Adobe RoboHelp: Merging Responsive HTML5 Help
Merging Resposive HTML5 works the same as merging WebHelp. It is as easy as creating a master project, child projects, linking the child projects and publishing. When compared to WebHelp, there is just one thing to be aware of: publishing.
What is merged help?
With merged Multiscreen HTML5 you present the output from multiple RoboHelp projects as a single output. The table of contents, index, glossary and search are all unified.
Merging can be very useful. Peter Grainge’s article The Reasons for Merging Help list the most important reasons.
Create a merged project
Creating a merged project for Responsive HTML5 is exactly the same as creating a merged project for WebHelp. The only difference is generating your project. If you want to know how to create a merged project, create links between projects and more, see Peter Grainge’s article Merging Help.
Generating your merged project
The folder structure of the output places all the merged child projects within a folder mergedProjects.
In the image you see the main output folder Merging HTML5. The folder mergedProjects contains a folder for every child project of the master project. The entire output from the child projects is placed in the correct folder.
Note: To create merged Responsive HTML5, first generate your master project. Then you must generate each child project directly in the correct child folder. Creating the output of the child project and then copy/pasting it into the correct child project will not work.
Once you generated the master project and all child projects, your merged Responsive HTML5 help is ready to use.
Note: Use the same Layout for the master project and all child projects. If you use different layouts, switching to a topic in a different project will change the formatting of the output for the user.
Merging other outputs
If you want to merge other outputs, take a look at the following pages:
JP Sanguancheu
Hi William.
I got a 404 error when I clicked on the link to Peter’s Merging Help article.
The link to the article needs to be updated. It is now: http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/merging_webhelp/merging_method_webhelp.htm
Willam van Weelden
Thanks for the notice! I updated the links in the article.
Mark Molloy
Dear William,
1. Does the master have to be in the mergedProjects folder? I have used Peter Grainge’s Merged WebHelp for a decade or more and I have generated the master into a different folder than the children. It works just fine. When creating Responsive HTML5 I have been successful in the TOC merging, but not search or index. Following your example above, should the master be generated to ResponsiveMerged\mergedProjects or can it be somewhere else, such as ResponsiveMerged? The children would be in their respective folders under mergedProject.
2. Does the use of a forward slash (/) make a difference in the Output Path? I have used / for decades. should I be using back slash (\) instead?
Thank you.
Mark
Willam van Weelden
Hi Mark,
Peter’s reference is still the go to. And many of the best practices that apply to WebHelp also apply to Responsive HTML5.
The master project can be anywhere. As long as the children are located in/mergedProjects.
I have found that the use of special characters (&, >) in the name of your index may break the merging process. Could that be an issue?
The slash doesn’t matter for your output path. To windows, the / and \ are equivalent. For a browser, it’s always /. But for generating the help that doesn’t matter.