---
title: "RoboHelp to Wiki Conversion Tool"
date: 2007-02-05
description: "$( document ).ready(function() { // Handler for .ready() called. $('#toc').toc({ minimumHeaders: 3, listType: 'ul', showSpeed: 0, headers: '#content h2, #content h3, #content h4, #content h5, #content h6' }); /*..."
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2007/02/05/robohelp-to-wiki-conversion-tool/index.html
---

> For AI agents: a documentation index is available at https://idratherbewriting.com/llms.txt. Markdown versions of all pages are available by appending .md to any page URL.

# RoboHelp to Wiki Conversion Tool

A [RoboHelp to Wiki conversion tool](http://muddybranch.thejkgroup.com/2007/02/mediawiki_2_for.html) has been announced. This tool will convert your RoboHelp project over to [Mediawiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki) (Mediawiki is the same tool used to create Wikipedia). Other tools already exist that convert HTML pages to Mediawiki pages, but this RoboHelp2Wiki extension apparently allows you to convert batch files all at once. Here's an exerpt from the developer's blog:

> When we create [Product Design documents](http://muddybranch.thejkgroup.com/2006/12/robohelp_and_me.html) we include descriptions, requirements, test scripts, GUI mockups, and help text for each process step. We use [RoboHelp](http://www.adobe.com/products/robohelp/) conditional tags for each section, so the right information is outputted at the right time for the right audience. When we converted the RoboHelp files to [MediaWiki](https://www.mediawiki.org/) with our [RoboHelp2Wiki](https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:RoboHelp2Wiki)extension these sections become sub-headings on each article page. While we gained many benefits moving to a Wiki one important item was lost, the ability to output documentation. Printed documentation is still important for manuals, training materials, and sign-offs. Additionally, it would be very helpful to generate a hard-copy of the updated Product Design Document.
>
> To solve these issues, I would need to convert over hundreds of Wiki articles into another format. Unfortunately, I have not found any good solutions for these conversions or the printing of Wikis in general. I have looked at the [wiki2PDF](http://freshmeat.net/projects/wikipdf/) scripts where user enters a list of articles and the script makes a single PDF file. However, it is based on the assumption I want to directly output the list of articles for final printing, which is not the case.
>
> The ideal solution would be a new type of Wiki where the stored format can be used for multiple sources. A [DITA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DITA) based Wiki idea was floated and attributed to Paul Prescod, Group Program Manager, [XMetaL](http://www.xmetal.com/) in Crystal Ball: [A DITA Wiki](http://www.thecontentwrangler.com/article/crystal_ball_a_dita_wiki/) by The Content Wrangler and elaborated on by Anne Gentle in [Document Actions Darwin Information Typing Architecture, meet Wiki](http://talk.bmc.com/blogs/blog-gentle/anne-gentle/dita-wiki). However, no such product yet exists.

The author is considering a round trip tool that would convert Mediawiki content back to RoboHelp, but I'm not sure if there are problems with RoboHelp's code that make it problematic. They are also looking at doing the same with Madcap's Flare.

I'm pretty excited about this tool because one of the main drawbacks of wikis (at least that I see) is the lack of compiling the information in an organized, easy-to-browse way like webhelp and also the inability to output the printed documentation as an entire manual. I haven't tried RoboHelp2wiki yet, but I just might.