Importing and Linking Word Documents in RoboHelp

RoboHelp allows you to integrate content created by different authors in Microsoft Word and Adobe FrameMaker. You can create projects by linking or importing Word and FrameMaker documents and then publish in different formats, including printed documentation. You can also use Word and FrameMaker documents as source files in an existing RoboHelp project.

Note: Linking FrameMaker documents in RoboHelp requires the installation of Adobe Technical Communication Suite. RoboHelp supports Word 2010 as well.

This article is a quick gist of the import and linking process for Word documents in RoboHelp. The RoboHelp documentation for Importing or linking Microsoft Word Documents has more detailed information.

If you have RoboHelp 9, make sure that you have installed the 9.0.2 patch. This patch includes enhancements that efficiently render images, tables, and styles used in the imported content. For more information, see this post.

Workflow for importing or linking a Word document

The following table describes the workflow for importing or linking a Word document:

1. Locate your Word document. 2. Optimize the Word document for import. See Optimizing Word documents for online output. 3. Read through the differences between linking and importing the Word document. See Linking versus importing Word documents. 4. Open RoboHelp, and either create a project or use an existing project to import the Word document. 5. Import the Word document. See Import a Word document into a RoboHelp project. 6. Export your conversion settings and reuse it when you import another Word document. See Export conversion settings.
1. Locate your Word document. 2. Optimize the Word document for linking. See Optimizing Word documents for online output. 3. Read through the differences between linking and importing the Word document. See Linking versus importing Word documents. 4. Read through the options for linking Word documents. See Linking options for Word documents. 5. Open RoboHelp, and either create a project or use an existing project to link the Word document. 6. Link the Word document. See Link a Word document to a RoboHelp project. 7. Synchronize your linked Word document with RoboHelp when you edit your Word document. See Synchronizing linked Word documents with RoboHelp projects. 8. Export your conversion settings and reuse it when you import another Word document. See Export conversion settings.

The following is a step-by-step illustration of how to import or link a simple Word document into RoboHelp.

  1. Click File > New Project and then select a blank project in RoboHelp.
  2. Note: You can also import the file into an existing project. However, it is prudent to import the file into a new project, clean up the structure, and then copy over the clean structure to your existing project, thus avoiding any mess-up in the existing project.
  3. Name your project as you desire and click Finish.
  4. word_import_new_project
  5. Do one of the following depending on whether you want to import or link a Word document.
  1. To create a TOC from the Word file, check the Create TOC option. You can either add the imported content to an existing TOC or create a new TOC. Similarly, if your Word document has an index and a glossary, you can choose to import these into RoboHelp.
  2. import_conversion_settings
  3. Click Next.
  4. To edit the conversion settings for the Word document, click Edit.
  5. import_dialog
  6. In the Conversion Settings dialog box, map the Word styles to RoboHelp styles as desired. To use the source formatting in RoboHelp, select the mapping as [Source]. Additionally, you can edit the selected RoboHelp style by clicking Edit Style.
  7. paginate_imported_content
  8. Click OK to save the mapping.
  9. Click Finish to finish importing the Word Document into RoboHelp.

About the converted Word document components

The following table lists the major Word document components and shows how they are converted into RoboHelp.

TOC
Converted, if selected. See Importing a Word TOC, index, and glossary.
Index
Converted, if selected. See Importing a Word TOC, index, and glossary.
Glossary
Converted, if selected. See Importing a Word TOC, index, and glossary.
Equations
Ignored when importing the document into RoboHelp.
Cross-references, hypertext, URLs
Cross-references are converted to hypertext links if the Convert References to hyperlinks option is enabled in RoboHelp when importing a Word document. Else, the cross-references are imported as plain text. Unresolved cross-references and hypertext entries appear as text in online Help. URLs become live hypertext links in the online Help output. See Convert Word references to hyperlinks.
Context-sensitive Help markers
Converted into map IDs in RoboHelp. See Convert context-sensitive Help markers in Word to map IDs.
Paragraph Formats
Converted. You can map Microsoft Word paragraph formats to RoboHelp styles or import the source formatting. See Convert Word paragraph styles to RoboHelp styles.
Character Formats
Converted. You can map Microsoft Word character formats to RoboHelp styles or import the source formatting. See Convert Word character styles to RoboHelp styles.
Table Formats
Converted. You can map Microsoft Word table formats to RoboHelp styles or import the source formatting. See Convert Word table styles to RoboHelp table styles.
Lists
Converted according to the settings you define. See List Mapping.
Page layout, size, and Word pagination
Ignored. These elements are not applicable to online Help.
Headers/Footers
Converted. See Convert headers and footers in Word documents.
Images
Converted. PNG images are imported “as is” if the Allow PNG as a graphics format option is selected in Microsoft Word Web Options. All other images are converted to gif or jpg.
Drawings
Converted to images.