Creating a new skin

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Dave Gehman
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Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:05 pm

Creating a new skin

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

Going back to basic H+M version capabilities, on the version comparison matrix page (https://www.helpandmanual.com/products_hm_matrix.html) I see that as a happy Pro user, I can create my own skins.

I know about -- correction, I am learning a little about editing existing skins.

But, creating our own? (Our company has JS, CSS and HTML experts; not me, obviously, but available to me as resources.) How would our experts do this? Is there an API or developer's manual available?

I see quite a bit of information around editing skins in the H+M and PPT3 help files, but not a lot around creating custom skins. Editing, I know, is aided by the inclusion of comments in skin CSS and JS files. In addition, much of the process of creating skins is covered succinctly in the H+M help topic, "Script and CSS components for experts," as well as information in several other areas around variables vis-a-vis HTML templates.

I realize that it's possible -- nay, probable -- that all the info is to be found in various places in the H+M and PPT help files. My question is whether there's a formal developer's guide for creating skins -- something I can hand to our people for their A-Z reference in creating our company a new H+M skin?
Dave Gehman
Posts: 575
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:05 pm

Re: Creating a new skin

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

Very bad thread title, realized when too late to edit. Should have been:
"Is there a manual or formal reference for creating your own skin?"
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Tim Green
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Re: Creating a new skin

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Dave,

Basically, you start by creating a normal empty Help+Manual project. Then you select Save As... in the File menu and choose the option to save as a skin. Then look here:

https://helpandmanual.com/help/index.ht ... _skins.htm
https://helpandmanual.com/help/index.ht ... s_html.htm
https://helpandmanual.com/help/index.ht ... plates.htm

This will get you started. You should not attempt this without first having a solid grounding and experience in CSS, HTML and JavaScript programming.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Dave Gehman
Posts: 575
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:05 pm

Re: Creating a new skin

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

Tim Green wrote:This will get you started. You should not attempt this without first having a solid grounding and experience in CSS, HTML and JavaScript programming.
Thanks for the links to the primary topics.

No, believe me, I'm not going to be doing this. Our company has HTML, CSS and JS/JSON experts, and they are the ones who will be rooting around in the innards.

I have a nascent plan to assemble the relevant passages into a single document. My task is to present them with something like a developer's guide, one that's as concise as possible.

Do I need to apply for formal permission to excerpt-and-assemble the words, since they're your words (and I assume, copyrighted)?
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Tim Green
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Re: Creating a new skin

Unread post by Tim Green »

No permission needed for texts etc. If you make major changes there should be a comment somewhere in the template that it was modified by you, but that's it. 8)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
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