Snippets in RoboHelp 7: A new way to work smarter

Understanding snippets

So, what is a snippet? From the brief description in the introduction, you may have already got the essence. A snippet is a bit of content. The content can include:

• text
• links (jump links; standard pop-up links; text-only pop-ups)
• images
• tables (with other allowed content)

If the snippet includes a link, RoboHelp adjusts the link path when you generate output, so no matter where you might place a snippet reference, everything works.

You can insert variables in a snippet, but the variable must already exist in the project; that is, you cannot create variables on the fly while editing a snippet in the Design editor.

Snippet content cannot include DHTML-managed show-and-hide, which includes drop-downs and expanding text (including glossary functions managed by RoboHelp using expanding text). Snippets cannot, on the face of it, include bookmarks, but there is a style-based workaround—which I'll describe later.

You can apply styles to snippets; I'll talk about this more in the Appearance section.

Snippets are saved as files with a unique extension (HTS). RoboHelp stores snippets in a Snippet library in the project.

The content of a snippet, as inserted as a reference in a topic, occupies at a minimum a paragraph of its own; that is, when you insert a snippet, RoboHelp creates and inserts the snippet content in a new paragraph (or paragraphs, if the snippet contains more than one) directly following the paragraph where you place the insertion point.

Terminology

Snippet refers to the original item, stored in the Snippet library. Reference refers to the placement of a copy of the snippet in a topic.

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