Use of Font Sets in CHM Navigation Pane

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi everyone.

One of our product suites is going to be published for the first time using WebHelp Pro as its primary output but with a CHM file as a backup in case the client's internet connection fails or isn't present.

To cut a long story short we have setup a font set to use with our Webhelp Pro output that allows for both Windows and Apple Mac fonts. We have applied this to all our styles and are looking at other places where it can be used (e.g. skins). One of these is the Navigation Pane to be used in the CHM file. It seems like you can not use a font set when defining the font characteristics of the TOC and Index in the Advanced options of the Microsoft HTML Help single source layout.

I know this is not really a problem as CHM files are only designed to be run on Windows PCs and the Windows fonts we are using as part of the font set are 99.9% percent likely to be installed. However I am more interested in how the fonts inside the navigation pane works. The fact that you can't specify a font set (i've checked this in RH8 and RHX5) would seem to indicate that the font setting is part of the compiled file, rendering a font set unnecessary in this instance. Either that or it is an oversight.

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[Captiv8r]

Hi Colum

I stand to be corrected on this. Perhaps Pete Lees will pop in to confirm or deny.

I don't believe Font Sets are even necessary for .CHM files. As they are Windows only, I'm not sure Microsoft saw any need to provide for using them.

Cheers... Rick

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[RoboColum_n_]

Thanks Rick. I suspected as much. It would be good to get this confirmed but I guess Pete is on holiday and (hopefully) left his laptop at home .

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[Pete_Lees · Accepted solution]

Hi, Colum, Rick,

Not much to add, really. In HTML Help, you can reportedly define:

• A single font to use in all the navigation panes of the Help window (specified in the OPTIONS section of the .hhp file).
• A single font to use in the Contents pane only (specified at the start of the .hhc file).
• A single font to use in the Index pane only (specified at the start of the .hhk file).

Any font specification in the .hhc file overrides one in the .hhp file. Specifying a font in the .hhk file doesn't appear to work at all.

If you don't specify a font in any of these places, MS Sans Serif is used by default.

Pete

[RoboColum_n_]

Great stuff. Thanks for the info Pete. Interesting that the Index font doesn't work

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