WebHelp layout controls/switches for readability

[Dave Gehman]

As we zero in a new look for our WebHelp, we're coming up against some layout-versus-readability issues.

Skin is Modern_Standard_Very_Plain_Webhelp.

Most of our users have ultra high resolution monitors & graphics cards/controllers. Our software is Web-based and used on a browser set to full screen. When they use our help, they switch to a different tab, which is likewise full width...

I'm trying to control widths of the left navigation/contents and the main text to maximize readability. Right now, the main text is upwards of 190 characters wide on my not-so-ultra res, 1080 monitor. Meanwhile, the TOC column is about 30 characters wide.

Readability guidelines suggest a 50-60 character width maximum for body text, so that area in our WebHelp is far too wide. At the same time, we could use 45 characters, 50% more, in the TOC column.

I'm not seeing any switches in PPT for column widths.

Solutions are complicated by the realities of responsive layout, which is usually not based on character count or pixel width at all, but things like percent of page width.

Qs
Are these two entities, TOC and main text, cells in tables? If so, can I set a max width, as with tables within H+M itself?

Where (if it is possible) would I control max widths? In Styles in H+M? In the skin?

Or am I going to have to learn CSS so that I can understand and modify the skin?

Or, finally, should we just modify the Help button on our software such that our help opens in a new smaller browser window that's narrower, using the height= and width= parameters?

[Tim Green]

I'm not seeing any switches in PPT for column widths.

No, that skin doesn't have them. The Standard version is intentionally basic and is currently designed for normal full window use. It wouldn't be possible to adjust the maximum width of the help in that skin without also adjusting the scripting that handles the TOC etc. The "Flexible" variant allows you to set the maximum width of the help with the HELP_MAXWIDTH variable. Then the help is centered within the window when it is made wider than the maximum width set in the variable. You can see this in action in the Premium Pack's own WebHelp documentation:

http://www.it-authoring.com/info/pp4help/index.html

I've made a note to add this ability to the Standard variants as well in the next update. (It will be off by default so that existing usage continues to be unchanged. In the Flexible skins it's on by default.)

Or, finally, should we just modify the Help button on our software such that our help opens in a new smaller browser window that's narrower, using the height= and width= parameters?

That would make sense anyway -- pointless full-screen windows on large monitors were the main reason that Windows 8 was such a disaster...

[Dave Gehman]

The Standard version is intentionally basic and is currently designed for normal full window use.... The "Flexible" variant allows you to set the maximum width of the help with the HELP_MAXWIDTH variable.

So THAT's what the "Flexible" meant.

Now I get to re-create all the customizations that I made in the Standard skin, only now in the corresponding Flexible skin...

Some day I'll learn to write down every mod I make, now that my short-term memory skills are just a fading memory...

[Tim Green]

Now I get to re-create all the customizations that I made in the Standard skin, only now in the corresponding Flexible skin...

Sorry about that. As noted, I'm going to add this to the Standard set but it won't be a quick fix as quite a lot needs to be changed and tested.

[Dave Gehman]

Sorry about that.

Nah.

I've reached the age where I must re-write Newton:
Every action must be accompanied by an Apposite and scrawled notation.