Bits and Pieces

There's always something that doesn't warrant a full topic or fit neatly somewhere else! Here are some of those.

Expanding and Dropdown Hotspots with Dynamic HTML (DHTML)

The idea of "progressive disclosure" is something authors are using in order to layer content especially with smaller screens on mobile devices. In this way, the end-user self-selects the information they are interested in. You can access DHTML on the Insert ribbon.

Topic Titles can have User Defined Variables assigned

Control and customize content better by applying a User Defined Variable to a wider range of content, including the Topic Title and Table of Contents. Automate updates by simply making a single change to the UDV value in the UDV pod. To see this in action, go to the About Employee Care 3 topic, right click on the topic and choose "Topic Properties." You will see that the Knowledge Base Name User Defined Variable has been inserted in to the Topic Title.

The UDV Properties tell you where the each UDV has been used...

... and that can include the Table of Contents.

Control + Click jumps you to your target topic in Design Editor

Try control + click on this link to jump to the About Employee Care 3 topic.

Clear Formatting and Reset Style

One constant frustration for authors is importing content from documents written without proper styling. When imported into RoboHelp, "inline styles" or "overides" can defeat your hard work in designing a proper CSS. Clear Formatting and Reset Style are commands that let your CSS control the styling without inline styles getting in the way.

• Make a selection and click Format > Clear formatting. All styling is cleared.

• Reset Style is done from the Styles and Formatting pod. In this scenario, resetting a style resets both CSS and inline styles from a single HTML element by removing style related attributes like "class" and "style" from selected HTML element tag. Other CSS code remains.

Enhanced CSS3 management

Create CSS styles either using a built-in visual style editor or choose a new HTML code editor for those who like to edit directly. View and modify attributes, edit the <img> tags, and format hyperlinks, text boxes, and block elements.

Close All But This

When the help author has elected to use the Allow Editing of Multiple Topics function, they are also able to right-click any tab in the editor and choose to close all other open tabs.

Remember Project State

From RoboHelp (2015 release) whichever topics you have open in the Design Editor when you close it will reopen when you return.

Note: Which topics were open is held in the CPD file so if you delete the CPD, RoboHelp will not reopen the topics.