Using RoboHelp HTML source instead of WebHelp output

[MergeThis]

RoboHelp HTML ignores ZOOMSTOP/ZOOMRESTART and ZOOMWORDS tags and doesn't pass them along to the output; also, any tags that have been inserted in the output files are overwritten on subsequent Generate/Publish iterations. This creates problems for "results Descriptions," in trying to "hide" content (such as H1 headings that simply repeat the title, image MAP tags, popup links in the first paragraph, page navigation links, etc.). We're dealing with 7 writers, 40 child projects, ~2400 topic pages, so we needed a zero-maintenance solution! That is, run Zoom periodically, but do little or no post-process tweaking.

Well, why not use the source files as the Start directory for running Zoom, and the WebHelp output as the Output directory for receiving the Zoom output files? It works great! Just a few issues:

• You'll need to modify the skip list to include/delete pages different from the WebHelp output skip list (need to add some wh*.htm files, but remove the wh*data folders, etc.).
• If you're working with a merged project, the URLs (in the zoom_pageinfo.js file) need to be changed from "projects/" to "mergedProjects/". However, if you're running Zoom V5 build 1005, simply select the new "Rewrite all indexed URLs as follows" option on the "Indexing Options" Configuration tab.

Thank you, Zoom folks; you just keep making it better and better!

Leon