Adobe RoboHelp 8.0 User guide

Reviewer’s Guide

ADOBE®ROBOHELP® 8

Innovative new features for online authors and their audiences

Adobe® RoboHelp® 8 software is a professional authoring tool for developing help systems, eLearning

content, policies and procedures and knowledge bases.

• Enhanced editing and layout

capabilities - An easy to use visual

editing environment makes it easy

for authors to create standards-

based, validated XHTML code.

• Scalable Single Sourcing - From

one single project, you can publish

to multiple channels and

audiences. Use batch processing to

publish many formats including

WebHelp, Adobe FlashHelp®,

Compiled HTML Help, JavaHelp,

Oracle Help for Java™ and

WinHelp. Now, you can also

publish as an Adobe AIR™ application.

• Automation with built-in Scripting - Choose from provided

scripts or create your own scripts with Adobe ExtendScript

Toolkit CS4 software (included in this release). For example, you

can now add a dialog (User Interface) and add features and

functions to the product which are customized to your workflow.

• Multimedia eLearning platform - Include engaging interactive

content such as PDF documents, FLV files, Adobe Captivate®

show-me demos, and 3D models.

• Robust end-user search functionality - Custom search keywords,

synonyms, search context provided in results, exclude topics from

search, search term highlighting, search rank, and ability to

search text of MS® Office, Adobe PDF documents.

Contents

What you can create with Adobe

RoboHelp 8 ......................................... 2

What’s New in Adobe RoboHelp 8..... 3

Existing features authors have come to

expect .................................................. 7

Publishing Features – special

enhancements for the end-user............ 9

Single Sourcing Features - write once,

distribute to many audiences............. 40

Productivity Features - Work quicker,

smarter, more efficiently ................... 46

Usability Features - making the work

environment easier ............................ 49

Adobe RoboHelp Server 8 - robust search,

easier to administer ........................... 52

Major Online Help Enhancements with

Adobe AIR ........................................ 55

Additional resources and links .......... 58

System Requirements........................ 60

Adobe RoboHelp 8 Reviewer’s Guide 2

Part of the Adobe®

Technical

Communication

Suite 2

It’s all part of the Adobe® Technical Communication Suite 2, a total authoring

solution that combines the power of Adobe RoboHelp®, 8, Adobe FrameMaker®,

9, Adobe Captivate®, 4, Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended and now includes Adobe

Photoshop®, CS4 software!

Now with support for Adobe AIR™ output format that has excited the help

authoring community at international conferences such as the Society for

Technical Communication, WritersUA and DocTrain as well as Tekom and the UA

Conference in Europe and AOCD in Australia.

Adobe RoboHelp software’s product line includes Adobe RoboHelp 8 and Adobe

RoboHelp Server 8 software (sold separately). Adobe RoboHelp 8 comes with

these applications:

• Adobe RoboHelp 8 HTML

• Adobe RoboHelp 8 for Microsoft® Word

• Adobe RoboSource Control 3.1

• Adobe RoboScreenCapture 2.0

•Adobe PDF Creator Add-on 9

• Adobe ExtendScript Toolkit CS4

What you can create with Adobe RoboHelp 8

Use this best-of-breed application to create single-sourced output for multiple

channels:

Online help for

applications

Many companies have used Adobe RoboHelp to create the online help that is

provided with their desktop and browser-based applications to provide online user

assistance.

Knowledge bases Easy lookup of information by a growing number of contact center professionals

who handle email, chat and phone support. All of this is powered by the best in

class Search features.

Policies and

procedures

manuals

Employees can quickly find accurate up to date information that keeps an

organization running smoothly. Technical writers, content developers, and subject

matter experts can write structured, searchable documents that can be easily

accessed by anyone in an organization.

Adobe RoboHelp 8 Reviewer’s Guide 3

An eLearning

launch pad

When combined with Adobe Captivate 4 demonstrations, interactive simulations

and quizzes, Adobe RoboHelp 8 output becomes a powerful repository for

eLearning courses, lessons and virtual classrooms. The author or instructional

designer can use popular Adobe Captivate (v2, 3, 4), which utilizes learning

animations with text and FLV files playable in Adobe Flash® Player. Instructional

Designers around the world use Adobe RoboHelp to create Performance Support

Systems. From the published online project, learning objects can communicate

with Learning Management Systems such as Adobe Connect™ Professional

software and other open standards-based SCORM or AICC compliant programs.

Adobe AIR help

applications

Easy-to-generate Adobe AIR help applications to keep your information base up

to date with a single file that combines the best of the Web with speed of the

desktop.

What’s New in Adobe RoboHelp 8

Publishing Features – special enhancements for the end-user

Powerful Search

engine

Search results are ranked by relevance with the initial text of the topic for context,

search highlighting, a synonym editor and a brand new Keyword Search that can

be defined to help the user find what they are looking for. Also added is a way to

define search Phrases as well as Substrings. Another major feature is that text in

Adobe PDF and MS Office documents can be searched. See “Powerful Search

engine” on page 17.

Enhanced Printed

Documentation

options

More flexibility in mapping your online output styles to the printed version in

Microsoft® Word or Adobe PDF. See “Enhanced Printed Documentation options”

on page 20.

Breadcrumbs /

Mini TOC

Breadcrumb navigation and/or a Mini TOC can be added with placeholders on a

topic basis or with Master Pages. If preferred, breadcrumbs can be added globally

with a single checkmark when generating output. See “Breadcrumbs” on page 21.

Improved Glossary Glossary definitions which are edited are automatically updated in glossary

hotspot links. See “Improved Glossary” on page 24.

Adobe AIR™ technology provides a revolutionary new help application that

provides many new ways for users to find information, add and share

comments, in a system that is always up to date. It combines the best of the

Web as well as the desktop, whether the user is online or not. Authors can

generate this exciting new Adobe AIR help application and package it for easy

deployment and management of automatic updates. See “Ado be AIR -

revolutionary Web 2.0 features for the end-user” on page 9.

Adobe RoboHelp 8 Reviewer’s Guide 4

Merged Help

implementation

Merged project enhancements provide a visually intuitive way to merge child

projects which become part of a master TOC. See “Merged Help Implementation”

on page 24.

Twisties Twisties provide both expanded and dropdown hotspots and can now have

configurable images which provide a visual cue to the user. See “Twisties -

expanded hotspots with graphic cues” on page 24.

More author-friendly enhancements

Adobe RoboHelp 8 is now an XHTML Authoring Tool

• Clean XHTML code editing in RoboHelp software’s popular visual editing

environment. See “A new XHTML Editor produces clean, standards-

compliant code” on page 26.

• Code validation to assure World Wide Web Consortium compliance. See

“Code validation is easy with a simple command” on page 28.

A new Styles and

Formatting pod

Quickly apply, create or edit CSS styles. See “Styles and Formatting Pod” on

page 41.

World class Table,

List and

Autonumbering

Table designs (with many new prepared templates) can now be created or

modified in the Styles editor using a graphical preview and exposed formatting

tools. List support now includes enhanced handling of standard HTML Lists,

MultiLevel lists and customizable autonumbering. See “World-class Table,

Standard HTML List, MultiLevel List and Autonumbering support” on page 28.

Easier import of

MS® Word and

Adobe

FrameMaker files

Define common Import and Conversion Settings for consistent use of CSS and

Style Mapping across all projects. See “Set Import choices for easier import of MS®

Word and Adobe FrameMaker files” on page 36.

Linking MS® Word

files

By linking to MS® Word files you can keep your content updated to the original

source MS® Word document without re-importing each time. See “Linking MS®

Word fi le s” on page 38.

Import DITA Topic-based content into a RoboHelp HTML project. This allows the DITA author

to take advantage of RoboHelp software’s rich feature set of TOC, Index, Glossary

and advanced publishing options. See “Import DITA topic-based content” on

page 39.

Enhanced Unicode

and Language

Support

There is now Unicode and language support at the topic and paragraph level. See

“New multiple language support at paragraph, topic, and project level.” on

page 35.

Adobe RoboHelp 8 Reviewer’s Guide 5

FLV format now

supported

For compelling eLearning and video presentations. See “FLV format now

supported” on page 35.

IFrame support Include an external HTML or PDF inside a topic. See “IFrame support” on

page 35.

Single Sourcing Features - write once, distribute to many audiences

Brand new CSS

Editor

Provides a graphical way to define Table Styles, and complex List Styles. See

“Brand new CSS Editor” on page 40.

Master Pages

(formerly

Templates)

Help separate layout and styling from content. There are new placeholders for

breadcrumbs and a “mini” Table of Contents and the Body section of each topic.

See “Master Pages provide consistency and add navigational enhancements” on

page 42.

Resource Manager Allows you to manage and reuse assets (including Images, Topics, Stylesheets,

Multimedia and Snippets) across multiple Robohelp projects. See “Resource

Manager - Storing and Sharing common resources” on page 44.

Formatted User-

defined Variables

(UDV)

Provide a robust way to make global changes to common blocks of content

throughout many topics. A major new enhancement is the addition of formatting

and the inclusion of such things as images and links which are easily created in a

Design and HTML editor. See “Formatted User Defined Variables - and Variable

Sets for single sourcing” on page 45.

Productivity Features - Work quicker, smarter, more efficiently

Scripting Automate with built-in scripts or create your own. The entire Adobe Extended

Scripting Toolkit CS4 is included with Adobe RoboHelp 8, including many ready-

made scripts to get you started. See “Robust new built-in Scripting allows you to

automate many tasks” on page 46.

Integration with

other Adobe

applications

Adobe Captivate 4, RoboScreenCapture and RoboSource Control are separate

applications that are integrated into the Adobe RoboHelp 8 interface. See “Ado be

Captivate 4 - used by instructional designers throughout the world” on page 48.

Custom To Do List This popular RoboHelp favorite now allows you to edit the supplied tasks and add

your own items depending on your own workflows. See “Customized To-Do List”

on page 49.

Usability Features - making the work environment easier

Project Manager

Enhancements

RoboHelp software’s strength has been its ability to help the author keep track of

the many assets in a given project. Now, you can drag and drop topics and folders

Adobe RoboHelp 8 Reviewer’s Guide 6

to create the same hierarchy used in the TOC. There is a choice to customize the

list of files shown or switch to the traditional view with its virtual folders.

See

“Project Manager Enhancements” on page 49.

UI Enhancements Color-coding to show pods with focus, easy close of topics in Design Editor, more

tooltips on Navigation buttons and more robust right-click Context Menu support

are some of the user-friendly changes to the interface. See “UI Enhancements” on

page 50.

Option to install

RoboHelp for

Word

You can now choose whether or not to install this application and create desktop

icons. according to your preference. See “Option to install RoboHelp for MS®

Wor d” on page 51.

Custom File Type

mapping dialog

In addition to choosing your preferred HTML editor, there is an enhanced dialog

to associate file extensions with your choice of applications. See “Custom File Type

mapping dialog” on page 51.

More functionality

added to existing

features

Snippets can now be added to Popups and Drop-down hotspots and DHTML

effects in non-IE browsers. Because of improved HHActiveX support, Glossaries

and Browse Sequences can be included in the HTML Help (.chm) format in

Chinese, Japanese and Korean (CJK) multibyte languages. Improvements have

been also been made to Multiple TOC, Index and Glossary editing (including the

ability to update Glossary definitions automatically.)

Adobe RoboHelp Server 8 - Now with versatile authentication and restricted

access

Adobe RoboHelp Server 8 software (Optional purchase) - A completely rewritten

and redesigned Java-based server is cross platform compatible and easy for the

author to generate feedback reports for continuous improvement of the help

system. Here are the highlights followed by the details below. See “Ad ob e

RoboHelp Server 8 - robust search, easier to administer” on page 52.

• Search results are more responsive.

• Generate User Feedback reports.

• Supports the open source (free) Tomcat Servlet Container.

• Supports both Apache as well as Windows® Internet Information Services

(IIS) Web servers.

• The new Java-based server is much easier to install and maintain than

previous versions.

• Create restricted areas with different access permissions for different user

groups.

• Authentication enabled and includes LDAP integration.

Adobe RoboHelp 8 Reviewer’s Guide 7

• Now supports REST Web services, instead of SOAP in previous version.

Existing features authors have come to expect

While this Reviewer's Guide focuses on new features, here is a recap of features

introduced in previous versions:

• Single Sourcing - Adobe RoboHelp software continues its innovative history

of helping authors publish to multiple channels with more output formats, all

within one single project.

• Snippets - Reusable blocks of content can be placed throughout a project

making it easy to swap out the content quick updating.

• Conditional Build Tags - Authors can assign tags to content which can be

excluded when the output is generated. One single source project can be

customized for many audiences.

• Multiple TOCs, Indexes and Glossaries - Versatile workflow for multiple

audiences

• Multiple Document Interface (MDI) - Have more than one topic open at a

time for quick switching.

• Environments - Create author defined workspaces called Environments which

can be customized and saved.

• Custom toolbars and menus - Provide the most comfortable workspace for

the author.

Before you begin your tour of Adobe RoboHelp 8

There are sample files for the hands-on “Try it” exercises included with this

Reviewer’s Guide.

There are also Adobe Captivate software “Show me” videos to visually guide you

through many of the exercises. Links to these videos will be found at the end of this

guide.

Installation of

Adobe RoboHelp 8

If you do not already have Adobe RoboHelp 8, a trial version may be downloaded

at www.adobe.com/go/try/robohelp. For system requirements, see “System

Requirements” on page 60.

When the installation dialog appears, select radio buttons for Adobe RoboHelp 8,

Adobe PDF Creator Add-on (deselect if you have a different compatible product)

and the Adobe ExtendScript Toolkit. After the installation, refer to the ReadMe file

that is installed by default along this path for more information.

Adobe RoboHelp 8 Reviewer’s Guide 8

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp 8\Readme.htm (or readme.pdf).

Opening a project and converting it to Adobe RoboHelp 8 will make it

incompatible with previous versions. Therefore, it is best practice to install trial

versions on test machines.

Install TryIt-

Exercises

Also accompanying the Reviewer’s Guide, are the Tr y It- Exerc is e- Fi le s. Copy and

unzip this file to your local hard drive. This contains a special edition of the Web

Graphics Sample project. This is similar to the sample project that accompanies

RoboHelp, but has been modified for the exercises that follow. After copying the

files, start RoboHelp and open the project with these steps.

1. Do one of the following:

Open RoboHelp by double-clicking the desktop icon named “Adobe Robo-

Help 8 HTML”.

Or,

Click Start > Run > type “robohtml” and click OK.

2. RoboHelp will open to its start page.

3. On the start page, click the Open folder icon.

4. From the Open Project dialog click the Sample icon in the lower left panel.

5. Open the WebGraphics folder (sample project).

6. Double-click on the Web Gr aph ics .x pj (RoboHelp's project file).

After the project opens, maximize the RoboHelp application window. You will

see the project open in a view similar to this screenshot.

Adobe RoboHelp 8 Reviewer’s Guide 9

Explore the

interface.

The workspace is made up of pods. You can close any pod by clicking the X in the

top right corner. As you rearrange the pods, you may want to restore them to the

original layout. This can be done by clicking File > Environments > Load Default

Environment.

For guided demonstrations of the main features, see the Adobe Captivate demos at

the end of this Reviewer’s Guide.

Publishing Features – special enhancements for the end-user

Adobe AIR - revolutionary Web 2.0 features for the end-user

Adobe AIR technology makes it possible to distribute help as an application that is

automatically updated. It offers many new ways for end-users to find information

and exchange comments. It combines the best of the Web as well as the desktop

and enables you to create rich, branded customer experiences.

Authors can easily generate this exciting new Adobe AIR help application and

package it as a single file (.air) for easy deployment. See below for a summary of

Adobe RoboHelp 8 Reviewer’s Guide 10

benefits followed by graphic examples of this new Single Source Layout for

generating an Adobe AIR file. (Options may vary depending on output type

selected)

Main Benefits • A convenient installation file (.air) that has everything packed inside (content,

viewer and installer.)

• Contemporary templates and skins with branding opportunities.

• Enhanced Search with ranking and context.

• Consistent look and feel across all operating systems.

• Seamless use whether online or offline.

Advanced User

Experience

features

• Multi Tab browsing.

•Breadcrumb navigation.

• Mini TOC - helps users navigate to places within a single topic.

• Security provided by digital signatures.

• End users can show or hide features.

• Create “Favorites” for quick shortcuts.

• Customize outside resources and subscribe to RSS Feeds.

• Auto Update of content.

• Commenting - for individual end users and for review among groups.

Breakout of Adobe

AIR help features

The screen capture below, illustrates many of the features that are part of an Adobe

AIR help application generated by Adobe RoboHelp 8. The author can create a

custom design from a number of color schemes, skins and other features. This

example uses the Classic Help Template with the Ocean Blue skin.

Adobe RoboHelp 8 Reviewer’s Guide 11

A The branding logo and title across the top.

B Contents, Index, Glossary and Search tabs of the navigation pane.

C Mini TOC shown expanded to jump to a location in the topic.

D Tabs showing multiple topics open at the same time.

E Breadcrumb trail showing path where topic is located.

F Arrows to navigate a Browse Sequence defined by the author.

G “How do I?” tab for showing steps in procedures.

H Favorites tab to user-defined topic shortcuts, Resources to external blogs,

Wikis and Websites or for RSS Feeds.

I Comments tab to show user's notes along with others in a shared review.

J Preferences link allows a user to customize the items they prefer to view

and to configure Comments.

K A zoom tool for users who may prefer larger text.

L Send and Receive button for sending and receiving comments from

other users or reviewers.

AB C D E F

GH JKL

I

Adobe RoboHelp 8 Reviewer’s Guide 12

Multi-Tab

Accordion

Template with the

Midnight Black

skin

Shown below are results of a search which includes the topic title, the first

paragraph of text and the ranking of the topic among the results. This will help the

user focus on the most likely target. In the lower panel is the Comment section

along with several comments from a team of reviewers.

Contents pane

This example uses the

Classic Help template

with the Ocean Blue skin.

Note the branding icon in

the upper left.

Favorites pane

In this view, the end user can

add and organize many

internal and external links to

resources such as Blogs,

Wikis, Websites and message

forums and RSS feeds.

How do I? pane

A custom-made list of steps in a

task can be created for the user

who has a certain process they

want to work through.

The author creates these “How

do I?” lists in the Adobe

RoboHelp 8 Browse Sequence

Editor. These sequences can use

the order found in the TOC or

specially organized in a very

specific sequence the author

defines.

Adobe RoboHelp 8 Reviewer’s Guide 13

All comments are time-stamped. They can be shared and kept in sync with the

team.

Classic Template

with Icy Blue skin

A partial view of the Classic Template with Icy Blue skin is presented below. It

shows the Topic and Comments panes. Notice that multiple users are able to add

comments which can be shared among a designated group. These comments can

be kept in sync according to the settings established by the author.

There is also a

UniPane Template

The template below is designed for compatibility with Windows Vista®-style Help

as shown below.

Adobe RoboHelp 8 Reviewer’s Guide 14

Creating an Adobe AIR Help Application

Adobe AIR runtime applications contain a lot of code and technology. However

Adobe RoboHelp 8 software makes it very easy for the author to create Adobe AIR

files.

Generate Adobe

AIR Help

Tr y it:

To see the process of generating an Adobe AIR layout, open the Web Graphics

sample project:

1. Open the Single Source Layout pod.

2. Right-click on the Single Source Layout titled, “Adobe AIR Multi Tab Black.”

3. Select Properties.

4. Take a look at each of the Settings: General, Content, Template and View

items.

5. Examine the different items and then take a look at similar screenshots below.

(Your paths may be different, but the settings are generally the same.)

Adobe RoboHelp 8 Reviewer’s Guide 15

The General settings provide four Output

Types (see below for descriptions). This one

shows the Adobe AIR Application. The folder

location for the .air file is defined. A Help Title,

version number and Help ID used for context

sensitive help is also assigned in the Help

Settings section.

Under Installer Settings, you can either use

your own Digital Certificate for security or

create your own for local viewing. The

Program Menu Folder is defined to guide the

installer to create a folder according to the

author’s preference.

The Content settings provide a way to

conditionally exclude topics and select the

preferred Table of Contents, Index, Glossary

and User Defined Variable set as well as the

default topic. A Master Page or Cascading Style

Sheet (CSS) can be overridden and substituted

here.

Adobe RoboHelp 8 Reviewer’s Guide 16

Use a completely new Single Source Layout - Adobe AIR

Four output types - Using the Single Source Layout in RoboHelp 8, you can

generate the Adobe AIR runtime application. The Single Source Layout offers

options to generate four different types of help systems:

The Template settings dialog. Here you can

select from 3 Templates and 2 skins, add a

copyright notice, description and define the

width and height you would like the initial

window to be.

The View settings dialog. Here you can select

the Search, Auto Update, Commenting,

Resources and a URL for the online help

location. The Server setting (shown in grey)

lights up if you choose either the Browser-

based Help or Help Content Only Output Type

on the General Setting dialog. It provides a way

to set up the path to the Web server or network

share where the help will reside if this output

type is selected.

Adobe RoboHelp 8 Reviewer’s Guide 17

Adobe AIR as an

output

The .air file output can be installed as a stand-alone application or as context

sensitive help using CSH APIs. Note: You need to install the Java Runtime

Environment (JRE) 1.6 or higher before generating the Adobe AIR application.

However the JRE is not necessary for installing the application to end users.

Browser Based

Help as an output

Generate Browser based Help as an Adobe Flex® application and you can use it as

online help or embedded help. You can publish this output on the server with

specific configurations. You can view this Help using Web browsers with Adobe

Flash® plug-in 9.0 or above installed. (Consult online help for some limitations

and more details.)

AIR Application

and Browser Based

Help as an output

This option generates both the Adobe AIR application and the Browser based Help

simultaneously. You can view the AIR application after installing it on your

machine and the Browser based Help by linking it to the server. View as:

•Browser based Help.

• An online version in a new Help Viewer (which the author can create with the

new Help Viewer Wizard.

• As an AIR application which shows offline data.

Only Help Content

in a zipped format

(.rha)

You may have need to distribute many different help systems to a single desktop.

To help with consistency in presentation and single sourcing, you can package the

Help content into data files (.rha). Then, using the Help Viewer Wizard, you can

create a single, branded viewer and install that once so the user can display any

number of help data files in the same viewer.

Summary: The Adobe AIR help application has a very rich feature set. To learn

more, you can read an article on the Adobe Developer Network or consult

Community Help, a major new online assistance feature. See “Community Help -

a new Web 2.0 way of providing user assistance” on page 56.

Powerful Search engine

The author works hard to create thorough documentation, but the information

may as well not exist if the user can't find it. A totally new search engine helps

direct users to the most relevant information. Here is a quick summary followed

by more detail.

Summary of

Search features

• Search results can now be ranked.

• Search highlighting draws attention to the relevant term.

• Topic context in the search results list provides a quick glance summary.

• Topic Keyword search lets the author include metadata to guide users to what

they want.

•Synonym search.

Adobe RoboHelp 8 Reviewer’s Guide 18

• Excluded topic search.

• Multiple-language search.

• Substring search (“Log” will return log, catalog and logarithm).

• Phrase search - place a phrase in quotes to filter better results.

• Baggage file search (search text of MS Office and PDF files).

The red highlight boxes below point to the search highlight, search ranking and

search context features.

Synonym Highlighting

When the author creates a synonym for a word and the user searches for the

synonym, the corresponding word is now highlighted in the topic. For example, if

you look at the WebHelp output of the Web Graphics sample and search for the

term “jaggies,” the results will return topics with the keyword, “artifacts.”

Adobe RoboHelp 8 Reviewer’s Guide 19

Search MS Office and Adobe PDF files

If you hyperlink within a topic to MS Office and Adobe PDFs, these files are added

to the project’s Baggage. As a major new feature, the published output will include

those files (even though they were not converted to HTML) and bring them up in

the search results.

Searchable Topic-specific Keywords created by the Author

Often a user may search for a word where the subject matter is covered but the

word itself is not actually in the topic text. Now the author can anticipate words

the user may be looking for and force the topic to come up in search results.

These special search keywords (think of them as synonyms for a single topic) are

authored at the topic level for very specific control. For example, you can assign

the keyword “formatting” to a topic about fonts, styles, and point sizes. If you

enter “formatting” as a search term in the generated help, RoboHelp displays that

topic even though it doesn't contain the word “formatting.”

Topic-specific

Search Keyword

Try It

Try It: To see the power of Search Keywords, here is how to create them.

1. Open the Web Graphics sample project.

2. In the Project Manager, open the “All_About_Graphic_Formats” folder.

3. Double click on the topic, “Bitmaps and Vector Graphics” to open it in the

Design Editor.

If you read the topic, you will notice the word “drawing” does not appear even

though Vector graphics are typically edited by drawing applications. You

would like your users to be able to bring this topic up in search results if they

type in the word, drawing. To do this:

4. Right-click on the topic in the Design Editor and Select Topic Properties.

5. You will notice on the General tab in the Keyword field there are already two

keywords (lossy, lossless). To add your new Keyword, type in the word

“drawing” (without quotes) in the Keywords field. A comma to separate the

Keywords may be used but is not necessary.

6. Click OK and Save the topic.

Adobe RoboHelp 8 Reviewer’s Guide 20

7. From the Single Source Layout pod, double-click on the WebHelp eLearning

Skin layout.

8. After the WebHelp General dialog opens, click the Finish button.

9. When the layout has been generated, click the View Results button.

10. After the browser opens with the new content, enter the Search term, drawing.

11. Notice that the topic “Bitmaps and Vector Graphics” appears first in the

results even though the work “drawing” does not exist in the topic.

Substring search

For more flexible searching, the author can enable substring search at the

publishing stage. Then, the end user can search for a term such as “Log” and it will

return topics for log, catalog and logarithm.

Phrase search

If the end user places a phrase in quotes (e.g., “graphic formats,” then that

complete phrase comes up in the search results

Exclude from search

Sometimes certain topics (e.g., popups or short context sensitive help topics) need

to be suppressed when search results are delivered. Now the author can exclude

certain topics from the search results.

Multiple language search

Adobe RoboHelp 8 software search supports multiple languages at the project,

topic, and paragraph level. For example, your user searches for a Chinese word in

an English topic with an embedded Chinese paragraph. If RoboHelp finds the

Chinese word, it displays the English topic with the Chinese word highlighted.

Enhanced Printed Documentation options

There is more flexibility in mapping your online output styles to the printed

version in MS® Word or Adobe PDF. Styling can be done with two main methods:

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Adobe RoboHelp 8.0 User guide

Adobe RoboHelp 8.0 User guide

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