Adobe RoboHelp: Enable Pinch to Zoom in Android App

Since RoboHelp 10 you can create native Android apps directly from RoboHelp. This option packages a Multiscreen HTML5 output or a Responsive HTML5 output into a native app. You can install this app and view your content offline on any Android device. It was however not possible to zoom in on the content in apps generated by RoboHelp.

Many thanks to Adobe for helping finding out the cause of the problem and for helping implementing a solution.

In order to enable pinch to zoom in Android apps generated by RoboHelp, you need to update one of the RoboHelp installation files. Here is how to enable pinch to zoom. This method works for both RoboHelp 10 and RoboHelp 11.

Download the updated DefaultActivity.java file

1. Download the updated DefaultActivity.java file.
2. On your computer, go to the folder: %RH installation directory%/RoboHTML\MultiscreenExt\NativeApps\Android\PhoneGapApp
3. Open the zip file. Extract the file DefaultActivity.java from the folder zoom into the RoboHelp directory.
4. Generate your mobile app using RoboHelp.

Your app now supports pinch to zoom. Note that if you want to disable pinch to zoom, you must restore the original DefaultActivity.java. The original file is located in the folder nozoom in the zip.