00:00 Let's get acquainted now with the RoboHelp 9 HTML workspace, which many people    

00:04 like to call the user interface.    

00:06 To do that, we'll first need to launch the program.    

00:09 So if you haven't already, go down to your Start button, click there, and    

00:12 select All Programs.    

00:14 From there you'll find a folder titled Adobe RoboHelp 9, and when you click that    

00:19 you will see the RoboHelp 9 HTML program.    

00:22 Give that a click to launch the program.    

00:24 Now, the very first thing you're going to see is something called the Starter--    

00:28 notice the Starter tab in the top left-hand corner--and it's from here where you    

00:32 can select recent projects that you've been working on to get back to them    

00:36 quickly or open older ones by clicking Open.    

00:39 You can create new projects, different types of projects, from the Create New    

00:43 column, and you can even import from the Import section, and here you can see    

00:47 a couple of defaults:    

00:48 Word documents and Microsoft HTML Help Projects, but you can select more as well.    

00:53 There's also a number of resources available to you here for working with    

00:57 RoboHelp, and they're easily selectable from the Starter, which you can    

01:01 leave open, by the way.    

01:03 But really, to get a good look at the default workspace, we need to either open    

01:07 up a project or start a new one,    

01:09 so let's create a new blank project.    

01:11 By clicking Blank Project, you launch the New Project Wizard, and you are    

01:15 prompted for the project title. That's right at the very top, and you can    

01:19 type over that text.    

01:20 So for the sake of simplicity, let's just type in My First Project.    

01:27 It also fills in the file name for the project exactly the same, and you can    

01:31 change the location where you are going to save that by clicking the Browse    

01:35 button and selecting a folder where you want your first project to go.    

01:39 It does create a folder in that location called, in this case, My First Project.    

01:44 Click Finish and it will start up your first-ever new blank project.    

01:50 So from here, you can see we have quite a busy-looking workspace.    

01:54 So let's start right at the top with the title bar, where you do see    

01:57 RoboHelp HTML and the name of your project, and you'll also see the name of    

02:03 the First Topic, in this case, because it's created from a blank template,    

02:07 it's called First Topic.    

02:08 Off to the right-hand side on the title bar, you do have your Minimize, Restore,    

02:13 and Close buttons for shutting down the program.    

02:15 Next comes the menu bar and just like most software applications, you will see    

02:19 menu headings that you can click to display related commands.    

02:23 In this case, clicking File displays file-related commands.    

02:26 Some of them have submenus indicated by the little black arrows, so you have    

02:30 additional selections through those.    

02:32 Click anywhere outside the menus to shut it down.    

02:35 And off to the right-hand side of the menu bar is our Workspace Selector.    

02:39 Now, if we click this now, being our very first project, you will notice the    

02:43 word Default with a check mark, and we are looking at the default workspace.    

02:47 But you can manipulate the workspace to suit your own needs. That requires    

02:52 saving and loading, and that's something we're going to talk about a little bit    

02:56 later on in this chapter.    

02:58 So for now we'll just click outside that Workspace Selector.    

03:01 Next we have a number of toolbars that are visible by default, and you'll see    

03:05 that the toolbars have a number of buttons, and they are kind of grouped together    

03:09 and related, so you'll have the Project toolbar with project commands like    

03:13 Saving and Printing and Checking Spelling, for example.    

03:16 These are all shortcuts for commands you'd find in the menus.    

03:20 Then it looks like we have one for working with versions, or version control.    

03:24 We have a number of formatting commands grouped together on the Formatting    

03:27 toolbar, and there's also an Object toolbar for inserting different kinds of objects.    

03:32 Now, your toolbars can be moved around, so yours might not look exactly like mine.    

03:37 You can go to the left side when you see the four-sided arrow, click and drag them around.    

03:41 So if you wanted to switch the order, for example, you can click and drag them    

03:45 into the place where you want them.    

03:48 So feel free to manipulate those to suit your own needs.    

03:52 Also on the right-hand side of each toolbar you'll see these little Selector    

03:55 buttons where you can access toolbar options, where you can actually customize each    

04:00 toolbar by adding and removing buttons.    

04:03 Now, down below the toolbars we get into this busy area where you see a number of panes.    

04:08 They are actually called pods.    

04:10 And pods, such as the Project Manager here, and you can see Single Source    

04:15 Layouts down below, Topic List, et cetera,    

04:18 these are all designed to help you to create the project that you're working on    

04:23 and create the required outputs.    

04:25 We're going to spend an entire lesson on working with pods--that's coming up.    

04:29 But just so you know, these pods are docked by default, but you can also click    

04:34 and drag from the left-hand side of the title bar for each of these pods if you    

04:38 want to undock them and float them around, and that changes the look of your    

04:42 workspace, obviously.    

04:44 Next, we have this little area here which we call our Document pane, and you see    

04:49 First Topic as the tab.    

04:51 There is our Starter, by the way, and we can go back to the Starter and go back    

04:54 to our First Topic quickly by clicking these.    

04:57 Inside the Document pane we have our Design Editor, where you actually work on    

05:02 the content in your topic or project.    

05:05 There's a couple of different ways to view that content.    

05:08 The Design View is the default.    

05:09 So if we just move this out of the way, you can see what you're looking at is    

05:13 really the way you type it and the way you format it. But when you're generating    

05:17 projects for the web, let's say, it might be interesting to take a look at the    

05:21 HTML source code that creates that content, so you can change views by clicking    

05:27 HTML and going back to Design.    

05:29 Now, each of the pods that we're looking at as well, notice that they have tabs    

05:34 across the bottom, so you can quickly change between the different pods.    

05:38 And there is one thing on the far right-hand side that you may have noticed    

05:41 called the Resource Manager.    

05:43 And when you hover over that or click it, it actually expands it out into your    

05:48 screen. And as you start creating projects and adding resources, you will be    

05:52 able to manage them here on the right-hand side.    

05:55 Just go back into your document and just click anywhere and you will notice it    

05:59 auto-hides--that's a default option.    

06:02 Now, when you start moving pods around and changing the look of your    

06:06 workspace, it could get a little bit disorganized. And one nice way to get    

06:12 back to the default is to go to that Workspace Selector, give it a click,    

06:15 select Default, and it will set everything back up the way it was when we    

06:19 first came in to RoboHelp 9 HTML.    

06:23 So that's a quick overview of your default workspace, or user interface.    

06:27 You should now be feeling a little more comfortable with the RoboHelp 9    

06:31 work environment.