Create a project

The basic element of your content structure in RoboHelp. A topic can contain text, multimedia such as images and videos, navigation links, and more. When you plan a topic, make sure that it is easy to consume and reuse. Avoid creating topics that are very long or very short.

From the Author toolbar, click the Contents icon to work with topics. For more information, see Work with topics and folders.

The components that help you organize the contents of your project. You can create folders and subfolders to organize topics and assets, such as images, videos, and style sheets.

From the Author toolbar, click the Contents icon to create, rename, or delete folders and subfolders. For more information, see Work with topics and folders. 

Graphics, audio, video, animation, and other audiovisual assets that you can add to a topic to enhance your content.

In an open topic, you can find the Insert Image and Insert Multimedia icons in the toolbar on top of the authoring area. For more information, see Work with image and multimedia content.

A TOC helps present a hierarchical outline of the content in a Help system. During authoring, you can browse the TOC and select folders or topics to view and edit. In the published output, end users can use the TOC to quickly view the scope and coverage of content in the Help system. A TOC also allows the end user to quickly jump to a topic of choice.

From the Author toolbar, click the Table of Contents icon to work with TOC. For more information, see Create and manage a Table of Contents.

Allows the end user to navigate through a Help system using keywords or phrases that you've specified. These keywords or phrases require to be associated with specific topics. An index can include multiple levels of keywords and cross-references to other keywords.  

From the Author toolbar, click the Index icon to work with indexes. For more information, see Create and manage an index.

Displays the list of definitions for terms or phrases in a Help system. You can filter glossary terms with the help of conditions, link to a glossary file external to the project, and maintain multiple glossary files in a Help system. 

From the Author toolbar, click the Glossary icon to work with glossaries. For more information, see Create and manage a glossary.

Allow you to define subsets of content and generate multiple Help systems from the same project. Condition tags help you manage your content for different needs, such as different target audiences and delivery formats.

From the Author toolbar, click the Condition Tags icon to work with condition tags. For more information, see What is conditional content.

Allow you to store text or a phrase that you can update in one place but use in many places across the project. Variables help you make quick global updates and ensure consistency. A good use case of variables is to store information such as product names and release dates. 

From the Author tab, click the Variables icon to work with variables. For more information, see Create and use variables for easy updates.

Allow you to create and manage reusable content. Global snippets help you to identify content and replace it across several topics in a single step, which saves time and facilitates efficient content changes. 

From the Author toolbar, click the Snippets icon to work with snippets. For more information, see Single-source with snippets.

A browse sequence is a linear list of files that helps you logically navigate to the next relevant topic. You can add, edit, and delete browse sequences. In a browse sequence, you can drag and drop topics from the Contents panel and TOC, change the sequence of topics, and delete topics. 

From the Author toolbar, click the Browse Sequences icon to work with browse sequences. For more information, see Create and manage browse sequences.

You can generate various reports using the Reports icon on the Author toolbar. You can then view and share reports of broken links, unused files, missing topics, and more.

From the Author toolbar, click the Reports icon to work with reports. For more information, see Generate Reports.

Allow you to define your preferred output format and content layout. You can also assign search-related settings for your output, such as Enable autocorrect in search box, Show definitions from the glossary, and more. 

From the Output toolbar, click the Output Presets icon to work with output presets. For more information, see Generate output.

Allow you to define the appearance of your HTML output. Just as a website template comes with a unique appearance, a RoboHelp skin can add a unique appearance to your output. You can add a logo, choose the color of borders and headings, and do more to make your output look good. You can preview the output in a skin of your choice. 

From the Output toolbar, click the Skins icon to work with skins. For more information, see Work with skins.

Allow you to edit and delete language-specific labels, and undo or redo the edits. You can also export language wise labels as XML for localization, and import a translated copy for a specific language.

From the Output toolbar, click the Labels icon to work with labels.

Variable sets

Variable sets lets you define a different set of values for your variables. A variable set enables you to customize variables for a specific output by overriding the values of the variables. In a newly created variable set, all the variables from the project are listed. From this list, you can override the values of the variables that you want to customize for a specific output. You can create different variable sets as per your requirement. When you generate the output, you choose the appropriate variable set, and produce the required output.

From the Author tab, click the Variables icon to work with variable sets. For more information, see Variable sets.

A condition expression controls the inclusion of tagged source content or its exclusion from the output. Depending on the condition tags used in an expression, the corresponding source content is included in the output. You can define various tag combinations in the expression using OR, AND, and NOT operators to customize the inclusion or exclusion of content in the output. Condition expressions are not published along with the source content and do not appear in the output.

From the Output toolbar, click the Condition Expressions icon to work with condition expressions. For more information, see Configure condition expressions and dynamic content filters.

A dynamic content filter controls the display of content in the output. Add a dynamic content filter and then customize it by adding condition tags. The filters are published along with the tagged source content. From the published filters displayed in the output, your end-users can select specific filters to view selective content and hide the rest of the content. Dynamic content filters facilitate quick retrieval and consumption of specific information, instead of having to go through the entire published content. 

From the Output toolbar, click the Dynamic Content Filters icon to work with dynamic content filters. For more information, see Configure condition expressions and dynamic content filters.

Stop words add common (minor) words, such as “a” or “the” in the stop list file. During the search, RoboHelp ignores the words listed in the stop list file to display optimal and relevant search results. You can add, edit, and delete stop words for different languages. RoboHelp creates a stop list file for each language, for example, English (US).stp.

From the Output toolbar, click the Stop Words icon to work with stop words. 

You can define multiple synonyms for a word to allow for variations in search terminologies. For example, you can define "cursor," "pointer," and "mouse" as synonymous terms. If the search term is "mouse," RoboHelp returns all topics containing the word "cursor," with that term highlighted. You can add, edit, and delete synonyms for different languages. RoboHelp creates a synonyms file for each language, for example, English (US).syn.

From the Output toolbar, click the Synonyms icon to work with synonyms. 

Stores styles are defined to control the appearance of your content. Instead of formatting content locally, create styles for different elements of your content (for example, the different heading levels) and apply a style sheet at a project- or topic-level.

To apply a style sheet provided by RoboHelp to an open topic, go to the Properties panel > Topic tab > Style Sheets.