHelp 8: Help is in the AIR

by Kevin A. Siegel

Adobe AIR lets application developers create rich Internet applications that can run outside of a Web browser and will work identically across multiple operating systems. While Adobe AIR is a fairly new technology, many large companies such as eBay, Yahoo, AOL, and NASDAQ are already tapping into its vast power to deliver content right to the users' desktop-without the need for Internet Explorer, FireFox, Chrome or any other Web browser.

RoboHelp allows you to generate layouts for Microsoft HTML Help, WebHelp and FlashHelp. Given the ever-increasing popularity of Adobe AIR, RoboHelp developers will likely be required to deliver a generated project in the Adobe AIR format. And since Adobe created the AIR technology, it just makes sense that this format would be fully supported in RoboHelp.

Here is how to generate an Adobe Air help system.

1. On the Single Source Layouts pod, double-click the Adobe AIR layout icon (if the icon isn't there, click the Create Layout tool at the top of the Single Source Layouts pod and select Adobe AIR from the Output Type drop-down menu).
   
   
   
   
2. Type a number in both the Version field and the Help ID field.
   
   
   
   The Version number will simply help you keep versions of the AIR Application straight should you make updates available. The Help ID is used for creating Context Sensitive Help. You should discuss the numbers you should be using with your application developer.
   
   Now you'll need to create a Digital Certificate.
   
   
3. To the right of the Installer Settings area, click the Create button.
   
   The Create Self-Signed Digital Certificate dialog box appears.
   
   
4. Type your company name into the Publisher Name area.
   
   
5. Type a Password into both the Password and Confirm Password fields (write down the password you just typed).
   
   
6. Type a name into the Save As field.
   
   
7. Click the Browse button and open a folder on your hard drive.
   
   
   
   
8. Click OK.
   
   You are now back in the Adobe AIR settings dialog box.
   
   
9. Type the same password into the Password field that you used a moment ago.
   
   
10. Ensure Remember Password is selected.
    
    
    
    
11. Click the Save button.
    
    
12. Generate the Layout.
    
    
13. Right-click the Layout and choose View.
    
    
    
    Nice. The Help system appears in its own window--no need for a Web browser. 

***

 

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Adobe RoboHelp 8: When It Comes to Working With Word... This is Not Your Father's Olds

by Kevin A. Siegel

Veteran RoboHelp users saw a welcome improvement to the way Microsoft Word documents are imported into the new RoboHelp 8. If you're new to RoboHelp, of course you have nothing to compare the import process with. Let me just say that the import process reminds me of the Oldsmobile car commercials that ran some years ago... the series where "young" hipsters were always speeding along somewhere.

 

In the commercial, the passenger always says to the driver, "What kind of car is this?" The driver says, "It's an Oldsmobile!" "Oldsmobile?" asks the stunned passenger." To which the driver responds, "I know, it's not your father's Oldsmobile!"

 

The new RoboHelp is just like the new Oldsmobile's in those commercials. You might start RoboHelp expecting the same-old features and user experience. And then you start the "car," and the sound of the engine is enough to get the heart pumping.

 

Ever since Adobe revamped the interface, RoboHelp has had a sleeker, more modern look. And now, with RoboHelp 8, there's some real sizzle to that steak. Over the next few weeks, I'll cover some of the main features of the Word import process. This week, I'd like to begin with a bang. For the first time in RoboHelp history, you have a choice when you import your Word content. You can elect to import your Word documents as you have always done (via a standard import), or you can elect to import via a link.

 

When you import your document into RoboHelp via the traditional method (File > Import > Word Document), you are presented with the Content Settings dialog box shown below.

 

 

If you click Next, you'll see the Import dialog box shown below. At this point you would "map" your Word styles to RoboHelp styles and control how your Word document is split into new topics (via Pagination).

 

 

I'll be covering that process in the coming weeks. For now, suffice it to say that clicking the Finish button would import the Word content into your RoboHelp project. Since the content will be copied into RoboHelp, the original Word content is essentially valueless. If there are changes needed in the imported content, you would make those changes from within RoboHelp. If a colleague informs you that they have made significant changes to the Word document since you imported the content into RoboHelp, you would have to make those changes manually within the RoboHelp topics. Of course, at that point, any changes that you made would be lost. Ouch!

 

Which brings me to the alternative import process: linking the Word documents into the RoboHelp project instead of copying. Instead of choosing File > Import > Word document, you would choose File > Add > Word Document (or right-click the Project Files folder on the Project Manager pod and choose Link  > Word document).

 

This time, instead of seeing either of the two dialog boxes above, the Word document appears as a single item in the Project Files folder on the Project Manager pod. At this point, you would right-click the Word document icon and choose Properties to display the Word Document Settings dialog box (shown below).

 

 

As I mentioned above, I'll be going over these specific dialog boxes over the coming weeks... there's a lot to consider which, while daunting, is a wonderful improvement over any of the frail import options back in your father's day.

 

Unlike the standard import method, the content you linked into RoboHelp will always look back to the source Word document for changes. If changes occur (maybe a team member deleted or edited some important information), you'll see an alert on the Word icon in RoboHelp. All you'd need to do is right-click the icon and choose Update to get those changes in RoboHelp. Nice!

 

 

I know I've left you with a bit of a cliffhanger by not covering the options in any of the dialog boxes above. Would it make you feel better to know that it was intentional (I do try to keep the articles in this newsletter short)? So as they used to say at the end of your father's favorite show, "See you next week, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel."

 

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