RoboHelp 10 - User Defined Variable Changes

Now you can apply UDVs to Topic Titles, TOC Books and Pages, Index terms. This will be of particular interesting to anyone whose projects have to be localised.

Previously when the user searched, they were given the topic title in the original language. Now that can be a UDV with a value for each language required.

It will also be greatly used where different branding has be applied to essentially the same product.

To add a UDV to the Topic Title you access the Topic Properties, place the cursor where you want the UDV, select the required UDV from the dropdown and click Insert.

For TOC and Index entries, add a new entry in the usual way and then right click to access its properties. The procedure is then the same as above.

You can replace the entry with nothing but a UDV or combination of UDVs.

Don't mix up Topic Titles (as applied in Topic Properties) and the Topic Heading you see at the top of your topics. The default heading is the Topic Title but they can be changed independently.

Comment

At first glance this may seem to be a small change but I think it will make a huge difference to a lot of RoboHelp users. A very welcome improvement.

Unfortunately it is spoiled in the Topic List and the TOC. You can add a column to show whether or not the Topic Title contains a UDV but you cannot tell from the title which part is the UDV. Take the example of a topic titled Peter's Orange Juice.

• Is Peter the variable because the help is customised for different retailers?
• Is Orange the variable because different flavours are sold?
• Is Juice the variable because the company also produces squash?

<RetailerName> Orange <Product> would be so much clearer.

It's the same with the Table of Contents where you have to access the Topic Properties to find out if a variable is used.