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Subject:Re: Old version of RoboHelp From:"Dana Worley" <dana -at- campbellsci -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Mon, 13 Nov 2006 10:06:27 -0700
On Friday, November 10, 2006, M Moore wrote:
> I have a problem which I'm sure SOMEONE has run into before. Feel free to
> direct me to another resource or answer off-line. I realize that TECHWR-L is
> not meant to be a software support list.
>
> Here's my problem. I need to update some help that hasn't been touched in a
> while. It turns out, though, that the version of Word and RH are
> incompatible. We have either v8 or 9, but Word is 2003. I don't think we
> want to upgrade to X5 because we need it very, very rarely.
>
> What would you do? Here's what I could think of for options:
What "flavor" of help?
If you are producing WinHelp (HLP) your other option is to update
the RoboHelp source files in Word (independently of RH), save
them in an RTF format, and compile them directly with the help
compiler (hcw.exe) which should be located somewhere on your
machine (RH has to use it to do the compile). There are a series of
footnotes that "tell" the compiler what to use for a topic title, what to
use for the context string, what to use for keywords, etc. (see
below).
If you need to add links for context sensitive help, you can update
the HPJ file by hand, or in the Help Workshop. Similarly for the TOC
(CNT file).
Hope this is helpful,
Dana W.
>From the help authoring guide that comes with the Microsoft Help
Workshop:
Topic footnotes
Instructions and commands specific to a topic are inserted as
footnote text for that topic. Each footnote is identified by a custom
footnote mark, as shown in the following table:
Parameter Footnote mark Purpose
Topic ID poundsign (#) Defines a unique identifier for a
topic. This footnote is required for every topic.
Title dollarsign ($) Specifies the title of the topic as it appears
in the Topics Found dialog box, the Bookmark dialog box, and the
History window.
Keyword K Specifies words used in the index and in
KLink macros.
A-Keyword A Specifies words that identify the topic to
ALink macros.
Browse Code plus sign(+) Defines topic's place in a browse
sequence.
Entry Macro exclamation point (!) Specifies a macro that
runs when the user opens the topic.
Build tag asterisk(*) Identifies topics for conditional
builds.
Window type greaterthan sign(>) Specifies a default window
type for the topic.
Note
· Only the topic ID footnote (#) is mandatory. Include the
others only if you want the functionality they offer.
***************************
Dana Worley
Software Product Manager/Manager, Software Support Group
Campbell Scientific, Inc.
Microsoft MVP, Windows Help
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