RoboHelp 2019 – Update 7 (May 2019)

This blog post was co-authored with Amitoj Singh, Product Manager for Adobe Technical Communication tools at Adobe.

It’s not even four weeks back, that we have rolled out Update 6 for Adobe RoboHelp (2019 release). Today, we are excited to announce the availability of Update 7.

Cool new feature #1: Command line-based output generation. For the automation fans among you.

Cool enhancement #1: Make editing glossary terms and variable names a smoother experience. For everyone.

And guess what: In the last 26 days since the release of Update 6 we have ironed out 29 bugs, glitches, issues. One per day. Plus three more. Because, who doesn’t like a smooth update? Curious about what exactly we ironed out, smoothed, and polished in the last 26 days? You can satisfy your curiosity with the detailed release notes available here.

And before we dive into it, here is a list of our blogs posts for all Updates we have rolled out since the first release of RoboHelp 2019 in August 2018.

1. RoboHelp 2019 – Update 1
2. RoboHelp 2019 – Update 2
3. RoboHelp 2019 – Update 3
4. RoboHelp 2019 – Update 4
5. RoboHelp 2019 – Update 5
6. RoboHelp 2019 – Update 6

As always, the detailed release notes for all updates are available here.

In this post:

• What’s new and better
  • New: Command line support for output generation
  • New: Rename glossary terms and variables
• Other enhancements
• How to get the update
• Report a bug, file in a feature request

What’s new and better

Let’s go through the list of enhancements and bug fixes, that are part of Update 9. Detailed release notes for this and other previous updates are available here.

Command line support for output generation

One of long pending requests for few months has been command line support for RoboHelp 2019. With Update 7, it is now possible to generate output using RoboHelp in command line mode.

RoboHelp.exe --cl "Input project absolute path" -o "output preset name" -p "output path" -l "log file path"

Here are some more details on each of the parameters for the command line above:

1. The first parameter --cl indicates that RoboHelp.exe would be running in command line mode.
2. The second parameter is the absolute path of the RoboHelp project (.rhpj) file.
3. The third parameter is -o OR --output followed by the preset name in double quotes.
4. The fourth and fifth parameters are optional parameters:
5. The fourth parameter is -p OR --path which is followed by the absolute folder path for output.
6. The fifth parameter is -l OR --log which is the absolute path of the log file with the extension .html.

If a command line parameter has a space, wrap that parameter into double straight quotes ("my parameter"). Well, to make it more easy to remember: Just wrap every path or filename parameter into straight quotes.

Rename glossary terms and variables

You can now edit glossary terms and variable names. RoboHelp (2019 release) with Update 7, updates all references to them wherever they are used in a project, such as topic titles and content, Table of Contents, and output presets.

Other Enhancements and fixes

Apart from command line based output generation, there are many other improvements and bug fixes in Update 7. Some of the fixes are mentioned below:

1. Right-clicking on any item and opening Properties in the Table of Contents resulted in an Application error.
2. Predictive search shows a space for special characters such as “ä.”
3. Moving topics/folders in the Table of Contents resulted in an Application Error.
4. A topic having no tags applied did not go into the published output once a condition build expression was used.
5. When spell checker was ON, RoboHelp always prompted for saving the topic when closing the topic again, even if no changes were made at all.
6. When editing a list and pressing Return twice, most users expected RoboHelp to “end” the list, and create a normal paragraph. However, RoboHelp just continued to add additional list items. We have changed this behavior to match what most users are used to from other applications.
7. [RoboHelp Classic] Issues around large index in Responsive HTML5 output has been fixed.
8. Color changes to the sidebar in Indigo Skin were not getting applied.

You can find the full list of all 29 bug fixes in Update 7 for Adobe RoboHelp 2019 here.

How to get Update 7 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.