Went Down a RoboHelp Rabbit Hole and Came up with This Playlist

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https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJL3v-Ayk9rQblT7RHTx3ooh60sFph9h8 - Adobe RoboHelp Essentials

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These are the Top 30 Labels on this Blog as of Today

I felt I needed to include RoboHelp with 193 posts using that label because it is within 10 of my 200 post threshold.

1. Videos (3273)
2. youtube (2109)
3. Metallica (1168)
4. Politics (994)
5. Work (973)
6. Republican Tendencies (917)
7. drums (861)
8. Technical Writing (829)
9. Pro Wrestling (798)
10. WWE (668)
11. Busy Life (556)
12. Concerts (491)
13. Funny Stuff (486)
14. Movies (477)
15. Iowa Hawkeyes (451)
16. Writing (441)
17. Music (399)
18. MS Word (360)
19. playing drums (345)
20. Star Wars (327)
21. basketball (310)
22. Conversion Projects (303)
23. 2018-Posts from Phone (279)
24. heavy metal (269)
25. youtube-prowrestling (257)
26. Bayside (245)
27. The Walking Dead (245)
28. News of the World (214)
29. youtube-music (211)
30. youtube-Metallica (202)
31. RoboHelp (193)

Snapshot of My Work

Today, I am a Senior Technical Writer. My employer needed Disaster Recovery Documentation and on this day, in 2016, I started this job! I have been in this role for 3287 days (9 years). I am now 9 years beyond my Job Search 2016!

When I come to work, I log into my laptop which is connected to 3 monitors. If I open the lid of my laptop, I can actually use that screen as well. The first task I complete is to open a DOS batch file, located in the C:\RH folder which includes the commands necessary to back up my main RoboHelp DR-Doc project to the S:\Technical Documentation\_Storage folder, where my backups are stored in a folder structure by Year -> Month -> Day, which I prune in December. 

The DOS batch file copies all of the Microsoft Word templates in my C:\Users\prhanson\Desktop\Templates in the RH folder. 

I also store other projects in the C:\RH folder:

"C:\RH\20240830-MappingWordStyles"
"C:\RH\Dr-Doc"
"C:\RH\Dr-Doc-20250128"
"C:\RH\DR-Doc-20250303"
"C:\RH\DR-Doc-20250324"
"C:\RH\ESC"
"C:\RH\MappingWordStyles" 

When I select the folders in the C:\RH folder and then right-click to view Properties, this is my result:

Old Dog Meets a New Word and is Better for Expanding

Typically, when I see a mistake in someone else's writing, it is a typo or using "its" when the writer meant "it's" in their sentence. Such mistakes are also single offenders. However, this morning, on a Monday, I saw this article - The 25 worst cover songs of all time, ranked -- Artists like Madonna, Britney Spears, and David Bowie are among the big names who've turned beloved classics into mangled monstrosities -- By Stephen Thomas Erlewine--Published-Wednesday 8:00AM.Not only did I see a typo, but I also increased my vocabulary by one word. I used italics to indicate the error and bold to indicate the new word that I added to my vocabulary.:

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Whatever the reason for the failings by these artists, there’s no disputing that the original songs remain beloved, which is why brutally bad updates can be so difficult to swallow. This list of the 25 worst cover songs, like our look at the 25 best cover songs of all time, doesn’t pretend be comprehensive. Still, as we surveyed the last five decades of pop and rock music, we’ve done our best to corral the truly awful covers and order them in a way that metes out some semblance of order, if not justice.

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Notice that the Published date is "Wednesday" which I presume is 11-08-2023. Today is Monday, 11-13-2023, which means the following typos have existed for 5 days and either no one has informed the author. The first mistake is that "doesn't pretend be comprehensive" is missing the word "to" in the sentence. The sentence should be: "doesn't pretend to be comprehensive." The word I added to my vocabulary is mete, which I initially believed was a typo. However, mete is a word and this is the definition I found through the Internet:

to give out by measure : dole out. She realized the stern retribution which justice metes to the murderer.
Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mete

I now feel like I have learned today - can I go home now? [GRIN]

I do not want to go home. I am re-linking shell Word files for the P4 applications in our CMDB in my RoboHelp 2015 project for the Disaster Recovery documentation. Yes, MRDR--Mister Disaster Recovery Documentation (tm) is still working with RoboHelp 2015, not RoboHelp 2022. Perhaps that would be worth a blog post to freeze this moment at work?

Zipping files with 7z.exe

I continue to work on the Disaster Recovery documentation at work. For future reference, this is the DOS batch file I run each morning to back up my RoboHelp projects that reside in my c:\rh folder. I reduced the font size to avoid ugly line breaks - you are welcome! <grin>

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cd\
c:
cd rh
REM | BROKEN COMMAND: for /d %%X in (*) do "I:\7-Zip-Command-Line\7za.exe" a "%%X.zip" "%%X\" -mx=5
REM | BROKEN Command: for /d %%X in (*) do "f:\7-Zip-Command-Line\7za.exe" a "%%X.zip" "%%X\" -mx=5
REM | BROKEN Command below this line:
REM | for /d %X in (*) do "c:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" a "%X.zip" "%X\"
for /d %%X in (*) do "c:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" a "%%X.zip" "%%X\" -mx=5 –tzip
SET %Today%=%Date:~10,4%_%Date:~4,2%_%Date:~7,2%
ren dr-doc.zip %TODAY%_H-rh-dr-doc_Dr-doc.zip
md "s:\technical documentation\_storage\2023\%TODAY%"
move *.zip "s:\technical documentation\_storage\2023\%TODAY%"
cd\
c:
cd rh-2022
REM | BROKEN Command: for /d %%X in (*) do "f:\7-Zip-Command-Line\7za.exe" a "%%X.zip" "%%X\" -mx=5
REM | UNBROKEN Command below this line:
for /d %%X in (*) do "c:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" a "%%X.zip" "%%X\" -mx=5 –tzip
ren dr-doc_rh2022.zip %TODAY%_dr-doc_rh2022.zip
move *.zip "s:\technical documentation\_storage\2023\%TODAY%"
pause
md "s:\technical documentation\_storage\2023\%TODAY%\Templates"
cd\
c:
xcopy c:\Users\prhanson\Desktop\Templates\*.* /s "s:\technical documentation\_storage\2023\%TODAY%\Templates"

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There was a period in time where my DOS batch file was not functioning correctly so I used the following resource to correct it:

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https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34602813/zipping-files-with-7z-exe - Zipping files with 7z.exe

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How did the 2018-19 Season Go?

I wrote this post on Thursday, 9/20/2018, with 1 month, 2 weeks, and 1 day (45 days) until the 2018-2019 season begins. There's a lot of anticipation in light of the previous disappointing season. The reason for this post is to revisit this article, published 5 years ago today:

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Can Iowa Reverse Its Recent Tailspin With Fran McCaffery? 14 comments Can the Hawkeyes get back on track after two rough years? By Thomas Beindit@tbeindit May 9, 2018, 9:43am CDT

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How brave do I feel? Well, I predict the following 10 things:

1. Every player mentioned in the above article is likely to have graduated and to have moved on to the next phase in their lives and, to them, I hope they are doing well
2. Coach Fran McCaffery will still be the Iowa men's basketball coach. The only way that prediction is true is if Coach has led the team over the 4 years, 7 months, 2 weeks, 5 days (1692 days) since I wrote these words.
3. I work at the University of Iowa as a Senior Technical Writer - it will be my 2598th day (7 years, 1 month, 1 week, 4 days) in HCIS (though it could be called something different 5 years from now).
4. I am not using RoboHelp 2015 to do my work
5. Spit Out the Bone is regarded as a requirement on the Metallica setlist.
6. https://hcis.healthcare.uiowa.edu/ exists and is used daily. There is a Knowledge Repository.
7. I still adore Anthony Raneri?
8. Brett Kavanaugh is on the Supreme Court, despite https://freebeacon.com/blog/brett-kavanaugh-found-guilty-proven-innocent , which includes this gem:
   
9. No, like really, I still adore AR! Five years ago, there were 125,501 views for this video.
10. This was not my most recent Metallica concert:

This Would be Interesting

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Job highlights
17 days ago
40–90 an hour
Work from home
Contractor

Identified by Google from the original job post

Qualifications •Experience with using SharePoint as the Version Control for RH projects •Experience with setting up RH for new users •Experience with having multiple users in RH at the same time

Responsibilities •Conversion of Help Projects from RH V11 to RH 2019 Classic •Providing guidance to new RH users

Job description

We are looking for an experienced RoboHelp Consultant to help with the following items: Conversion of Help Projects from RH V11 to RH 2019 Classic Experience with using SharePoint as the Version Control for RH projects Experience with setting up RH for new users Experience with having multiple users in RH at the same time Providing guidance to new RH users We have a new Technical Writer on our staff and need to get him up to speed with using RH for 2019 Classic

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Content Governance is a Must for Every Enterprise

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https://youtu.be/ 0gcRLPxNkns - The Risks and Potentials of Content – Why Content Governance is a Must for Every Enterprise

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Adobe RoboHelp - September 2022 Release

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Missing the Title

When I was going to view a video about content - a topic that technical writers would be interested in learning about - I had to select a Job title or role and my role is "Senior Technical Writer" but I would have accepted "Technical Writer" as well... except neither of those choices are available. I selected Other.

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Idea for Avoiding the BS of RoboHelp 2022 Copying Word Files Linked on Network to Local Drive

I sent this note to myself on Christmas Day after discussing some of my challenges with RoboHelp 2022.

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Check out what happens when I link to a network Word document, it copies down the file to my C drive, if I delete the C drive file, do I still see the link to the network Word document.

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The Next Generation of Adobe Tech Comm

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https://youtu.be/ De--Tb1N5nI - Adobe Technical Communication Special Event – Fall 2022

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Integrating eLearning with Adobe RoboHelp

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Not THAT Early

I like to come in to work early. In fact, I woke up today at 4:30 AM and was walking in my building towards my cubicle at 5:05 AM. However, I assure anyone that sees this post with the Starter window for RoboHelp 2020 below, NO, I did NOT come in to work at 2:35 AM on July 19, 2022. I like coming in to work early, but not THAT early! [GRIN]

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How is this Done?

For decades, I have been curious about the technology I encounter daily. 

This dates back to at least 2005. My curiosity led me to receive the RoboHelp MVP award for answering questions in the Adobe forums. I point to the fact that I would seek out WinHelp (.hlp) files. If I saw something I wanted to implement into my WinHelp files at work, I would download the WinHelp (.hlp) file - many times to my PC at home at my leisure (off-work) and then decompile the .hlp file in order to figure out how the original technical writer implemented the cool thing I wanted to implement in my WinHelp files at work. At the time, I was working with a master.cnt layout of connecting 100+ WinHelp files seamlessly into what looked like a single WinHelp file. It was truly awesome. 

So that's the background for why I was looking at this email I received this morning. I spent a couple of minutes drawing lines from the email preview on the left to the corresponding text on the right. The question is: where is the text in green on the right side? My best guess is that there's text in the HTML code, somewhere, that shows that text in the green box on the left, but not on the right. Maybe? I do not know...

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Content References are REALLY Awesome

I was browsing the RoboHelp forums and saw this post about "Conrefs" which can be expanded to content references. The potential for using this

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Adobe RoboHelp September 2021 Update 6 Webinar Recording

I had this video embedded in this post, but it is unlisted. Thus, I am including the direct link: Adobe RoboHelp September 2021 Update Additionally, I decided to embed the Adobe RoboHelp (latest release), with the following stats as of 10/20/2021:

1. 22 videos
2. 2,684 views
3. Last updated on Jan 19, 2021

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Adobe Issue

 On my work laptop, I seem to be having an issue with Adobe IDs. I have one Adobe ID for RoboHelp and a separate Adobe ID for Adobe Creative Cloud. It appears that I can't use two distinct Adobe IDs on the same laptop, even though I have been doing so for quite some time. I think the main difference is that I didn't have a newer version of RoboHelp installed on my laptop until recently. In any case, one of my pet peeves, when it comes to laptops and the user interface, is when I see a message that is incorrect. Case in point, I don't have Photoshop open - I have Dreamweaver open - and the message I see tells me to close Photoshop. I often try to put myself in the role of a user who is not as ... 

I consider myself a dangerous user when I use a laptop or computer. I can trace using a computer back several decades when a family friend, who worked for [redacted] let us use a computer at our house. It had two 5 1/4" floppy drives - that's how long ago I can trace back my computer usage. Later, there was a computer with a 3.5" disk drive in the house. 

My point is that someone who does not have as long of a history with computers could likely become very confused when seeing a message to close a program that is not open to resolve an issue. I recognize the message as a specific message being used in the incorrect circumstance. Obviously, the message should say Close this window to quit Dreamweaver instead of Close this window to quit Photoshop because I do not have Photoshop open. 

Actually, a better message would be Close this window to quit the Creative Cloud app that you were using when this message displayed - even if it is wordy.

Disgusting

Adobe, the company, has been releasing RoboHelp for 13 years, per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_RoboHelp. I use version 2015, which was released on June 8, 2015, a whopping 2181 days (5 years, 11 months, 2 weeks, 6 days ago. Between the release of RoboHelp 2015 and RoboHelp 2017, I started working at my present job and, because of the timing of when I needed to choose a Help Authoring Tool (HAT), I did not have the option to choose version 2017. Fast-forward a few years and Adobe creates a Beta testing program, which is over, for an upcoming version of RoboHelp. I signed up and requested a  Virtual Desktop Instance (VDI) to be set up so as to not disrupt my "Production" laptop. I worked with the Beta version for several months. Last month, when I was issued a laptop to replace the laptop I was issued when I began at my employer, I had RoboHelp 2020 installed on it. The idea was to put that version through one last push of trying to decide whether I should upgrade from RoboHelp 2015 to RoboHelp 2020. My verdict? No, I should not.

The following screenshot shows how lowly RoboHelp is in the Adobe family of products. I didn't blur the screenshot at all. It shows that Adobe is "okay" with releasing a video about RoboHelp 2020 with very poor quality. I am using the "original" size of the screenshot to demonstrate that there was no resizing that could have impacted its quality, which is why it looks grossly huge and cuts into the options on the right.

The image above is from the video below.

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I plan to use RoboHelp 2015 for the next 15 years.

Began Career as a VP

How many people in the world start their career as a VP?

Beth Gerber

	Beth Gerber is co-owner and President of Lightext, Inc., a firm that specializes in quality consulting in the areas of policy and procedure development, curriculum design, and training delivery.
Owner and President of Lightext, Inc.
Beth began her career as a Vice President for Home Savings of America in California and was responsible for training, procedures, and loan servicing operational departments. In 1994, Beth took her expertise and opened a consulting company that models her commitment to high standards in the writing and training profession. Beth’s expertise is in utilizing RoboHelp for corporate enterprise solutions. As an expert in this product and an Adobe Partner, she has co-hosted multiple webinars with Adobe Systems, been a featured speaker at Writers UA and STC conferences and Adobe pre-conference workshops, and has authored several RoboHelp product reviews. She also provides customized RoboHelp training at client locations.