I'd like to know if it is possible to generate a CHM file
from RoboHelp, with all the drop-down hotspots already expanded? I
need this to then print the complete CHM, including the information
contained in the hotspots.
Assuming you mean YOU need to print the content rather than
the user needs to, then when you use Printed Documentation it can
include all your dropdown and expanding text. For some reason I
have never understood, expanding text is printed by default whereas
dropdown text has to be selected. Click the Advanced button on the
first page of the wizard.
That's what I tried to do at first, but I discovered that for
various reasons, the generated Word document is pretty ugly and I
would have to spend several hours fixing the styles manually. On
the other hand, generating a CHM gives me a great result, and it
prints well too, except for the drop-down hotspots (which are not
printed).
I think I'll try to find a way to edit a compiled CHM and
create a script to auto expand the hotspots, except if someone
knows a better way of doing this.
If I understand you correctly, you want to have all expanded
and dropdowns printed in the Help document. If you generate a
Printed Document from the Project Single Source Layout, you will be
able to check a box that will do this. Of course this is not the
same as printing from the Help.chm, but instead prints all or parts
of the document in Word or some other word processor. This is good
for a printed manual of the Help if desired. Unfortunately, it is
not possible directly from the Help.chm.
Maybe that is a suggestion to Adobe. There are two options
when a book or topic is selected for print, this could simply be a
third.
The simplest way that I know to do this is to use the
window.onbeforeprint
event to display all the expandable and dropdown text prior to
sending the help topics off to the printer. If necessary, you can
use the window.onafterprint event to hide the expandable and
dropdown text after you've printed the topics.
See this page for a script that should very nearly meet your
requirements:
You could control this by duplicating the content at each
instance and using two build tags, one assigned to the drop-down
and the other for standard text.
You would then create a CHM "Layout" that would exclude all
content with the drop-down build tag. And for your standard online
output, you would exclude all content with the standard text build
tag.
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