Flare capabilities in RoboHelp 8?

Report · Sep 29, 2009

I was told that in Flare you can create the following output features. They seem familiar to me, and likely to be available also in RH 8 or earlier, or in other HATs. I'm not a RH expert and haven't had time to check in my new RH 8. Can anyone tell me whether they are in RH or other HATs?

· the bread crumbing (ability for the help to track where someone has been and go back to it easily),

· the favorites (marking topics of interest so that users can return easily), and

· the roll overs (I think that’s what they’re called – where there is a screen capture but it is a thumb nail size and when the user mouses over it, the screen capture expands.)

Thanks much.

Mike

Report · Sep 29, 2009

Hi there

the bread crumbing (ability for the help to track where someone has been and go back to it easily),

RoboHelp offers Breadcrumbs, sure. Be advised there are two methods for Breadcrumbs. Historical (where the user has traversed) and Heirarchial (based on a simple heirarchy). RoboHelp uses the latter. The heirarchy used is the TOC structure. I'd personally be surprised if Flare offered the former, but it may.

the favorites (marking topics of interest so that users can return easily)

If you are creating Microsoft HTML Help output (.CHM format) you may configure the window to include a Favorites tab. Unfortunately, RoboHelp offers no Favorites feature for any of the Web based formats. Sure would be nice if one were there!

the roll overs (I think that’s what they’re called – where there is a screen capture but it is a thumb nail size and when the user mouses over it, the screen capture expands.)

RoboHelp offers no such feature. You could certainly add one, but anything like that in RoboHelp would most certainly be added separately.

Hopefully this helps... Rick

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Report · Sep 29, 2009

Thanks Rick! A quick cruise through RH 8 help indicates that there is some sort of Favorites/bookmark capability that is accessed from the star on the output toolbar. Seems to enable the user to link a topic or internet page. Perhaps you had something else in mind.

Also, the help mentions that the pop-up capability "supports" images. That may be all I need. The RH mouseover pop-up capability may accommodate that. Maybe I can test it this week.

Mike

Report · Sep 29, 2009

Hi again

Ahhh, my bad. I forgot to mention that Favorites are available in the AIR output. That is probably what they are referring to. Keep in mind that while creating AIR output is certainly an option, it does require you to package it up and install it on an end user's PC just as you would any other application. You have to do this as well as instruct the user to install the AIR runtime.

midlo wrote:
...Also, the help mentions that the pop-up capability "supports" images. That may be all I need. The RH mouseover pop-up capability may accommodate that. Maybe I can test it this week.
Mike

Again, there is no "Mouseover popup". The popup will require a click but will certainly pop up images. There is no mouseover anything in RoboHelp unless you are talking about using a DHTML effect or something in the Skins editor.

Cheers... Rick