How do you protect the content in a chm?

[TechWriter77]

Hello,

I know some users have thought of some creative techniques for preventing content from being copied from a chm, spefically Pete Lee's JavaScript methods. However, I was wondering if anyone knew how to append a copyright statement when the content is copied over?

For example, let's say a user copies the content from the chm. When they paste the content, it adds a copyright statement to it at the bottom. Is this possible?

Thanks in advance.

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

I think a while back I saw Pete Lees post a script that would handle appending a Copyright.

Keep in mind, however, that this only takes you so far. After the paste occurs, there is nothing preventing the user from simply stripping away the added information. So if you are intent on thwarting copying of material, this may not be sufficient.

I happened across some software the other day that I'm still in the process of evaluating. This software purports to protect CHM files. Maybe you want to investigate it as well?

Click here to visit the site

Hopefully this helps... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML within the day - $24.95! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcerStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks

[TechWriter77]

Thanks Rick for the suggestion.I will try that solution you posted once I explore this copyright statement - I think this is all my manager wants for now.

Does anyone have the code that Pete Lee posted a while back? Even though I found the 'citation question' I can't find the code/instructions used in the thread for some reason?

Thanks in advance.

[Pete_Lees · Accepted solution]

Hi, TechWriter77,

It looks like the code sample that I posted originally was stripped out when the (really excruciatingly slow) forum software that we now use was introduced a few months ago. This is my original message:

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/macromedia.robohelp.general_discussion/msg/cc1830466ac3fbf1?hl=en

Worth noting that Peter Grainge reported a potential problem with the method in this thread:

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/macromedia.robohelp.robohelp_for_htmlhelp/browse_thread/thread/6dac...

For some other ways to protect the content of .chm files, see:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/devdocs/thread/ec8f7185-3a1e-4cab-bc76-fa7036bff816

Pete

[TechWriter77]

Thanks so much, Pete! I'll give these methods a try.

[TechWriter77]

With Pete's instructions I figured out how to get this work within my RoboHelp project.

1. In my css, I put:

p { color: black; }
@media screen
{
p.copyright{ display:none; } 
}
@media print
{
p.copyright{ display:block;}

2. In my template file, I added the following in the footer:

<p class="copyright"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;">
Copyright 2009 ABC company Inc. All rights reserved, blah blah blah </span></p>

This works out great. When a user copies or prints the entire page, the copyright statement is added to the footer.

My question: Can we add the copyright statement when a user copies only a part of the page?

[Peter Grainge]

I'll leave Pete or someone else to answer the question. Re the CSS change, check what happens if you edit the CSS using the built in editor.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[TechWriter77]

Thanks, Peter. I read about that issue you posted in another thread and decided to edit the css in an external editor instead.

I should also mention that I tried posting the <p class="copyright"> line in other areas of the RH template (i.e. header and body), but the copyright statement did not show up properly when the page was either copied or printed.

Does anyone have any ideas?