Technical Communication

A multilevel list has lists within lists, in which you can have many levels, or layers. Here is a simple example

Article 1. Level 1
   Section 1. Level 2
      Paragraph 1.a. Level 3
   Section 2. Level 2 again
Article 2. Level 1 again

Multilevel lists can be either single level or multiple levels. This feature is probably much richer than what many of us think.

Creating multilevel list
Select paragraph or any existing list or put the cursor where you want to create your list.

1. Either press (Create a Multilevel List) or go to Format > list -> Multilevel list
2. A dialog will appear. Choose a list style or template and press ok.
3. The selected content will be changed into chosen list style. If selected content has a list with levels then its level will be update based on the selected style.
4. Press tab or shift tab to change the level of selected list items.

List structure:
Multilevel list can have up to 9 levels. Each level can have the following properties and they get applied to the selected paragraph.

These properties can be modified using the List style definition dialog as mentioned below

Numbering Behavior:
The scope of 'numbering' of Multilevel list is defined at the topic level. Multilevel list items need not be adjacent or contiguous to retain the numbering sequence. Different items of the same Multilevel list can be in different blocks within a topic and its number is sequenced. You can also write any content between two items of multilevel list without having to choose to restart or continue numbering.

List Indentation & Margin control
User may control the margin space and indentation space of the Multilevel list as shown below.

User may control the margin spacing using buttons present in the style dialog or through the Style sheet (.css) file
Let's take the following example of multilevel List

The style of this Multilevel list is defined in style sheet (.css) as

Multilevel Prefix
Any Multilevel list prefix can have text in the following format in list style dialog.

<text><x|1-9><text>

<x|1-9>: This denotes level number. These will be replaced with sequence value with specified list style like (1,2,3, ...) or (a,b,c, ...) or custom sequence. This could be <x> or <1> or <2> or <3> up to <9>. <1> means first level, <x> means current level of list item.

<text>: Here text could be anything arournd level number. This text will appear as it is in the prefix.

Following are some examples of required 'list numbering' and its correponding 'prefix
text':

Custom Sequencing:
RoboHelp provides five numbering sequence options in list style (viz. decimal, upper-alpha, lower-alpha, upper-roman, lower-roman) and 30+ bullet options. In addition, RoboHelp also allows you to define your own custom sequence. To create a custom sequence, use the List style dialog:

1. Press 'New...'
2. Press 'Add Sequence' and name it



3. Type entries in 'Edit Sequence'
4. Press 'Add' to add more entries in the sequence.
5. Press 'OK'.

List style dialog will automatically choose the sequence you had defined. If the number of list items exceeds the number of entries in the sequence, then the sequence will get repeated.

Restart/ continue numbering
You may restart/continue numbering of any multilevel list items by following these steps:

1. Right click on list item.
2. Select "List Style..." option
3. A dialog will popup, select "Restart numbering at" check box and choose a number from where you want to restart. If you want to continue just deselect "Restart numbering at" check box.
4. Close the dialog

As always, please continue to share your feedback and suggestions.

Thanks,
Amit Jha
RoboHelp Engineering Team

Posted by Amit Jha at 9:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today's web-friendly writing style requires authors to use lists heavily and in different styles and formats. In earlier versions (RH7 or before) of RoboHelp, list <li> was tightly integrated with paragraph <p> tag. This was done to achieve same 'look and feel' of paragraph and its numbering, single place style editing and ease of use for a normal user. Sometimes users face numbering, indentation and margin challenges with these lists.

In RoboHelp 8, we have streamlined and enhanced the list feature. You can now create style based simple bulleted and numbered lists in standard HTML format. You can also create multilevel list, which supports a high degree of customization like prefix text control, auto numbering, custom sequencing, list mingling, indentation and
spacing control.

In this blog, I will explain the differences between these lists based on different parameters. I will also explain how to migrate a list from one format into another.

1. Bulleted and numbered (HTML) List
In earlier version (RH7 or before), If you create a list it would
be like this

<ol type="i">
<li><p>HTML List (HTML standard)</p></li>
<li><p>Multilevel List (Proprietary list)</p></li>
</ol>

In HTML standard, list <li> can be created without paragraph <p> tag. If a list is created without paragraph <p> tag then it would have same 'look and feel' of paragraph, it's numbering and single place style editing.
In RH8 user can create a standard list<li> style (in style pod or CSS editor dialog by New >List Style), and using this list style user can create a list without paragraph <p> tag. This can be achieved in following way

• Type some paragraphs
• Select those paragraphs
• To apply list style, either

• double click the list style in style pod listed in List styles , or
• go to format > List > bullet numbering. A dialog will popup select the custom tab, Select the style listed and press OK.

To check your HTML list if it is with or without paragraph <p> tag, position the cursor in the list and look for the style in Apply style combo. In the example below "(none)" indicates this list is without paragraph <p> tag.
You may apply "(none)" style to your HTML list to remove paragraph tag from the list.

2. Multilevel List
This is new list introduced in RH8, to achieve high degree of customization which is not available in standard HTML list.

Features	HTML List	Multilevel List
Design	It is a container element which can contain any HTML content like paragraph, table, list, text box.	It is part of paragraph. It adds calculated prefix into the paragraph to create a list.
Numbering Scope	Block level - List numbering is continuous within a block. It is not easy to add content between two list entries with continuous numbering.	Topic level - You may add any content between two list entries without losing the continuity.
Prefix Text Control	HTML list does not have such functionality.	You may add any text around the numbering.
Paragraph Auto Numbering	RH 7 (or earlier) version achieves Autonumber list by bundling paragraph <p> and list<li> styles. The same functionality in RH8 is achieved using Multilevel list.	User can create an auto numbered paragraph style using button. Autonumbering dialog will popup.
Custom Sequencing	HTML list does not have such functionality.	This functionality is available in Multilevel list.
List Mingling	HTML list does not have such functionality.	Different list entries can be mingled. Like Table list, figure list, heading list can exist simultaneously.
Indentation and Spacing Control	User can control indentation of list. Incase list element has paragraph with tag, and paragraph also has some indentation, then different browsers may render it differently. Technically user can achieve spacing between prefix and text, but this can sometimes be complex and different browsers compatibility might be a challenge.	Multilevel list is part of paragraph, hence, the list indentation, if provided, will override paragraph indentation. Thus it has single point indentation control. User may control spacing between prefix and text into the list.

Limitation: - As multilevel list is not a HTML standard list, it generates hard space (&nbsp;) to make required spacing between prefix and text.

Migration of lists
HTML list can be converted to multilevel list and vice versa. This can be achieved by selecting the list and applying another list style to it.

I will provide more details on the Autonumbering and multilevel list functionality in RH8 in my next blog. Please stay tuned and continue to provide your valuable feedback.

Amit Jha
RH Engineering team

Posted by Amit Jha at 5:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

FrameMaker,XML,Technical Communication,DITA authoring,PDF,DITA,Image,UI,ScreenCapture

Dear Framers

I hope that you are enjoying working with the RoboScreenCapture software. If you are not much familiar with this tool, then let me explain about it briefly. It is a lightweight screen-capture and image editing tool which comes free with any FM9 and/or TCS2 license.

This post will give you an overview of the RoboScreenCapture tool functionality. Thanks to Rajat, FrameMaker Engineering Manager, for preparing this blog.

Screen Capture has always been an integral part of technical authoring workflows and with FrameMaker 9, you get RoboScreenCapture out of the box for the same. RoboScreenCapture is a powerful screen capture application that provides various options for capture like Full Screen, Window or Control, Active Window, Region, Freehand etc. Apart from Screen Capture it also contains basic image editing features like cropping, scaling etc to edit the captured image.

Embedded below is a small demo which shows the power of RoboScreenCapture.

Integration with FrameMaker

With FrameMaker 9, RoboScreenCapture is integrated with FrameMaker and is included in the box. You can launch RoboScreenCapture from FrameMaker itself by using "File-> Launch RoboScreenCapture" option. Also for basic image editing, you can use "Graphics->Edit With RoboScreenCapture" option or "Right-Click Context Menu" to edit the graphics in RoboScreenCapture.

Take care

- Mahesh

Posted by Mahesh Kumar Gupta at 11:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)