RoboHelp 2019 – Update 4 (January 2019)
This blog post was co-authored with Amitoj Singh, Product Manager for Adobe Technical Communication tools at Adobe.
Just about six weeks ago we have rolled out Update 3 for RoboHelp 2019. Today we release Update 4. Let us guide you through the what’s new and what has become better in RoboHelp 2019 with Update 4 in this blog post. But before we go into it, here is a list of our previous blogs and fixed issues for the previous three updates for RoboHelp 2019.
Please continue to send us your feedback. We’re listening and will continue to improve Adobe RoboHelp as we go along at a fast pace.
The detailed release notes are available here.
In this post:
- What’s new and better
- New: Import and link FrameMaker documents
- New: Table Styles CSS Editor
- New: Publish to RoboHelp Server, FTP, and Secure FTP
- New: Import .h files in the new Map Files editor
- New: XML Output
- New: “See Also” and “Related Topics” sections for your topics
- New: Fix broken links
- Enhanced: Topic list
- Enhanced: Email link editor
- Other enhancements/bug fixes
- How to get the update
- Report a bug, file in a feature request
What’s new and better
New: Import and link FrameMaker Documents
One of the features that was asked quite a few times on the forums was FrameMaker 2019 link and import of files with new RoboHelp. With Update 4 you can now easily import or link FrameMaker 2019 files. To import FM files, simply click on File → Import and select the FrameMaker document option.
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You can also save the import settings as an XML Settings file (.fsf) to use the same settings for import of other FrameMaker documents.
NOTE: You need to have FrameMaker (FM) 2019 Update 2 or higher for this feature to work with RoboHelp 2019 Update 4. In FrameMaker make sure you have the latest Update for FrameMaker 2019 installed (Help → Updates)
New: Table Style CSS Editor
With RoboHelp 2019 Update 4, you can now create your own table styles with the new table editor for complete control over all aspects of table styling. You can define virtually anything you can think of for a great looking table – all with a simple to use editor with live preview. Define table, row, and cell margins and paddings, create rows with alternating shadings, define borders, cell, and text colors, apply text formatting automatically, use background images, and define the full layout of the table (you can even make define them to be sticky on a page!).
Say goodbye to boring tables! With RoboHelp 2019 you can make them a thing of the past with just a few mouse-clicks.
New: Publish to RoboHelp Server, FTP Server, Secure FTP or File System
Update 4 brings new options to the Output Presets for Publishing. You can now also publish to RoboHelp Server, FTP, Secure FTP (SFTP), and of course the file system.
New: Map Files Editor
You can now import a .h file in your project through the Import option in the Map Files panel. And you can now easily edit the map id directly inline in the list view: Just click on the map id and type in or change the map id.
New: XML Output
A new output type has been added: XML output. To select the same, simply select a new preset option and select XML output.
New: “See Also” and “Related Topics” sections for your topics
From the authoring interface, you can now easily add “See also” and “Related topics” sections to your topics. To open the “See also” and “Related topics” option, simply open a topic and click on “See also” and “Related Topics” icons in the toolbar.
Once you click on this link, you would add a related topics placeholder.
Use the Properties panel to add the related topic by clicking the + icon and selecting the required topic from the dialog box.
For “See also” you can use the same work-flow. Alternatively, you could also use the “See also” panel on the left side.
New: Fix Broken Links
With Update 4, we have added an easy way to fix broken links in an open topic. You can then point broken links to a different topic or create a new topic.
Enhanced: Topic list
More enhancements have been made in the Topic List. Now the Topic List is a new option in the Autor panel.
Enhanced: Email link editor
Sometimes a full-blown contact form is just sort of “too much” and might be appropriate. Sometimes you just want want to have a small link that your users can click on to create a new Email with their default Email application with an email address predefined and a subject line and some body text already filled in.
Just like this one.
Getting all of this “coded” is not that easy. With the enhanced Link Editor in RoboHelp 2019, Update 4, this has become super easy now. Just click the “Insert Link” icon in the toolbar and create your email link, fill in display text, address, subject line, and the email body content. Click “Link.” That’s it. Easy, isn’t it?
Other enhancements/bug fixes
Apart from the above enhancements, there have been numerous other enhancements such as:
- Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS) – We have made some improvements to our TFS Connector. Now it’s easier to use TFS as a Source Control System. Also, you can now create Team Foundation Server (TFS) connections on French, German, and Japanese Windows platforms as well.
- Define dynamic filters without a group – You can now choose to create dynamic filters without or without a group. You can define dynamic filters without tag groups and drag-and-drop condition tags without associating those to tag groups. You can also change previously defined filters to remove tag groups or add to tag groups.
- Output Presets Toolbar – A new toolbar has been added in Output Presets screen once it is in edit mode. Now you can easily preview and generate the outputs also right from the Output Presets Screen:
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- Easily remove character styles – You can now simply select text and clear formatting of any text within that selection. After selecting the text, you can use an option to remove formatting in the General tab of the Properties panel.
- Apply a new style to consecutive paragraphs – You can now select multiple consecutive paragraphs in the Authoring Editor and apply a new style to all of them in one go.
- The Styles tab in the Topic Properties panel now remembers the last selected state.
- An inserted Snippet now opens for editing on double-click.
And if all of the above would be not enough for a free update just a month after we have released Update 3, we have closed another 20+ bug fixes across RoboHelp 2019 and RoboHelp 2019 Classic with Update 4. Some of the bug fixes reported on the forums that have been addressed are mentioned below.
- Linking FrameMaker 2019 files to RoboHelp Classic 2019 launches FrameMaker 2017: Fixed
- In RoboHelp 2019 Classic, spell check is not working: Fixed
- Output generation fails if a merged project is present in the Table of Contents: Fixed
- Unexpected behavior in style sheets and properties panels when decimal values are used: Fixed
- In the browse sequence editor, undo and redo do not work using Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y keys: Fixed
- In the Word Import Settings dialog box, the Character and Paragraph drop-downs are empty: Fixed
How to get Update 4 of RoboHelp 2019 release
The best way to update Adobe RoboHelp 2019 is to click on Help → Updates to download and install the latest patch. You can also download the installer directly from the RoboHelp Service Releases page.
Found a bug? Want to suggest an improvement? Let us know!
There’s a channel for that: We call it “Adobe Tracker.” Adobe Tracker is your place to go when you find a bug and want to report it to us so that we can fix it in the next update/release. You can also file in your feature requests, ideas, requests for improvements. It’s very easy to do, and the reports go directly into our system, and our product managers, engineers, and support people have direct access to it.
You can report a bug here.