RE: RoboHELP doesn't compile Autoshapes

[Angela Hill <ahill -at- wwg -dot- com>]

Hello everyone,

Thanks to all who responded to my question about RoboHELP and Autoshapes.
Here are the responses I received, and at the bottom is what I ended up
doing...

--------------------------
Angela,
Don't you just want a _text box_? That should work.

Bonnie Granat
--------------------------
you might have to create the entire image (toolbar and callouts) as a
complete image in another package (such as a wmf) and import the whole thing
into RH.

what i do instead, for things like this, is to create a pic of each button
with it's descriptive text underneath it, like .....

button
text text text

button
text text text

esp since RH and Winhelp don't handle tables really well.

Dan Roberts
droberts63 -at- earthlink -dot- net

Delores Delago for President
--------------------------
Angela:

I use the same type of diagram in my online help files.  I place the graphic
into a separate Word document, create the callouts, and then screen grab the
portion of the Word document that I need using SnagIt.  The image can lose
clarity, but it is usually workable.  Just make sure you size the graphic
before you begin this process.

Hope this helps,

-Ellen

Ellen S. Kelly
Technical Communications and Training
LexisPublishing
518.487.3010
ellen -dot- s -dot- kelly -at- bender -dot- com
--------------------------
I'm not sure if this could be the problem, but try editing the properties of
the Autoshape and remove the check in the box that says "Float on text". 

This may help.

Michelle
--------------------------
Angela,

I don't have a direct solution for your call-out problem, but what I did in
a similar situation was this: In my toolbar topic, I included a graphic
(bitmap) of the toolbar at the top, followed by a two-column table labeled
something like "Button" and "Description." The "Button" column contained
separate bitmaps of each button on the toolbar, and the "Description" column
told what each button did. Hope this helps.

Pam (pamela -at- routerware -dot- com) 
--------------------------
I'd add the callouts directly onto the screen shot in a graphics
program like PaintShop Pro or Visio.  That way you have more
control of how they're placed and you know they'll stay with
the image.

martha
--------------------------
Open your toolbar .bmp graphic in MS-Paint and
create your callouts in that graphic itself,
creating a new graphic.  I've done that a lot and it
works fine.

Nancy
--------------------------

As several people suggested, it's best to add the callouts, take a
screenshot of the graphic with the callouts, and then paste that into the
Word file.  Here's what I did in detail:

I created a new document in my RoboHELP file called "graphics".
I created a new topic (in that file) with the name of the graphic file I
wanted to add callouts too.  In this case it's "toolbar.bmp"
I linked to "toolbar.bmp" and chose to display the picture rather than the
true code.
I added callouts.
With HiJaak Capture set to capture to the clipboard, I captured the area
including the pic and the callouts.
I opened up the RoboHELP topic where I wanted to display the pic with
callouts and chose Edit>Paste Help Image.
I named the new file "toolbarWC.bmp" ("WC" for "With Callouts").
The new grapic file was created and added to my topic.

Now, if I want to update the callouts, I will:
Open the "graphics" document.
Edit the info in the callouts.
Re-capture the area (to the clipboard).
Open the RoboHELP topic with the pic and callouts.
Select the pic that's already in there.
Choose Edit>Paste Help Image.
Choose the "toolbarWC.bmp" file and overwrite it.

It could be worse....

Thanks again to everyone who helped me out with this!

Angela

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Angela Hill
The Windward Group
ahill -at- wwg -dot- com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~