Can we have a PDF button?

[siddbathia]

Hi,

I just added a button which directly prints the topic which the user is currently seen in the TOC.Is there a way i can add a button (next to TOC, Index) which would convert the currently seen topics in PDF format for the users to save it for later?

Regards,
Siddb

[Roger_N]

Siddb -

You need to investigate two options: will your pages be generated via a desktop or a server side PDF generator...? If your organization is large and has aspirations of becoming paperless, then you'll want a centralized, server-side PDF creation module.

if you only have a limited number of users, a desktop creation tool might be more appropriate.

Rather thank suggest products I haven't tried, I would suggest seaching Adobe and the Web for "server side pdf generation" - you'll have a lot to look at...

[siddbathia]

Well we would be integrating our current product (Webbased) along with which we plan to provide Robohelp (HTML) as the key help file for the users. What my Project manager needs to find out is after mapping ID's, can there be a facility provided to the users where they can generate PDF's of only the content files they are currently looking at. For Example if i have Topics A, B and C in the table of contents and the user is currently seeing Topic C, can he/she hit the PDF button to convert and save that perticular topic in PDF format.

[Chet Zeshonski]

Alternative suggestion: Generate the PDF files on your side, link to them from the HTML files, and distribute them with your Help system.

[RoboColum_n_]

You can't get a help file to create a PDF on the fly. What you can do, is create a PDF of each topic that can be printed by the user. The later is relatively straight forward. You could not do this from a print button on the toolbar however as it would not know which PDF to print. You could add a button inside the topic to print the PDF though.

[MergeThis]

Your development staff should be doing the heavy lifting on this one. There are PDF generator apps out there that can be incorporated into your product for this purpose (pdfFactory, Panda, etc.). Your developers should investigate the specific interface and licensing issues and work with you on implementing an executable that will be launched from the button in your help.


Good luck,
Leon

[siddbathia]

Could you please guide me as to how i could add a button that would generate PDF within the topic itself?

[MergeThis]

Sorry, no.

See my previous reply about this being a case in which the developers need to license and implement a commercial pdf generator within the app. You, then, simply point your button to the exe, dll, whatever, that they have established.

Don't forget this important point: launching an already created pdf file is simply a case of launching the Adobe Reader to display that pdf file, which RH can do; whereas you're looking to actually generate a pdf file on the fly. No HAT can do that!

Of course, you could generate pdf files for each "book" and provide a button with a tool tip that says "Print this section", or some such phrase. This can be easily replicated by creating separate Printed Doc SSL's for each section.


Good luck,
Leon

[siddbathia]

alright i got it....thanks a lot Leon.....Thanks a lot guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!