When you link or import a FrameMaker document, you define how the contents of the FrameMaker file are paginated or split into topics in RoboHelp. To paginate a FrameMaker document, you can select one or more paragraph styles (for example, Heading 1) and/or a marker type (for example, PageBreak) used in the document.
note: PageBreak is the default marker type RoboHelp provides in the Split Topics Using Marker setting. You can specify any marker type used in the FrameMaker document for pagination.
Consider an example. If a FrameMaker document contains ten topics, with each topic containing subtopics, tasks, and tables, you can set each topic to appear as a separate HTML file. If each of these topic headings is at Heading 1 format, you can set each Heading 1 topic to be created as a separate HTML topic. On the other hand, if you set the pagination at Heading 2, separate HTML files are created for each Heading 2 topic. If you select both Heading 1 and Heading 2 for pagination, the contents between two consecutive headings of these paragraph styles are used to create a topic.
note: RoboHelp splits the FrameMaker documents into topics using the specified paragraph styles and/or marker type. The paragraph style text/marker text is included by default in the filename of the topic file created. Any non-ASCII characters in the topic file name are automatically converted to ASCII characters.
To paginate a document using markers, apply markers to paragraphs where you want to create topics and select the marker type in RoboHelp. For example, you can apply PageBreak markers to all Heading 1 paragraphs in the FrameMaker document.
In some cases, you can use a combination of paragraph styles and a marker type to paginate. For example, you want to paginate at all Heading 1 paragraphs and at some Heading 2 paragraphs. In this case, apply PageBreak markers to the respective Heading 2 paragraphs in the FrameMaker document and then select Heading 1 as the paragraph style for pagination and the PageBreak marker type in RoboHelp.
You can even stop paginating a document on a particular paragraph style by applying a PageBreak marker type with the <NoSplit> marker text.
note: The <NoSplit> marker text is not case-senstive.
If RoboHelp finds no content between two consecutive paragraphs, it does not paginate or split the paragraphs into topics based on the paragraph style setting for pagination. You can apply a PageBreak marker to the second paragraph to explicitly indicate that different topics should be created.
note: PageBreak is an example. You can apply any marker consistently for pagination and specify it in the Split Topics Using Marker setting.
Follow these guidelines for paginating a document:
Completeness of content in the topic
Ensure that the topic generated contains relevant and complete information for the reader. For example, if you set pagination for Heading 3 level paragraph, it is possible that the topic contains only the task information, without the required contextual information that is covered in another Heading 3 level topic. To avoid such disconnected topics, set the pagination at a higher level so that complete information is available in a single Help topic.
Drop-down text
Ensure that the paragraph format for the drop-down text body is not set for pagination. The paragraphs applied with this format must accompany the drop-down text caption paragraph format. See Optimizing for online output before conversion.
When you set heading styles for pagination, the heading text becomes the default filename for the topic file created in RoboHelp. For example, suppose you define Heading 2 for pagination, and the FrameMaker document has two Heading 2 topics, “Introduction” and “Beyond basics.” In this case, RoboHelp creates the topics Introduction and Beyond basics with filenames introduction.htm and beyond_basics.htm. Thus, you get intuitively named HTML files that indicate the topic title.
RoboHelp supports various ways to customize topic names in the following scenarios:
Style-based pagination
Topics are named according to the pattern you select in the Other Settings tab of the Conversion Settings dialog box. You can select one of the following or create a topic name pattern using the Topic Name Pattern building blocks provided by RoboHelp. In addition, you can add static text, such as “HelpTopic,” followed by <n> to create topics such as HelpTopic 1, HelpTopic 2, and so on.
|
Topic name pattern |
Description |
|---|---|
|
default |
HTML topic generated has the paragraph text as the topic title and the filename. |
|
<$filename_no_ext>-<$paratext> |
HTML topic generated has the filename consisting of the filename of the FrameMaker document without the .fm extension and the paragraph text, separated by a hyphen. For example, the FrameMaker document named “Chapter.fm” with "1-Introduction" as paragraph text is converted to an HTML topic with the title "Chapter-1-Introduction” and the filename "Chapter-1-Introduction.htm” |
|
<$filename_no_ext>-<n> |
HTML topic generated has the filename consisting of the filename of the FrameMaker document without the .fm extension and the paragraph number separated by a hyphen. For example, the FrameMaker document "Chapter.fm" is converted to an HTML topic with the title “Chapter-1” and the filename "Chapter-1.htm" |
|
<$paratext_no_num> |
HTML topic generated has the filename consisting of the paragraph text of the paragraph format at which pagination is set, without the paragraph number. For example, a heading 1 paragraph "1. Introduction" is converted to an HTML topic with the title “Introduction” and the filename "Introduction.htm" |
|
<$paratext> |
HTML topic generated has the filename consisting of the paragraph text of the paragraph format on which pagination is set. For example, a heading 1 paragraph "Introduction" is converted to an HTML topic with the same title and the filename "Introduction.htm" |
Marker-based pagination
To name topics based on the marker used for pagination, configure each marker in the FrameMaker document and specify the filename and title as marker text in the filename | title format.
note: Both filename and title are optional. If you do not specify a filename (for example, you specify | <title>), RoboHelp creates a valid filename from the title. If you do not specify a title (for example, you specify <filename>), RoboHelp creates the title from the topic name pattern. If marker text is empty, RoboHelp uses the topic name pattern to create the topic title and a valid filename.
1)Select Project > Project Settings.
2)In the Import tab of the Project Settings dialog box, click Edit under FrameMaker document.
3)To split the document into topics, do either or both of the following steps:
•In the Paragraph Styles tab, select a paragraph style to split the document on that paragraph style.
•In the Other Settings tab, select Split Topics Using Marker and specify a marker that is used in the FrameMaker document for pagination.
4)By default, RoboHelp names topics based on the paragraph text of styles that are used to paginate the FrameMaker document. To specify a different naming convention for topics that are created based on paragraph styles, select a topic name pattern from the Topic Name Pattern list or specify a custom pattern.
5)Click OK.