Non-Scrolling Images With Hotspots

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hubby2laura
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Non-Scrolling Images With Hotspots

Unread post by hubby2laura »

I finally convinced my employer to upgrade to V7! However, when compiling to CHM or EWriter, any images that contain hotspots do not scroll with the rest of the page. I need the images to remain with the text when scrolling up or down the page. Is there a setting for this???

Thanks!
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Tim Green
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Re: Non-Scrolling Images With Hotspots

Unread post by Tim Green »

Known issue: It's because you're using an old skin from an old version, which isn't compatible with the new HTML generated by HM7. You need to select one of the new skins included with the upgrade, then the problem will go away. 8)
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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hubby2laura
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Re: Non-Scrolling Images With Hotspots

Unread post by hubby2laura »

Thanks Tim. I assigned a skin and yes, it stopped the scrolling, but the images were also left aligned when they should be aligned with the text above and below, as the image is part of a series of steps.

I tried creating my own skin, as it has the corporate colours and logos. However, the same scrolling and alignment problems occur. I have tried to figure out how to fix this, but I am lost. Can you point me in the right direction to fix this, or should I save one of the default skins and try to redo the colours and logos in that.

Also. Is is possible to edit the caption of hidden topics? And, I am unable to copy hidden topics between projects. Is this allowed? I really need to be able to do that.
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Tim Green
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Re: Non-Scrolling Images With Hotspots

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Laura,
but the images were also left aligned when they should be aligned with the text above and below, as the image is part of a series of steps.
That sounds more like an error in your project as it is definitely not normal behavior. Please mail me a small demo project along with the sample images at support AT ec-software.com (replace the AT with @) and I'll have a look at it for you.
Also. Is is possible to edit the caption of hidden topics? And, I am unable to copy hidden topics between projects. Is this allowed? I really need to be able to do that.
What do you mean by the caption here? A "hidden" topic isn't really hidden at all; it is just a topic that doesn't have a TOC entry. The TOC is just a list of links pointing to topics, and ALL your topics are stored down in Project Files > Topics. You can access and edit all of them there. You can edit the topic's header there, if that's what you mean, but not the TOC caption if it doesn't have one.

You can't copy topic files directly between projects from the Project Files section, but there are a couple of tricks you can use to get around it:
  • Temporarily make a TOC entry for the topic you want to copy by dragging its file into the TOC. Then copy the file between the projects via the TOC entry as normal and delete the entry afterwards. To delete, just select it, press DELETE and uncheck the Also delete referred topic files option in the dialog displayed before confirming. Then only the TOC entry will be deleted.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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hubby2laura
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Re: Non-Scrolling Images With Hotspots

Unread post by hubby2laura »

Thanks Tim. You answered the question I just logged on to ask - not being able to copy hidden topics between projects. That is a major bummer for me as it prevents me from using the very efficient workflow processes I used for years with V4.

This morning, I finally figured out the process of temporarily making "a TOC entry for the topic to copy by dragging its file into the TOC. Then copy the file between the projects via the TOC entry as normal and delete the entry afterwards." (I'm doing this by saving a new copy of the original project and working on that one rather than the original)

This provides the invisible topics that I need in the new TOC. This process works, but is more work than the process I used previously for creating PDFs (I have to create 23 seperate manuals), as I had separate projects completely set up for each manual type, and I could quickly copy the topics within the original TOC and the hidden topics I needed to the other projects. Now I also have to delete the original TOC (See question below).

Using my old process, only a couple of minor changes were needed to compile the PDFs. Maybe I just have to get used to a new way of doing things....

Question:

Using this new process, can I simply delete the original TOC in one step? Currently I have to delete each entry within the TOC, and because I have many links to other help files, it is a pain to delete some sections as I have to delete the linked help files (I get a warning message that I cant delete different types of files at once) and sub topics seperately.

Alternately, is it possible to compile the new TOC without deleting the original TOC? I have spent hours trying to do this
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Tim Green
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Re: Non-Scrolling Images With Hotspots

Unread post by Tim Green »

Using this new process, can I simply delete the original TOC in one step? Currently I have to delete each entry within the TOC,
You can delete multiple TOC entries by selecting them before deleting with SHIFT+Click and CTRL+Click. However, you need to be careful if they have links pointing to them in other topics, which you should really check with Find Referrers before deleting.
and because I have many links to other help files, it is a pain to delete some sections as I have to delete the linked help files (I get a warning message that I cant delete different types of files at once) and sub topics seperately.
CTRL+Click allows you to selectively select multiple TOC entries. For example, you can select an entire contiguous block with SHIFT+Click, then use CTRL+Click to deselect individual entries that you don't want to include, for whatever reason.
Alternately, is it possible to compile the new TOC without deleting the original TOC? I have spent hours trying to do this
What exactly do you mean by the "new TOC" here? Do you mean the new TOC entries you created to enable copying? You can't exclude those without applying build options to all the topics, which would be more work. However, what you could do is use HM's multiple TOC feature. Then you could create a second TOC that is only used for this purpose and never for publishing. Then when you publish you always select your main TOC with the Table of Contents option in the Publish screen. See here for using multiple TOCs:

https://helpandmanual.com/help/index.ht ... _multi.htm

However, there is actually an even easier method if you are using the uncompressed HMXP format for projects you are working on (and you should be, for many reasons!): Then you just close both projects in Help+Manual and copy the topic files from the \Topics folder of one project to the \Topics folder of the other project in Windows Explorer. They will then turn up in the Project Files > Topic Files section the next time you open the project.

PS: It's best not to use the term "invisible topics" as it isn't really accurate. There is not any difference at all between so-called "invisible" topics and normal ones. They are all stored in the Topic Files section in exactly the same way. The only difference is whether they have a reference in the table of contents or not. And the table of contents is just a simple list of links pointing to topic files.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
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