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