The Starter pod provides links to common commands and product information.
Recent Projects
Open recently used projects (up to ten recent projects are listed) and other projects.
Create New
Select the Help type you want to generate.
Import
Import a Help project, such as an HTML Help project, Word document, and all other available types.
Resources
Access forums, developer centers, knowledgebase articles, complete online Help, videos, and other online content.
Access a stream of latest learning resources featured in the Starter pod. If you find the stream distracting, you can hide it by deselecting the Show Learning Resources On Starter Page option in general settings.
The Project Manager pod contains various folders where you create and delete project files, or edit their properties. It also has folders for various key project components, such as the table of contents, the index, and the glossary.
tip: If the project has many topics, collapse the Project Files folder first to view the other folders.
The Output Setup pod contains the following folders:
Windows
Containers for output. Custom windows for projects are stored in this folder. Modify window properties by double-clicking a window icon.
Master Pages
Use master pages to reuse information and create a standard appearance across topics.
Skins
Use skins with WebHelp or FlashHelp projects to change the appearance of the Help system. You can match the appearance of a company website or add interest and style to the output. Use skins to customize colors, buttons, text, fonts, icons, backgrounds, multimedia (FlashHelp projects), images for TOC icons and navigation buttons, and more.
Screen Profiles
Container for screen profiles used in Multiscreen HTML5 output.
Screen Layouts
Container for screen layouts used in Multiscreen HTML5 output.
Context-Sensitive Help
Container for the Map Files folder and the What’s This Help Files folder.
•Use the Map Files folder to access map files and perform most window-level context-sensitive Help tasks.
•Use the What's This Help Files folder for field-level context-sensitive Help in HTML Help projects.
Add custom HTML code snippets to a project for insertion later into desired topics. When you modify a code snippet shared by different topics, the changes are reflected in all the associated topics.
Snippets are stored in a Snippet library as separate files with the .hts extension. In the Snippets pod, you can organize them in categories, expanding or collapsing the categories for easy viewing. The category names appear in a sorted order in the Snippets pod and in the Insert dialog box. You can drag snippets to desired locations in a topic. You can also select snippets and then copy, duplicate, or delete them. Select the Preview option from the context menu to preview a snippet.
Use the Styles And Formatting pod to apply styles quickly. Select a style in the pod and apply it to the selected text in the topic. You can create and edit a style directly from the pod. Right-click the name of a style to rename, delete, or preview that style.
note: Select Project > Open > Pods > Style and Formatting, to view the Styles And Formatting pod. You must open a topic to view the Styles And Formatting pod.
Create a style using theStyles And Formatting pod
From the User Defined Variables pod, you can accomplish these tasks:
•Create, edit, or delete variables.
•Create, edit, or delete variable sets.
•Provide and modify runtime values uniquely for different variable sets while generating the output.
•Format variable values.
The Error List pod shows buttons for errors, warnings, and messages that are displayed when you try to validate a topic or a master page. You can click these buttons to display the relevant information in the Error list. The caption of buttons shows the number of errors, warnings, and messages. You can click all of these buttons to display the relevant information.
The Output View pod displays important errors, warnings, and messages that RoboHelp captures while importing content or generating project output. You can use the Quick Access Toolbar and the right-click options to save, copy, select, or clear the log.
The Toolbox pod provides shortcut icons to access various tools that come with RoboHelp. You can also add tools.
Graphics Locator, HTML Help Studio, and Resize are some of the default tools.
Resource Manager stores all the common resources to use across projects and allows for quick access and management of common resource files.
Shared Locations
Specify the various shared folders that store resource files to use across projects. While a shared location can contain files of any type, Resource Manager displays only those that match defined file types (Add/Edit Categories).
Categories
Specify categories to organize resources according to file types. For example, you can add a category called Video and associate .flv, .swf, and .avi file types with it.
File Types
List the extensions associated with a category. For example, for the Images category, list all the file types that you want Resource Manager to consider as images.
Linked Resources
Manage linked resources (resources used in the project with links to the original versions in the shared locations). Synchronize the original version and the copy, remove links to stop automatic tracking of updates, or replace links to point to another resource of the same file type.
The External Content Search pod lets you specify URLs for content available outside the Help system (for example, in blogs) and map them to terms that users are likely to search for. By curating relevant content in this way, you can optimize the search experience for users and provide easy access to user-generated content.
The RoboHelp Server pod enables you to connect to RoboHelp Server. You can configure the setup for the server by selecting Responsive HTML5, WebHelp Pro, or FlashHelp Pro as the primary layout.
You can enter http://<server-name>:<port-number>/<context-name>/server and connect to it to publish your projects.
note: By default, RoboHelp Server uses the http protocol. To specify that the https protocol should be used, enter https://<servername>:<port-number>/<context-name>/server.