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Create and manage a glossary

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Robohelp

Robohelp

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  1. RoboHelp User Guide
  2. Introduction
    1. Get to know RoboHelp workspace
    2. What's new in RoboHelp 2022 release
      1. What's new in Update 5
      2. What's new in Update 4
      3. What's new in Update 3
      4. What's new in Update 2
      5. What's new in Update 1
    3. Fixed Issues in RoboHelp
    4. RoboHelp System Requirements
    5. Download RoboHelp on Windows and macOS
    6. Download and install Adobe app
    7. RoboHelp FAQs
    8. What's new in RoboHelp 2020 release
      1. What's new in Update 8
      2. What's new in Update 7
      3. What's new in Update 6
      4. What's new in Update 5
      5. What's new in Update 4
      6. What's new in Update 3
      7. What's new in Update 2
      8. What's new in Update 1
  3. Projects
    1. Plan your RoboHelp project
    2. Create a project
    3. Manage projects
    4. Work with topics and folders
    5. Generate reports
    6. Work with context-sensitive help
    7. Manage References
    8. Set preferences in RoboHelp
  4. Collaborate with authors
    1. Collaborate using Git
    2. Collaborate using SharePoint Online
    3. Collaborate using Azure DevOps (Team Foundation Server)
  5. PDF Layout
    1. PDF templates
    2. Design a page layout
    3. Publish PDF output
    4. Work with the common content styles
    5. Components of a PDF template
    6. Support for language variables
    7. Customize PDFs
  6. Editing and formatting
    1. Format your content
    2. Create and manage cross-references
    3. Create and manage links
    4. Single-source with snippets
    5. Work with images and multimedia
    6. Create and use variables for easy updates
    7. Work with Variable Sets
    8. Use Find and Replace
    9. Auto save your content
    10. Side-by-side editing in Split View
    11. Use the Spell Check feature
    12. Create and Edit Bookmarks
    13. Insert and update fields
    14. Switch between multiple views
    15. Autonumbering in CSS
  7. Import and linking
    1. Import Markdown files into a project
    2. Import Word documents into a project
    3. Import FrameMaker documents into a project
  8. TOCs, indexes, glossaries, and citations
    1. Create and manage a Table of Contents
    2. Create and manage an index
    3. Create and manage a glossary
    4. Create and manage citations
    5. Create and manage browse sequences
    6. Work with See Also and Related Topics
  9. Conditional content
    1. What is conditional content
    2. Create and apply condition tags
    3. Configure output presets for conditional content
    4. Optimize and manage conditional content
  10. Microcontent
    1. Microcontent
  11. Review and Collaboration
    1. Review and Collaboration
  12. Translation
    1. Translating content to multiple languages
    2. Configure a translation framework for a service provider
  13. Generating output
    1. Generate output
    2. Generate Frameless output
    3. Generate Knowledge Base output
    4. Generate PDF output
    5. Generate Responsive HTML5 output
    6. Generate Word Document output
    7. Generate Content Only output
    8. Generate eBook output
    9. Generate Microsoft HTML Help output
    10. Generate Mobile App output
  14. Publish output
    1. Publish to a RoboHelp Server
    2. Publish to an FTP server, a Secure FTP server, or a File System
    3. Publish to SharePoint Online
    4. Publish to Zendesk Help Center
    5. Publish to Salesforce Knowledge Base
    6. Publish to ServiceNow Knowledge Base
    7. Publish to Zoho Knowledge Base
    8. Publish to Adobe Experience Manager
    9. Publish to Atlassian Confluence Knowledge Base
  15. Appendix
    1. Adobe RoboHelp Scripting Reference
    2. RoboHelp keyboard shortcuts

Learn how to work with a glossary in RoboHelp.

A glossary is a list of terms with their corresponding definitions, just like a dictionary. You can specify the definitions of terms in your project that you think are difficult to understand by your readers. A single glossary file can contain multiple terms and you can have multiple such glossary files in a project. You can decide which glossary file goes into your output, based on your audience.

You can access, add, remove, and edit glossaries from the Glossary panel.

Create a glossary

To create a glossary file for your project in RoboHelp:

  1. In the Author toolbar, select Glossary. You can view the Glossary panel.

  2. In the Glossary panel, click the  icon.

  3. In the Add Glossary dialog box, specify the name of the glossary file in the Name field and click Done.

    You can now view the created glossary file as an expandable list in the Glossary panel. You can create multiple glossary files in a project. However, you can expand only one glossary file at a time by clicking  against it. 

Add terms to a glossary

To add definition terms to a glossary file, follow these steps:

  1. In the Author toolbar, select Glossary. The Glossary panel opens.

  2. In the Glossary panel, click  to expand the glossary file in which you want to add a term.

  3. In the expanded glossary file, click the  icon to add a new term. 

  4. In the Define Glossary Term dialog box, specify the term and its definition in Term and Definiton, respectively.

  5. Click Done.

    You can now find the term and its definition in the expanded view of the selected glossary file.

Edit a glossary term

You can change or edit the definition of a term in your glossary file. To do this:

  1. In the Author toolbar, select Glossary. The Glossary panel opens.

  2. In the Glossary panel, click  to expand a glossary file and hover over the term definition that you want to edit.

  3. Click Edit ().

  4. In the Edit Glossary Term dialog box, you can edit both the Term and Definition.

  5. Click Done.

    The edit is reflected in the glossary file.

Remove a glossary term

To remove a glossary term from a glossary file, follow these steps:

  1. In the Author toolbar, select Glossary. The Glossary panel opens.

  2. In the Glossary panel, click  to expand a glossary file and hover over the term definition that you want to remove.

  3. Click Delete ().

  4. In the Confirm dialog box, click Yes.

    The glossary term is removed from the glossary file.

Rename a glossary

You can rename a glossary file in the Glossary panel in RoboHelp. To do this:

  1. In the Author toolbar, select Glossary. The Glossary panel opens.

  2. In the Glossary panel, against the glossary that you want to rename, choose Options () > Rename.

  3. In the Rename Glossary dialog box, specify the new name and click Done.

Note:

If you rename any glossary term, RoboHelp simultaneously updates all references in the Topic content.

Delete a glossary

You can delete a glossary file from the Glossary panel in RoboHelp. To do this:

  1. In the Author toolbar, select Glossary. The Glossary panel opens.

  2. In the Glossary panel, against the glossary file that you want to delete, choose Options () > Delete.

  3. In the Confirm dialog box, click Yes to confirm the deletion.

Import a Glossary

You can import a glossary to your project from the Glossary panel in RoboHelp.

  1. In the Author toolbar, select Glossary. The Glossary panel opens.

  2. In the Glossary panel, click the  icon to add a new glossary file or, select an existing glossary.

  3. Choose Options () > Import against the glossary file (.GLO) in which you want to import the glossary.

  4. The Import Glossary dialog box opens. Click  to browse and select the .GLO file you want to import.

    An illustration of how to import Glossary (.GLO) file
    An illustration of how to import Glossary (.GLO) file

  5. For definitions in the external glossary to overwrite matching terms, select Replace existing glossary definitions. Unselect the check box to leave existing definitions in an existing glossary.

  6. Select one or more terms in the Terms in Imported Glossary list, and then click Done.

Note:

A .GLO file stores glossary terms created in the Adobe RoboHelp.

You can import glossary to your project from any glossary file (*.GLO) in RoboHelp Reimagined and RoboHelp Classic projects.

Export a Glossary

You can export a glossary to your project from the Glossary panel in RoboHelp.

  1. Select the Glossary panel and choose the glossary file (.GLO) you would like to export.

  2. With File Explorer open, select the location to browse to the folder where you want to export the glossary file. 

  3. Your glossary file is exported and saved as a .GLO file at the specified location.

Add a glossary term's definition in a topic

You can easily add a glossary term and its definition in the content of a desired topic. The term is then highlighted as a hyperlink in your topic. When you generate the output, your reader can click the term to view its specified definition, which displays as expanding text. To add a glossary term definiton in a topic, follow these steps:

  1. In the Author toolbar, select Contents and open your desired topic.

  2. In the Author toolbar, click Glossary. The Glossary panel opens with all glossary files.

  3. Click  to expand the glossary file from which you want to add a term's definition.

  4. Drag-and-drop a glossary term to an appropriate location in your open topic.

    The term is highlighted as a hyperlink. In the project's output, a reader can click the highlighted term to view its definition. See Generate output for details on how to publish a project.

Use a desired glossary file in your output

Out of the several glossary files that you've created in a project, you can use one in your output. To specify which glossary goes into your output, follow these steps:

  1. Click the Output tab at the left side of the Standard toolbar.

    The Output view opens.

  2. In the Output toolbar, click Output Presets. 

  3. In the Output Presets panel, select your desired output preset from the given options. You can choose from output presets options such as Responsive HTML5, Mobile App, Microsoft HTML Help, and Content Only.

  4. Select the Content tab.

  5. In the Glossary field, select your desired glossary file from the drop-down list.

    The selected glossary file is then included in your output. See Generate output for details on how to generate the output.

    Note:

    For PDF and Word Document outputs, the Glossary file is included in the back matter of a Book TOC. Ensure to select the Book TOC containing the Glossary file while configuring the output preset. To add a glossary file in a Book TOC, see Insert Back Matter. 

Search and preview a glossary item

In the Glossary panel, quickly search for a glossary term in the search field. It searches both the glossary term and its definition.

Right-click any term in the result and click Preview. This launches a pop-up with the preview of the definition.

Preview a glossary item
Preview a glossary item

The video below demonstrates the entire workflow.

Glossary search and preview
Glossary search and preview

Glossary hotspot tool

Users often need to associate the terms in the topic with the glossary term so that they can interact with the glossary definition when viewing an output. One way to create these interactions is uning a Glossary hotspot tool. The tool highlights a specified glossary term so that when you hover and click the term, the definition appears on screen.

The tool enables you in marking or unmarking terms in the topic with glossary terms.

Add text to glossary term

To add text to a glossary term, perform the following steps:

  1. Launch the topic or topics in the Topic Editor. You will mark the terms in the topics that match the terms in the Glossary. For example, in the topic variables.html, you will mark the entry Variables with the corresponding term in the Glossary. You can mark the terms across multiple topics.

  2. From the Author panel, launch Glossary.

    Glossary
    Glossary

  3. To launch the Glossary Hotspot, click the button, as shown below.

    Glossary Hotspot button
    Glossary Hotspot button

  4. In the Glossary Hotspot tool, you can see the following options:

    • Glossary: Select the glossary that you had created for the project.
    • Terms: Select the glossary term or terms that you want highlighted in a topic or multiple topics.
    • Topics: 
      • Current Topic: The term or terms will get converted in the topic, which is currently being worked on.
      • Opened Topics: The term or terms will get converted in all topics that are opened.
      • All Topics: The term or terms will get converted in all the topics of the project.
    • Filter Topics by Status: Cascade the changes to topics that have the status Complete, In Draft, In Progress, and so on.
    • Action: 
      • Manually for each topic: If you select this option, you must select the terms for each topic manually.
      • Automatically for all topics: If you select this option, all terms are applied automatically by RoboHelp. There is no manual intervention.
    • Convert:
      • Text to glossary term: If you choose this option, all selected terms get converted to glossary terms in a topic or across multiple topics.
      • Glossary term to text: If you choose this option,  the glossary terms in a topic or in multiple topics get converted to plain text. This undoes the action above.
    • Options:
      • Case-sensitive match: If you disable this option, the tool ignores cases when marking the terms. For example, in this case, the tool will not differentiate between snippets and Snippets.
      • Convert only the first instance: If you select this option, the tool only marks the term that appears first in a topic. All other occurrences of the term will be ignored. If the glossary term is already present, then the tool skips the term.

    Select the glossary terms and choose the other options as needed.

    Options in the Glossary Hotspot tool
    Options in the Glossary Hotspot tool

  5. Click Next. Select the terms for the topic or other topics.

    Select terms
    Select terms

  6. Click Convert. The term converts to a glossary hotspot.

The gif below demonstrates the workflow.

Convert glossary term to text

To convert a glossary term back to text, perform the following steps:

  1. In the Glossary Hotspot tool, select the glossary terms that you want to convert to text.

  2. In the Convert section, select the option, Glossary term to text.

  3. Click Next.

  4. Select the term or terms. Click Convert. The selected terms get converted to text in the topic or topics.

The gif below demonstrates the workflow.

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