RoboHelp 2019 – Update 9 (September 2019)

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

After the successful roll-out of Update 8 for RoboHelp (2019 release) in July where we introduced a new “frameless” layout and a new skin, introduced support for JavaScript-based Scripting, and a completely revamped “Special Characters/Symbols” browser, we are excited to introduce two new features with Update 9.

However, before we go into the details of Update 9, here is a list of our blogs posts for all Updates since the first release of the next-generation Adobe RoboHelp (2019 release) 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
7. RoboHelp 2019 – Update 7
8. RoboHelp 2019 – Update 8

In this post

• What’s new and better
  • New: Microsoft Word DOCX Output
  • NEW: Global Find and Replace Panel
  • NEW: Frameless skin “Oceanic”
• Other Enhancements/Changes/Fixes
• 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.

NEW: Microsoft Word DOCX Output

With Update 9, users can generate word output (.docx) format of their project. In the Output preset, click on the + sign to add a Word Output preset and then edit the output settings for same.

There are granular options when generating Word output that you can set in the Word option in the Output preset. Some of those being:

1. You can specify your own Microsoft Word DOCX template file.
2. You can map styles from RoboHelp to Word based on the styles in the DOCX template file.
3. You can specify a CSS to override the style mapping when creating the Word output.

And here comes the best: You do not even need to have Microsoft Word installed to generate a Word DOCX output with RoboHelp (2019 release).

NEW: Global Find and Replace Panel

One of the asked features from many users has been the Global Find and Replace. With Update 9, the same is now available in the Author tab. At the bottom left corner, there is a “Find and Replace,” which opens the panel for the same.

Some of the salient features for the new find and replace are:

• Ability to find text across all files in the project
• Multiple options when finding the content such as Match case, Match whole word, find in source view to name a few
• Ability to use regular expressions across find & replace
• Option to filter file types while searching (Topic, Styles, Master pages, etc.)
• Replace searched word with text specified
• Granular settings for replacing such as “Open file before replacing”, “Backup modified files” to name a few

NEW: Frameless skin “Oceanic”

In Update 8, we introduced the new responsive HTML5 and Layout “Frameless,” which came with two skins: “Dark” and “Orange.” With Update 9, we have added another new skin called “Oceanic.”

Let us know in the comments below which skin you like most.

Other Enhancements/Changes/Fixes

Some of the other enhancements and fixes that are part of Update 9:

1. [Enhancement] Option to specify search highlight color in new frameless skin
2. [Enhancement] Easily change the table and column widths using the mouse
3. [Enhancement] Capability to remove the applied font
4. [Fixes] Issues with UTF-8 characters with the new Frameless Output on Microsoft Edge
5. [Fixes] Table of Content doesn’t synchronize in merged outputs for IE11
6. [Fixes] Breadcrumb order now follows TOC hierarchy in Frameless Output
7. [Fixes] Search finds wrong results in specific cases
8. [Fixes] Failed to generate Responsive HTML5 when a Favicon is defined
9. [Fixes] Index not sorted correctly with Responsive HTML5 Output
10. [Fixes] Few localization-related fixes

And that is not all. There are many other fixes and smaller enhancements. For details, please visit the release notes page.

How to get Update 9 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.

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.