ewriter publishing options

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mbgg
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Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 3:42 pm

ewriter publishing options

Unread post by mbgg »

Hi -
I have started creating *.ewriter versions of my help files to replace the existing *.chm ones.
One of the publishing options for CHM is "Highlight hotspots in pictures", which I always unchecked.
I don't see a similar option for EWRITER and the hotspots are highlighted when the cursor arrow moves over them.
Is there any way to suppress the highlights?

Thanks,
Michael
Michael

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Re: ewriter publishing options

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Michael,

eWriter shares the HTML Export Options with WebHelp, so you can make this setting in the WebHelp section. (eWriter is effectively WebHelp packaged in a single file with a special viewer.)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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mbgg
Posts: 131
Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 3:42 pm

Re: ewriter publishing options

Unread post by mbgg »

Thank you for the solution.

I have another problem:
  • My file xxx.hmzx has "topic links" to a file yyy.chm.
  • When I publish to a file xxx.ewriter, the links don't display (no blue & underline).
  • It still doesn't work if I select yyy.ewriter (I have to type in the file name because it isn't displayed in the list)
Any suggestions? I have a lot of links to other files.

Thanks,
Michael
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Re: ewriter publishing options

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Michael,

Topic links to a CHM file are and must be invalid in an eWriter file. You need to use file links instead. Select the Link tool in Write > Insert and choose the File Link option. In the "File name:" field enter:

hh.exe

as the file to link to (this is the help viewer).

Then enter your CHM file and topic details in the "Execution parameters: field", using the following syntax:

ms-its:helpfile.chm::/topicname.htm#anchor

Where "helpfile.chm" is the name of your help file "topicfile.htm" is the topic ID of the topic you want to link to + ".htm" (all lower case letters!) and "anchor" is the optional ID of an anchor on the page you want to link to. For example:

ms-its:myhelp.chm::/introduction.htm#note3

To call topics via a context ID use the syntax:

hh.exe -mapid 12030 ms-its:helpfile.chm

where you would replace the 12030 with the context ID of the topic or anchor you want to display.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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mbgg
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Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 3:42 pm

Re: ewriter publishing options

Unread post by mbgg »

Hi -
Thanks for the reply, but I think you misunderstood my question.
I want to discard my *.chm files and switch to *.ewriter files (as you recommended a while back).
My projects have "Topic links" to other *.chm files; I want my xxx.ewriter file to link to a topic in a different yyy.ewriter file.
q1.png
How do I link to the topic in strap.ewriter instead of strap.chm ??
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Michael

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Re: ewriter publishing options

Unread post by Tim Green »

mbgg wrote: Sun May 29, 2022 7:39 am How do I link to the topic in strap.ewriter instead of strap.chm ??
You need to use a different function for that, because you can't create eWriter links directly with the same function as for CHM. Instead, you need to use the File Link function. See "Linking between eWriter Files" in this documentation page:

https://helpandmanual.com/help/hm_appli ... riter.html
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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mbgg
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Re: ewriter publishing options

Unread post by mbgg »

Thanks for the assistance. The links to other files now work.
There is one small problem: The text for links in the same file appear in blue but the text for links to other files appear in green! Is there a way to change the colour?
Michael

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Re: ewriter publishing options

Unread post by Tim Green »

mbgg wrote: Mon Jun 06, 2022 2:05 pm There is one small problem: The text for links in the same file appear in blue but the text for links to other files appear in green! Is there a way to change the colour?
That is as it should be. It tells the user that those are different kinds of links. 8)

Styling hyperlinks like this for HTML output can be achieved with a few lines of additional CSS code in the skin you are using to publish your project. The standard WebHelp skins included in Help & Manual and the Premium Pack skins already contain this code, you just need to edit it for your personal preferences. The standard CHM skins don't contain it by default but you can easily add it.

For example, open one of the WebHelp skins from the /Templates/HTML Skins folder in the Help & Manual program folder, then select Save As. in the File menu and save it in your project folder so that you can edit it. In the Project Explorer on the left, locate the Project Files > Baggage Files section and select the custom.css file so that you can edit it. You will see a block of code that looks like this somewhere in the file:

Code: Select all

/* Styles for the various hyperlink types */
a.topiclink { color: blue; text-decoration: none; }
a.topiclink:visited {color: blue; }
a.topiclink:hover {color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }
a.weblink {color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }
a.weblink:visited {color: blue; }
a.weblink:hover {color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }
a.popuplink {color: red; text-decoration: none; }
a.popuplink:visited {color: red;}
a.popuplink:hover {color: red; text-decoration: underline; }
a.filelink {color: green; text-decoration: none; }
a.filelink:visited {color: green; }
a.filelink:hover {color: green; text-decoration: underline; }
In some skins, the first three lines of this code may look like this, without the ".topiclink" class:

Code: Select all

a { color: blue; text-decoration: none; }
a:visited {color: blue; }
a:hover {color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }
If they do, change it to this, so that the CSS targets the topic links only and not all other links as well:

Code: Select all

a.topiclink { color: blue; text-decoration: none; }
a.topiclink:visited {color: blue; }
a.topiclink:hover {color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }
There are three lines for each link type you want to format. In each block the first line defines that normal appearance of the link. The second line defines the color of the link after the user has visited it. You will normally set this to the same color as in line 1, so that it does not change. The third line defines how the link behaves when the user hovers the mouse pointer over it.

You just need to edit the lines to achieve the link behavior you want. See this page at W3SChools for details on how you can format links like this:

http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_link.asp

In the standard CHM skins, or in skins you create yourself, you just need to add this CSS code yourself. You can do this directly in the HTML page template. To do this, open the skin in Help & Manual for editing as described above and in the Project Explorer locate the topic page template at Configuration > HTML Page Templates > Default. In the template, locate the closing </head> tag and paste in the following two lines of code directly before it, like this:

Code: Select all

<style type="text/css">

</style>  
</head>
Then paste in the lines of CSS code as shown above, between the two style tags and edit them as you prefer.

In the Premium Pack skins you can find the CSS you need to edit in the hm_topic.css file in the Baggage section of 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.
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