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Generate Word Document output

Last updated on Nov 30, 2023

Robohelp

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Learn how to generate Word Document output in RoboHelp.

What is Word Document output

The Word Document output describes specifics of exporting a generated RoboHelp project to the DOCX format.

Note:

Adobe RoboHelp does not require Microsoft Word installed on your machine to generate Word Document output.

Configure a Word Document preset

The first step in generating the Word Document output of a RoboHelp project is to create an output preset and then configure the various settings of the output preset. You can use the following parameters to configure a Word Document preset:

General

Use the following options to specify basic output settings, such as title, output path, language of UI strings, and more.

Output Path Specify a location for the output. To select a location, click .

Ensure that the output path is NOT located inside the project folder. If the output path is inside the project folder, the output generation fails. Also, the folder you select should NOT have any content that you need. RoboHelp deletes the contents of the folder before generating the output.

Save output path as relative to project: If enabled and you browse to the output path., the path to the output will now be a relative instead of absolute.

Word File Specify the name of the output file to be generated.

Language Use the drop-down list to specify a language for the titles of Index, Glossary, and Table of Contents in your output. Specify this setting if you want to change the language specified in project settings.

Post Generation Script To run your custom script after output generation, select the script .js file from the drop-down list. The .js files displayed in the list are from the Scripting folder of your RoboHelp app data.

Content

Use the following options to specify content-related output settings, such as the settings for Table of Contents, referenced topics, condition expression, variable set, and including expanding and drop-down text.

Table Of Contents Use the drop-down list to select a Table of Contents to be included in the output. This drop-down list displays the Tables of Contents available in your project. The first Table of Contents in this drop-down list is selected by default.

The set of files and their references present in the selected Table of Contents appear in the generated output.

Include All Referenced Topics Includes topics that are not part of the Table of Contents but are referenced from topics in the Table of Contents. Deselect this option to exclude the referenced topics in your Word Document output.

Condition Expression Use the drop-down list to specify the condition expression for your output. This setting allows you to easily include or exclude content depending on the desired type of output or user base. Click to edit the selected condition expression. You can also select None in the drop-down list to not specify any condition expression.

Variable Set Use the drop-down list to specify the variable set to use in this output. In the drop-down list, you can select <Default Variable Set> to use the project's default variable set. Variable sets allow you to implement output-specific use of variables. For example, you can have different variable sets for generating output for customers and internal users.

Include Expanding Text Select this option to include Expanding Text in your Word Document output; otherwise, only the Expanding Title goes into the output. However, the Expanding Text will be shown in the expanded form in the generated PDF.

Include Drop-down Text Select this option to include Drop-down Text in your Word Document output; otherwise, only the Drop-down Title goes into the output. However, the Drop-down text will be displayed in the generated PDF.

Metadata

The metadata options such as title, author, subject, and keywords selected during the TOC creation get embedded in the final Word output.

Title Specify the title for the generated output.

You can use variables in the title. To do so, press Ctrl + 1 and select a variable from the drop-down list, and then press Enter. Note that if you have provided a variable set in the Content tab > Variable Set field, during output generation, the value of the selected variable is picked from the variable set.

Author Specify the name of the author of the topic.

Subject Specify the description of the topic.

Keywords Specify a list of keywords relevant to your topic. This is useful for narrowing searches.

Layout

Use the option to configure the appearance of your output.

Template: Select a template from the dropdown list that you want to apply to the preset.

After selecting the template, Templates from the left panel, and select the template. You can see the following options:

General

Start each topic on a new page: When enabled, every topic starts at a new page in the Word output.

TOC Structure: With this option selected, the structure of the generated TOC is based on the heading styles, which by default is applied to heading 1. You can limit the number of levels shown in the generated TOC by adding the heading levels from heading 1 through heading 6.

Page Layouts

A Word document typically contains the following sections:

Chapters and topics
TOC
Index
Glossary
Back and cover pages

These sections would need a corresponding page layout to present the information in a specific format. In addition, you can also have a blank page that is used as a filler to start a new chapter from an odd or even page. In that case, you can either use the default page layout or create a page layout for a blank page.

The Page Layouts settings under the Template > Settings section allow you to define which page layout is to be used for different sections of your PDF. Each page layout can further have different first, right, or left page variants.

Word

With the style-mapping feature included in the Word Document output, users can map the format available in the selected Word Document or template.

Word template Specify the particular Word Document or template to map any RoboHelp style to Word style. To do this, click the icon, select your Word Document or template.

Style Mapping By default, RoboHelp uses the styles specified in the selected word template. This section lists the in-built Character Styles, Paragraph Styles, and Table styles from the CSS files (used in the TOC Topics) on the left, and the map-to styles from the word template on the right. You have the option to either

Use RoboHelp styles in the output Word Document.
Discard RoboHelp styles and use default Word styles, or
Map to any Word style from the template selected for mapping.

If you do not select any word template, only two options are displayed under Word Output - Use RoboHelp style and Discard style.

Note:

If you select a Word Document or template, the header and footer settings from the chosen template are applied in your output.

Preview The preview section shows the preview of both the styles, allowing the content to be viewed in advance.

style mapping

When generating a Microsoft Word output, it is important that the various paragraph, character, and table styles are mapped correctly.

You can map RoboHelp table styles when generating an output in Microsoft Word.

You can control the table styles when generating Word output. In the Table tab of the style mapping dialog, you can view the list of RoboHelp tables and the list of tables from the Word templates to map to. For every table style in RoboHelp you can choose to keep RoboHelp style, use default table style of Word or map to any Word table style.

You can also see a preview of the RoboHelp table.

Publish

You can publish your output to FTP, SFTP, or File System. To be able to publish your output, first configure a publish profile for the appropriate server type. For more information, see Configure a publish profile for FTP, SFTP, or File System.

After you save the publish profile, RoboHelp displays the profile in the Publish tab. To publish your output, select the appropriate publish profiles and click .

By default, only modified files are published using the chosen publish profiles since the last publish.

To publish all files, select Republish All and click . To view the publish log, in the Output Presets panel, against the appropriate output preset, choose > View Publish Log.

Generate Word output

In the authoring window of your project, click the Quick Generate icon in the upper-right corner of the standard toolbar.
Select a Word output preset in the Quick Generate dialog box.
To configure the settings, do one of the following:
- Click the Edit Settings icon in the Quick Generate dialog box.
- Click the Output tab at the left side of the Standard toolbar.
The Output view opens.
In the Output toolbar, click Output Presets. In the Output Presets panel, do one of the following:
- Double-click the desired Word output preset.
- Click the icon next to the desired output preset and select Edit.
See Configure a Word output preset to configure the output settings.
To save your settings, click the Save icon in the upper-left corner of the standard toolbar in the Output view.
Click the Generate Preset icon  in the Output Presets panel.

You can then view a progress bar next to the selected output preset in the Output Presets panel. Once the output generation is complete, a Success dialog box is visible at the lower-right corner of the screen.

After the output generation is complete, click  in the Output Presets panel to view the output.

Note:

Alternatively, you can generate the output in the authoring window. Click Quick Generate  on the toolbar, select the desired output preset, and click Generate.

You can then view a progress bar in the Quick Generate dialog box. After the output generation is complete, click  next to the output preset to view the output. In case the output generation failed, click  next to the selected output preset to view the error log.