Bullet Style Randomly Changing - Bullet shows as Circle

[rmdavidson]

Has anyone experienced bullet styles randomly changing? We're clicking Bullet List and it is making the list a Circle List. I've even had cases where I go into the code and tell it to make it a disc and it just doesn't care. This is happening in both 7.2 and 8. This is happening so randomly we can't pinpoint it.

Thanks,

Robin

[NorthEast]

If the style actually changes after creating the list, then I've no idea.

If you mean it's unpredictable what style is applied when you create the list, then it's probably down to which icon you click to create the lists, or how
your stylesheet is set up.

When you create the list...
- Selecting Bullet List will create a bullet list with no inline style (<ul>).
- Selecting Circle/Square Bullet List will create a bullet list with an inline style for circle/square (e.g. <ul style="list-style-type: circle;">).

If the list has an inline style then it'll be used in priority to the stylesheet, so you probably don't want to use the Circle/Square options.

If the list has no inline style, then it will use whatever you've set in your stylesheet; i.e. the list-style-type property on the ul tag. Check you've not also set this property for the li tag too.

If you haven't set any list styles in your stylesheet, then the browser defaults are usually disc (level 1), circle (level 2), square (level 3).

[rmdavidson]

I'll have to check the styles, but this happens on first level lists (even if they have only one level). I manually change the second level to a circle.

Thanks,

Robin

[rmdavidson]

One topic that has bullets showing in Flare, has bullets showing in the XML Editor, but it shows circles in the output or when you preview it. Our docs are so list heavy I click the button rather than typing it out though I could easily code it as I type. A lot of our work is cleaning up this project which was imported from RoboHelp last year, but it is just starting to do this to us.

When I view my stylesheet in the internal editor all I see for lists is shown below. I took out my other styles for easier reading. I've never used .second anywhere and haven't seen it used anywhere yet as most places I've found "lists" I've been having to make them lists in the first place because someone manually typed in all the numbers in paragraph tags. I changed it from lower-alpha to circle. I've never noticed .ul1 used either.

Code: Select all

li
{
	color: #000000;
	margin-bottom: .6em;
	margin-top: .6em;
	font-size: 10pt;
	font-family: Arial;
}



@media print



p.ul1
{
	margin-left: 1cm;
}


@media non-print
{
	ol.second
	{
		list-style-type: circle;
	}

	li.second
	{
		list-style-type: circle;
		margin-left: 40px;
	}

	li.listbold
	{
		font-weight: bold;
		font-style: normal;
	}

	
	li
	{
		line-height: 3px;
	}

	
}

[doc_guy]

Also check your stylesheet for any other references to LI. For example, the following is valid CSS3 that lets you set the first element of a bullet list that is part of a UL of class "something":

Code: Select all

ul.something li:first-of-type {
}

That would make your first item different, but only when the LI is a child of a UL with class "something".

For troubleshooting, I'd go to the generated output, and I'd find one list that reliably is "wrong", and then go compare it to one that is reliably "right." Besides just checking the item itself and it's class, check it's parent (or other ancestral) elements to see if thier classes are different and causing this type of issue.

[LTinker68]

Also, is your WebHelp target pointing to the non-print medium or to the default medium?

And, does it behave this way in all browsers? If you don't specify a list-type in the stylesheet, then you'll notice that how the bullet appears varies between IE and FF (one is a filled circle and one is an unfilled circle, if I remember correctly). If you specify a list-type then it should be more consistent, I think, but if you don't, then the browser's default list-type will be used, and the browsers don't necessarily use the same default list-types (surprise!).

[whunter]

I had this happen to me before, and I was going crazy trying to figure it out until I realized that I had somehow changed the default selection of the "bullet" button on the toolbar from "Bullet List" to "Circle Bullet List". That was in v6 though...I can't seem to replicate the same behavior in v8. Anyway...just throwing it out there.

[rmdavidson]

Doc_guy,

I've pasted all the references that show in the internal editor in my post above for all 3 (default, print, non-print). Everything is set to default though I've copied some styles into all of them just to keep my bases covered if things ever change. We don't have any print documentation, just WebHelp and HTML Help which will soon be going away I've been told.

Robin

[rmdavidson]

Lisa,

I only check it in Firefox, and it is inconsistent there. The disc (solid bullet's real name) and the circle seem to switch out randomly even though the code just says UL with no styles or classes applied other than what I've posted that doesn't specify list-style-type, just spacing and the like..

Robin

[NorthEast]

Your stylesheet looks a bit strange:
- The ol.second style is a numbered list (ol), not a bullet list (ul); so I'm not sure why it's set to be a circle.
- The li.second style will set any list item (bullet or numbered) to be a circle; so I would double-check you've not applied the class second anywhere in your list items.

And if you don't think you use either style, then remove them. I'd suggest running the Unused Styles report to check what isn't actually used.

One thing to try is to create a completely blank stylesheet, and set that as your target's master stylesheet. You can then see how your topics and lists look when there isn't a stylesheet. If your lists look better, it suggests an issue in the stylesheet; if your lists are still wrong, it suggest the issue is inline styles in the lists.

If you use Firefox, I'd strongly suggest using the Firebug add-on to troubleshoot style issues; you can use it to inspect the HTML/CSS behind any item.

Note also that the default bullets displayed in the XML editor aren't the same as you'll see in browsers; the editor displays a disc for all list levels, but browsers will display disc/circle/square.

[rmdavidson]

Dave,

I have ol second as a bullet because we use 1/disc/circle in out hierarchy and I changed it there in case it is used in some topic I've never been in since I found it in one of the other stylesheets (I use default). I haven't seen li.second used anywhere either. I've only been checking the pages of topics we've edited.

Is the Unused Styles Report part of just Flare?

The XML editor has been showing discs and circles where I've applied them, but has started being different in the browser.

Robin