ewriter minimalist blue v3

Please post all questions on Help+Manual 8 here

Moderators: Alexander Halser, Tim Green

Post Reply
John Johann
Posts: 305
Joined: Mon Aug 21, 2017 7:35 pm

ewriter minimalist blue v3

Unread post by John Johann »

Hi,
I'm looking increasingly into switching from CHM and have been experimenting with the ewriter minimalist blue v3 skin.

In the CHM skin, we have different templates Default_A, Default_B, Default_C with the main difference being that they each have a different topic header background colour and a different breadcrumb text.

I'd like to replicate that in the eWriter skin and created the three additional templates in the skin and modified
<div id="hmpageheader"> to <div id="hmpageheader_A"> etc.

In hmwebhelp_main_desktop.css,
After div#hmpageheader, I added three blocks with div#hmpageheader_A etc. and set a different background colour.

For some reason, the three templates do not get applied on publishing (the topics have the relevant templates set).
If I change the default background colour in the div#hmpageheader, it is applied on publishing to all the topics regardless of their template.

Where else do I need to tweak :-)
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23156
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: ewriter minimalist blue v3

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi John,

You cannot do what you are trying to do with these skins. :)
John Johann wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 10:50 am In the CHM skin, we have different templates Default_A, Default_B, Default_C with the main difference being that they each have a different topic header background colour and a different breadcrumb text.

The eWriter skin only has one page template. It is not configured for anything else as designed.
In hmwebhelp_main_desktop.css, After div#hmpageheader, I added three blocks with div#hmpageheader_A etc. and set a different background colour.
It doesn't work like that. 8) You are adding CSS rules for elements that don't exist, and that the scripting that controls everything knows nothing about.
Where else do I need to tweak :-)
There are no multiple page template types in these skins. It doesn't work like that here, because there are not really any page templates in these skins. This is a completely different skin type that does not have a layout template for the index.html file. Instead, every topic page contains the entire layout. The first page that the user visits becomes the main page, and they stay there for the entire length of their browsing session. When they browse to a different topic, no new page is opened. Instead, the scripts simply replace the content on the page with the content of the target topic from a compressed JSON copy of only the topic content, along with things like breadcrumbs etc. This is what makes browsing so exceptionally fast, because no scripts, CSS or other assets need to be reloaded. Only the content is replaced.

Because of this, you cannot have multiple page templates in the V3 and V4 skins. It just doesn't work like that. :?
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
John Johann
Posts: 305
Joined: Mon Aug 21, 2017 7:35 pm

Re: ewriter minimalist blue v3

Unread post by John Johann »

Hi Tim,
Thanks for the clear explanation.
Any neat suggestions on other ways to highlight the topics :-)
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23156
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: ewriter minimalist blue v3

Unread post by Tim Green »

John Johann wrote: Wed Jun 23, 2021 6:45 am Any neat suggestions on other ways to highlight the topics :-)
You can't change things like the topic header on a per-skin basis. What you could do is change the topic icons in the TOC in your HM project. Then edit the skin in Toolbox, click on the HTML Options button and change the value of the Default TOC Icons option from 0 to 1. This will then use the icons generated by HM for each individual topic instead of the standard 3-icon set in the skin.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
John Johann
Posts: 305
Joined: Mon Aug 21, 2017 7:35 pm

Re: ewriter minimalist blue v3

Unread post by John Johann »

Hi Tim,
Thanks, I'll look into that. However, as I have a large number of topics without TOC entry which need to be marked as "legacy", that won't work everywhere.

Is using a skin which supports templates in the eWriter a very bad idea?
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23156
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: ewriter minimalist blue v3

Unread post by Tim Green »

John Johann wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 12:44 pm Is using a skin which supports templates in the eWriter a very bad idea?
Not at all. You can use HM's own standard skins as well if you like. That's not a problem. 8)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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