Inconsistent Line Spacing in PDF / Printing

[hmoeller]

I'll attach a test project showing only one single topic. It has a table with a graphic on the right, including some lines, and text on the left, connected to those lines. The idea is to keep the graphic from having to be translated by not adding the text into the graphic.

This looks nice in H&M. It also looks correct in CHM and standard Windows help. But when printing the manual or exporting it to PDF, the line spacing doesn't match.

Any idea what to do? I think about adding conditional empty lines, but I thought I better ask before, because if this bug is fixed in the next release, my conditional lines will mess things up again...

Best regards,

Dipl.-Inform. Henning Möller
IP Team Raabe + Möller GmbH

[Tim Green]

Henning,

Getting text to line up with graphics like this is extremely tricky, even with HTML Help and WinHelp. It's even harder in PDF because the PDF engine scales the graphics on the basis of the resolution of the reference printer driver you choose in Tools > Customize > PDF Export.

Instead of your current structure I would recommend turning the whole thing into a graphic. You can still have the links active, you just need to create hotspots on the texts, which you can do in Impict. Then you'll be sure of having the links aligned no matter what output format you use.

[Martin Wynne]

...This looks nice in H&M. It also looks correct in CHM and standard Windows help.

Hi Henning,

Not for me it doesn't. That's because I have my screen set to 120dpi
(sometimes called "Large Fonts") instead of the more usual 96dpi.

120dpi is a perfectly standard Windows setting (in Display Properties),
ideal for those with older eyes. But I've lost count of the web sites,
software and help files which don't allow for it. Text which doesn't fit
a fixed field, buttons of which just a corner is visible in a window
which can't be re-sized, graphics overlapping or misaligned, etc.

As an alternative to your scheme, why not repeat the full graphic
on each line, and use Impict's transparency functions to highlight
each button? See the attached (roughly done) screenshot for the idea.

Martin.

[hmoeller]

Thanks for your advice.

As for the graphics approach, I don't like it too much, for two reasons. First, I have the translation issue already mentioned. But second, I don't get the links resolved into page references when printing, because the hotspots of Impict pictures won't get resolved.

But I get the arguments and will follow the second approach, I guess.

Thanks again.

[Tim Green]

Henning,

I see your point, I think Martin's solution is probably the best way to go then. Another solution that I often use is to make screenshots of the individual buttons instead of trying to refer to the entire toolbar again and again. Then you can use a table, placing the button in one cell and the description / link in the cell directly next to it. This ensures that alignment works in all formats.

This might not be ideal here, however, as some of the buttons are very similar and might easily be confused on their own. But instead of repeating the entire bar you could just repeat the related groups of buttons, using Martin's highlighting idea.

You can make all the screenshot buttons exactly the same size by using the "fixed size region" option when making the shots with the H&M screenshot utility or TNT.

On the hotspots in your image: I definitely wouldn't place hotspots over the connecting lines in images like this, I think this would be confusing for the user. I would just place them over the buttons/tools themselves, making them a little smaller than the tools so that the mouse cursor changes visibly as the user moves it from one tool to the next.