Using Hierarchical TOC and Index in RoboHelp for Linked FrameMaker Books
Adobe RoboHelp 7 has one of the most innovative and powerful feature of single sourcing, support for hierarchical TOC and hierarchical Index. When you bring content from several sources in RoboHelp, RoboHelp enables you to add that content in a specific folder. For example, for a FrameMaker book, RoboHelp creates a master folder at the book level and sub-folders each representing the Chapters in the book.
In addition, you can create a separate TOC and Index for each of the FrameMaker documents you add as a live link in Adobe Technical Communication Suite. In the example here, Agreement TOC and Agreement Index are created specifically for the FrameMaker book - Experience Bank.
By enabling multiple TOC, Index and Glossary, RoboHelp allows to manage your content in a separate space. When you update the content in FrameMaker document, the TOC and Index for the linked FrameMaker books are automatically updated.
In RoboHelp 7, you can now add a TOC inside a TOC as a placeholder enabling a hierarchical structure for TOC. Similarly, you can now add an Index inside an Index as placeholder enabling a hierarchical structure for Indices. This is a really powerful functionality for single sourcing.
Please let me know your comments and suggestions.
Technorati Profile
Comments
Do you have (or know) of any papers describing the sort of strategy I should apply in making FrameMaker files that'll be handed over to RoboHelp? Maybe a "forest-view" procedure as opposed to "tree-to-tree" procedurals?
I believe you need to decide on how should your help look like in HTML or WebHelp (whichever format you select).
1. If you are generating context sensitive help, you will need to define Markers in FrameMaker and specify that as project settings in RoboHelp.
2. If you are using styles to control spacing between text and images, you may chose "Ignore output" for these styles during the mapping. RoboHelp uses only those styles for which there is text in FrameMaker.
3. You may want to use conditional text to clearly identify the online and print specific content in FrameMaker. In RoboHelp, you can define a conditional expression to filter the print specific content and in FrameMaker, you can define a conditional expression to filter the help specific content.
4. If you want to pass through content in RoboHelp with a user defined tag, you can specify that as project settings in RoboHelp.
5. If you have equations or images in FrameMaker, please make sure they are part of an Anchored Frame.
6. If you want to use two different image size in Print and Online Help, you may want to include both of them in Framemaker and use conditional text to identify which one is for print and help.
7. For importing the TOC correctly in RoboHelp, you need to modify styles in TOC of FrameMaker. Make sure, your TOC is properly indented, you have Chapter names as bold, bigger font size compared to section names. RoboHelp uses the style information for correct TOC generation.
8. You should be using Index markers in FrameMaker for RoboHelp to create an index specific to the FrameMaker content.
These are some standard guidelines for creating content in FrameMaker - to prepare the content for importing/adding as live link in RoboHelp. I plan to write a more comprehensive post on this.
I hope this helps. - Vivek
Posted by: Darryl Pearce | December 18, 2007 3:46 AM
Will you ever use hierarchical variables in FrameMaker?
http://www.chrisblanc.org/blog/techcomm/2008/04/03/hierarchical-variables/
"These would replace the variable with a condition, and that condition would activate any of the variables under it to have multiple values. For a condition, defined as version 2.0 or 3.1 or 4.7, a set of variables — like book name, version number, product name, file extension, directory location, copyright — would all change in synchronization."
Interesting thought. I believe you can achieve the same in FrameMaker 8 in two ways. Imports Formats allows you to import Variable Definitions. If you want to change the value of a set of variables, you can do that in a single operation. Other is to use conditional text along with variables to simulate the same behavior. Between the two solutions, I prefer the import formats one (it keeps my source document clean, without adding additional variable definitions). - Vivek
Posted by: Chris Borokowski | April 4, 2008 12:24 AM