Re: .doc to .chm w/ RH Classic: docs/features incomplete

[Yvonne DeGraw <ydegraw -at- home -dot- com>]

Michael Hoffman <mhoffman -at- thinkshare -dot- com> asked on TECHWR-L why eHelp
doesn't provide more doc on the .doc-->.chm process via RoboHelp Classic.
On HATT, he asked how to keep .css files from being overwritten when
generating a .chm from RoboHelp Classic.

I do .doc-->.chm via RoboHelp for one of my projects and may have some
workarounds for you. I guess I didn't expect good docs from eHelp because
of my generally low expectations for their doc and $upport.

Also, the eHelp people don't seem to be power users of MS Word, so they
don't understand why one might want to keep the ability to use Word's
fields and some other features that the RoboHTML editor doesn't have. For
my project, I generate 3 chip-specific versions of the help from the same
source. (I know, I could do similar single-sourcing with JavaScript, but
editing the doc would be messier.)

I won't go into great detail on all your points, but here are some
suggestions:

-- My process is to generate a CHM from RoboHelp, do some routine cleanup
with the RoboHTML Multi-File Find and Replace Tool, and then regenerate the
.chm with RoboHTML (or HTML Help Workshop for that matter).

-- To save the .css files I want to use, I just have a separate folder with
my "real" css files. After generating a CHM with RoboHelp, a copy the real
css files over the ones it generated.

-- I do some global search-and-replace (S&R) to put some JavaScript code
in. (For print icons in my case.)

-- I do S&R to change the background color. I suspect you could use S&R for
your table tagging issues if you have common settings you want to use for
all (or most) tables.

-- I use a separate S&R tool that supports wildcards to remove the ALT text
for images that RoboHelp generates that shows the image filename (fairly
useless to users).

-- When you regenerate with RoboHTML, open the .hhp file. Don't let it use
the old MPJ file.

-- If there are additional .hhp settings you want to make that you can't
get RoboHelp Classic to make, you could keep those in a separate folder
like the .css files (but you'd have to update the file list) or do S&R on
the .hhp file.

Hope that helps,
   Yvonne

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O-O-O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yvonne DeGraw                   * Technical writing
ydegraw -at- home -dot- com                * Online & web help
Tel: 805/683-5784               * Instructional design
http://members.home.net/ydegraw * Database publishing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O-O-O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
APEX 2001 Award of Excellence, Hardware & Software Manual Writing

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