Misplaced Image in eWriter

[Sheri Steeves]

I have gifs in my documentation that are not correctly placed when I create an ewriter file. Sometimes they are shifter left and up, and sometimes sll I can see is a bit of the image in the upper left of the page and it is nowhere near where it should be on the page.

They are correct for other formats such PDF, and CHM.

What it should be:

HMSource.png

What it looks like in the eWriter:

HMEwriter.png

When it's really not in the correct location at all:

HMTopLeftGIF.PNG

This is a help file project that has been around for many years and was probably one of the first projects we created using Help & Manual. The GIFs are in the baggage section and the table and style was actually taken from sample H&M documentation many years ago, around 2010 or thereabouts.

The images in question all have the Picture ID set to "callout-icon". Through trial and error I found if I remove the Picture ID, then the GIF image is placed correctly. Why would the Picture ID cause the image to be placed incorrectly for eWriter?

[Tim Green]

Hi Sheri,

This is not misplaced -- the "misplacement" is actually what is shown in the editor, because the CSS for moving the icon into its correct position over the top right corner is not applied there. You are using the standard Info boxes copied from the Help+Manual help, for which the CSS is also included in the skin you are using. This is then moving the icon into the correct position over the upper right corner.

[Sheri Steeves]

Tim,

The correct location should have been aligned next to the text in the header the way it looks in H&M editor.

HMExplain2.png

Some of the info boxes moved the gif image to the top of the box (the lightbulb), and some pages, with the star, moved the icon to the upper left of the page. Once I removed the picture ID and saved the image, this stopped happening. I suspect it was "saving" the image again that resolved the issue as if I put back a PictureID it is now still created in the correct location after updating the image.

[Tim Green]

The correct location should have been aligned next to the text in the header the way it looks in H&M editor.

No, the icons are being displayed in the position for which they were designed. I can only repeat this is happening because you copied and pasted these info boxes with icons from the Help+Manual documentation, where they are designed to have the icon over the top left corner in HTML.

You are seeing this positioning in eWriter because you are using a skin that already contains the necessary CSS code to move the icon to the correct position over the top left corner. The one with the star is looking wrong because you are using the copied and pasted info box in a way it is not intended to be used. This positioning doesn't work in PDF, and normally these info boxes have IF conditions to remove the icons in PDF because of this. But you have deleted those conditions, that is why you are seeing the icons in PDF as well. You are seeing what you incorrectly think is the correct position in CHM and WebHelp because there you are using skins that do not contain the additional CSS for positioning the icons correctly.

You can avoid this and obtain the incorrect position that you want to have by editing the CSS in the eWriter skin you are using. If you let me know which eWriter skin you are using, I can show you where the CSS code is stored so that you can edit it.

[Sheri Steeves]

Tim,

Thanks for the detailed explanation, that makes sense now. This is older documentation that I am maintaining so for sure pieces were used in ways they shouldn't have been back when we first started. And the first time I've had to upgrade H&M docs this old into eWriter.

I was able to get the image to come out where I need to to for now without editing the skin - is this because I removed the PICTURE ID from the image?

The eWriter skin I am using is Premium Pack 4.4.0\V3 EWriter Skins\Boxed_Plain_Grey_eWriter.hmskin. It's choice now of making something incorrect work in the eWriter, or change it all to something else in the documentation, and which is faster.

Thanks!

[Tim Green]

I was able to get the image to come out where I need to to for now without editing the skin - is this because I removed the PICTURE ID from the image?

Yes, exactly. The ID is what the CSS uses to identify what it needs to format.

The eWriter skin I am using is Premium Pack 4.4.0\V3 EWriter Skins\Boxed_Plain_Grey_eWriter.hmskin. It's choice now of making something incorrect work in the eWriter, or change it all to something else in the documentation, and which is faster.

The CSS for this is in the file hmwebhelp_main_desktop.css in the baggage files section of that skin. You can find it down at the end of the file, under the heading /* Special tables for info boxes */:

Code: Select all

/* Special tables for info boxes */
#callout-table, #overview-table {display:block; position:relative; top:0; left:0;}
#callout-icon {display:block; position:absolute; top:-11px; left:-11px;}
#callout-icon-flag {display:block; position:absolute; top:-11px; left:-8px;}
#callout-table a {text-decoration: none; color: blue;}
#callout-table a:visited {text-decoration: none; color: blue;}
#overview-table a {text-decoration: none; color: #000000;}
#overview-table a:visited {text-decoration: none; color: #000000;}
#callout-table a:hover, #overview-table a:hover {text-decoration: underline;}

I would leave basic table and link (a) formatting as it is. Just change or delete the #callout-icon and #callout-icon-flag lines.