The RoboColum(n)

The arrival of RoboHelp 7 saw the underlying code completely rewritten. Out went the dreaded KADOV tags and other messy looking HTML. RoboHelp 8 takes things one step further with the arrival of XTHML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language) topic files and project files in XML.

What this all means is that the underlying code in RoboHelp is well written making it much easier to read and follow. The code also contains closed tags, no overlapping tags, properly quoted attributes with explicit values and no proprietary attributes.

But why does this matter. RoboHelp has a WYSIWYG and this is the default editor of choice for most documentation professionals. That’s true and that is what makes RoboHelp one of the quickest and easiest tools to learn. If you can use Word, you can create a topic in RoboHelp with little instruction. So if you only intend creating topics in RoboHelp with little interaction with outside products, then you will rarely, if ever, need to go over to the dark side.

But say you want to push the boundaries of what the WYSIWYG can do. Perhaps add a redirect topic or a simple piece of JavaScript to add a Print button. Maybe you are just curious of what is happening in your name under the hood. It is easy to find out. Recent versions offer the “HTML” tab on each topic whilst older versions used the optimistically named “Truecode” tab. Whatever your reason for wanting to get more adventurous, a whole new world of opportunity opens up.

This is a real bonus for those of us who have to look under the hood is that it increases productivity. It should also encourage those of you who don’t know HTML, XHTML or XML to look at it as it appears far less scary.