How to avoid deleting your work

[Anne-Marie Mylar]

Now that I have my help manual published and looking the way I want it, how do I avoid having the layout overriding everytime I update my manual?
I choose the integrated IFrames with Header - Green-hmskin and changed the four things:

• background-logo.png
  background.jpg
  background-menu.png
  background-topic-header.jpg

I also change the content of the box at the top right of the index.html file.
How do I avoid these changes to be overriding?

[Tim Green]

Hi Anne-Marie,

It sounds as though you are editing in your output folder. You never need to do this! Instead, make a copy of the .hmskin file in your project folder and edit that. The images you want to change are stored inside the skin. To change them, you just need to open the .hmskin file in Help & Manual and replace the existing ones with your own versions.

A skin is a special kind of HM project without topics. When you select it, the HTML templates and settings groups it contains replace those in your project, and the ones in the project are ignored. So you need to make the changes the skin.

You can edit a skin just like a normal HM project file and everything is in the same place as in a project. First you need to make a copy of the .hmskin file in your project folder for editing. The original skins provided with HM are stored in the /Templates/HTML Skins folder in the HM program directory, and Windows will not let you edit there. We store them there to make sure you always have unedited copies of the original skins.

To open the working copy of your skin, select .hmskin as the file type in the Open dialog for HM projects. You will then find all the templates and settings in the skin in the Project Explorer on the left in the HM window. Some skins also contain baggage files in the Topic Files > Baggage Files section. These are files that are exported with your project. That is where you need to replace the image files:

In the Project Explorer on the left, navigate down to Project Files > Baggage Files. Select this section, then select "Add File" in the Project > Manage Topics section in the Help & Manual toolbar. Then add your versions of the images and confirm that you want to overwrite the versions stored in the skin.

You can also edit the HTML templates in the skin to change your page layout etc. See this chapter in the help for information about the components:

http://helpandmanual.com/help/index.htm ... plates.htm

IMPORTANT WARNING: Never try to switch to the "Simple" tab when editing skin templates! This would delete the custom code in the skin and replace it with a standard template. You will be warned if you try this and if you ignore the warning the skin will be unusable.

Note that all the settings and files that you can see in the skin have priority over those in your project. If there are any matching settings and/or files in your project they will be replaced by those in the skin when you publish with the skin.

[Anne-Marie Mylar]

You said: To open the working copy of your skin, select .hmskin as the file type in the Open dialog for HM projects.
I cannot even do this. I open Help and Manual and I get image attached.
Where do I go from there? I don't see any where .hmskin or HM projects.
I cruise down the left pannel, go into configuration, but do not see what you are talking about.
Sorry

[Tim Green]

You are just a little confused because you are not familiar with the program yet. See further below for tips on how to use the documentation to learn the basics.

You said: To open the working copy of your skin, select .hmskin as the file type in the Open dialog for HM projects.
I cannot even do this. I open Help and Manual and I get image attached.
Where do I go from there? I don't see any where .hmskin or HM projects.

You open projects in the File menu, with the Open command. You can also use this for opening skins, which are a special kind of project. To edit your skin do this (these are procedures you will already be familiar with from many other Windows programs, they all work in basically the same way):

1. Select Open in the file menu and navigate to the \Templates\HTML Skins\ folder in the Help & Manual program folder.
2. In the lower right part of the Open dialog, select *.hmskin as the file type to open so that you can select the skin files.
3. Select the skin file you want to edit and click on OK. The skin will open in read-only mode with a warning, because it is stored in the Program Files directory where editing is not allowed.
4. Select Save As... in the File menu, select Skin as the file type to save and save the skin in your project folder.

The skin is now editable and you can make the edits described in my last posting. Note that multiple projects can be open at the same time in the Project Explorer on the left, so you may need to scroll down to reach the skin project.


Using the documentation to learn how to use Help & Manual

Before you move on to things like this you need to familiarize yourself with the basics of how the program works, otherwise you are going to waste a lot of time. You will get much more out of the program if you take the time to do this.

You can get the basics to get you started in these sections in the help. You should work through these chapters systematically:

* Introduction
* Quick Start Tutorials

This will give you a basic grounding. After this you can consult the following sections when you start work in earnest:

* Basic Working Procedures
* Publishing

Once you feel comfortable with the program you can start looking at the More Advanced Procedures and Reference sections. You will also find a number of tutorial projects and other useful resources in the Examples folder in Documents/My HelpAndManual Projects.

When you start producing PDF documents you will need to refer to the PDF & Printed Manuals section of the help. In addition to this, the Manual Designer program for designing your PDF layouts comes with its own extensive help that includes a detailed, step-by-step tutorial.

[Anne-Marie Mylar]

Thank you for your help. Now all is well. It is working the way I want it. Ready to go live.

[Anne-Marie Mylar]

This is crazy. I have a new topic, I cannot find anywhere the NEW POST link! Where on this board, is it?

[Martin Wynne]

This is crazy. I have a new topic, I cannot find anywhere the NEW POST link! Where on this board, is it?

Hi Anne-Marie,

Click the NEW TOPIC button on a forum page: http://helpman.it-authoring.com/viewforum.php?f=30

new_topic.png

Martin.