Webhelp link to drop down toggle.

[Dan Rosen]

Is there a way to provide a direct link to a drop-down toggle? We have a page with multiple drop-down toggles and if a user's question involves a specific issue, would like to point them directly to an expanded toggle rather than always typing to them:

1. Click on this link.
2. Expand the topic. xyz ....

Here's an example page: http://videoredo.com/TVSuite_Application_Notes/op_settings---advanced-tab.html

Thanks, Dan

PS. Tim you might find this content of personal interest

[Tim Green]

Hi Dan,

You can't do this with the standard skin you are using but it is supported in the skins in the Premium Pack. They have a technology called "ToggleJump" that provides a lot of smart things you can do with toggles and anchors. If you place an anchor directly to the left of the toggle header the page scrolls down to the page with a small animation and then opens the toggle. If you put the anchor inside the toggle the toggle is first opened, then the page scrolls down to the anchor position. This also works with nested toggles, opening them all first and then scrolling to the anchor position.

Here is an example of a link like that for V3:

http://www.it-authoring.com/info/pp3hel ... r=cssrules

You can read about it here (this describes the V2 skins but it works the same in the V3 skins for both EWriter and :

V2 WebHelp + EWriter:
http://www.it-authoring.com/info/pp3hel ... gjump.html

By the way: If you use the index.html?topic.htm syntax for linking to your help in the standard skin it will open with the full UI instead of just with the topic page. This isn't necessary in the V3 skins, where you just need the topic.html URL for everything,

[Dan Rosen]

Thank Tim. Will check out the V3 premium skins. We have a license, but I don't believe we've ever taken advantage of them.

By the way: If you use the index.html?topic.htm syntax for linking to your help in the standard skin it will open with the full UI instead of just with the topic page. This isn't necessary in the V3 skins, where you just need the topic.html URL for everything,

Is there way to generate these links from the on-line webhelp page? Currently, I simply right click on the topic, and select "Copy link address".

[Tim Green]

Is there way to generate these links from the on-line webhelp page? Currently, I simply right click on the topic, and select "Copy link address".

When you publish with that standard skin look in the Skin Include Options box on the lower right in the Publish screen. There is an option you can activate there that displays the fully-qualified topic URL at the bottom of the page, which you can then copy with a right click.

By the way: Do make sure you're using the current version 3.35 of the Premium Pack before you deploy a skin. You can check that by looking at the title of the Premium Pack help chapter in the main Help+Manual help. Your download credentials are in the mail you received when you purchased. If you no longer have them contact me at support AT ec-software.com (replace the AT with @) and I'll help you out.

[Dan Rosen]

Tim, We've upgraded, finally, to the V3 skins and are trying to get the auto toggle anchors working. Is there a way to pickup the URL of a toggle header with the anchor from a displayed webhelp page?

Thanks, Dan

[Tim Green]

Hi Dan,

Tim, We've upgraded, finally, to the V3 skins and are trying to get the auto toggle anchors working. Is there a way to pickup the URL of a toggle header with the anchor from a displayed webhelp page?

That's not how it works. There's no need for guessing here, it's covered in the documentation:

http://www.it-authoring.com/info/pp3hel ... ejump.html

Basically, you just need to place an anchor to the left of the toggle header (also to the left of the icon, if there is one!!) and link to the page containing the toggle with the anchor in the link -- e.g. topic.html?anchor=anchorname

[Dan Rosen]

Hi TIm, I understand that, your docs were very helpful. I'm trying to figure out how to use this feature effectively. For example, if a user inquires about a specific issue, rather than referring them to simply this page:

https://www.videoredo.com/TVSuite_Appli ... d-tab.html

I really want to refer them to this:

https://www.videoredo.com/TVSuite_Appli ... p4_options

The problem is, that it's not obvious, at least to me, what the anchor is by looking at the initial page with un-expanded options. If there a way to pickup the anchors from the displayed page so we don't need to keep a list of anchors around? I guess we could re-organize our help into additional sub-topics, but I'd prefer not to do that as it hurts the flow and doesn't match our GUI which is a grid with expanding topics.

[Tim Green]

The problem is, that it's not obvious, at least to me, what the anchor is by looking at the initial page with un-expanded options.

There's no way to "extract" the anchor like that while viewing the page. You only get the normal link to the page. Or you have to know it in advance.

[Tim Frost]

I accept 'no way while viewing a page'. But how about when in the H&M editor?

Wish-list item: https://helpman.it-authoring.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15161

[Tim Green]

I accept 'no way while viewing a page'. But how about when in the H&M editor?

I can understand the desire but there really isn't a way to do that in the editor. Help+Manual can't know anything about the location of your WebHelp on the web server or about the specific syntax you might need in each individual case, which depends on the layout of the skin or templates you are using.

[Dan Rosen]

Tim: I tried making the text associated with the toggle a link with the anchor thinking that I could right click on it and copy the link. When I did that, the link always shows expanded and lost it's toggle.

[Tim Green]

Tim: I tried making the text associated with the toggle a link with the anchor thinking that I could right click on it and copy the link. When I did that, the link always shows expanded and lost it's toggle.

If something isn't already provided for it won't work when you just add it arbitrarily. Believe me, what you're trying to find isn't there.

[Dan Rosen]

Actually, I've given up on this and decided to create a hidden page that has link and embedded anchors. Then me and the support staff can go to that page and copy the necessary links as needed. Not ideal, and an extra step, but it will work for us.

[Tim Green]

Actually, I've given up on this and decided to create a hidden page that has link and embedded anchors. Then me and the support staff can go to that page and copy the necessary links as needed. Not ideal, and an extra step, but it will work for us.

Remember to exclude those pages from search by adding an underscore in front of the topic ID. Otherwise they will show up in the users' search results.

[Dan Rosen]

Thank you, hadn't even thought about that, and wasn't aware of the underscore trick.