TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Before I answer your questions (I hope), I have one of my own. Why do you want to convert the project? It would involve a lot of work and, very likely, aggravation. Now for your questions.
I know of no simple (i.e., automated) method to convert a RoboHelp project into a Doc-to-Help project. Going the other way is easy. Just open the D2H project in RoboHelp. Unfortunately, once done, the project will not open in D2H.
Congratulations. You've just discovered the difference between RoboHelp HTML and Doc-to-Help. RoboHelp has its own HTML editor. D2H uses MS Word and converts a doc file to a rtf, then to an htm (actually, several... one for each topic). The RoboHelp HTML editor is adequate, but limited.
Copying the contents of the individual htm files into a Word doc is possible (and probably the only sure way to "convert" the project to Doc-to-Help), but very tedious. So, back to my question. Why bother? Unless you have some overarching reason for this, why not just make you edits in the htm files and compile a new chm? If it's because you do not have RoboHelp, you don't need it. You already have everything you need to edit the project. Open the project in the HTML Help Workshop (it came with your copy of Doc-to-Help). You can then edit any of the htm files (and, if necessary, the css, too) and recompile the chm. Just be careful, the editor in the workshop is not wysiwyg. The online help is pretty good, though.
You might want to read Steve Wexler's _The Official Microsoft HTML Help Authoring Kit_ from Microsoft Press.
HTH
Al Miller
"Chief Documentation Curmudgeon"
Prometric, Inc.
Baltimore, MD
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bounce-techwr-l-40429 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com@ITP On Behalf Of Ilona Lehmann <ilona -dot- lehmann -at- update -dot- com>
> Sent: Monday, April 29, 2002 10:06 AM
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: converting RoboHelp project to D2H
>
>
> Dear all
>
> I habe a bit of a problem here: My company bought a program from another
> company and the help file now needs to be updated.
> As far as I know I have been given all the files that my company has
> relating to the help.
>
> My questions:
>
> - Is there a simple way to convert a RoboHelp chm project to a Doc-to-Help
> chm project?
> - I can't find any doc files. Do you edit html files directly with RoboHelp?
> - There are lots of different html files. Could I just copy the contents of
> these files into one doc file?
> - This would also be me first chm project, so far I've only created hlp
> files. Is there anything else I would have to watch out for?
>
> Cloudy greetings from Vienna, Austria
> Ilona
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Are you using Doc-to-Help or ForeHelp? Switch to RoboHelp for Word for $249
or to RoboHelp Office for only $499. Get the PC Magazine five-star rated
Help authoring tool for less! Go to http://www.ehelp.com/techwr
Free copy of ARTS PDF Tools when you register for the PDF
Conference by April 30. Leading-Edge Practices for Enterprise
& Government, June 3-5, Bethesda,MD. www.PDFConference.com
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.