several questions

[mfeik]

Hello all. I'm presently evaluating RoboHelp 6 (trial version) for my company. I am at all familiar with help files other than using them so its been a little bit of a struggle getting started. I have several questions.

My first help file is a very simple one. A single page that does not need a TOC or Index. Is it possible to remove the frame on the left (here the index/TOC are displayed) for something this simple?

Next project will be much larger and also more critical for the company. One of the things I've not been able to do or find info on is trigger popups on mouse over for hot spots on images. Example would be a screen shot image of menu buttons. Is it possible to put hot spots on certain areas of an imagine and have the pop up display when the mouse passes over it, or is it always going to require a left click to trigger the pop up?

These are just a couple questions I have and I'm also trying to see the useful of the forum as well for future reference. I did the small project listed above already but it seems a waste with the left hand frame just sitting there doing nothing. I will by no means be able to do the larger project before the trail period expires (i'm only day 2 but its is a large undertaking) so any help I could get now would be appreciated as I dont want to spend to much time testing something I might not end up using.

[RoboWizard]

Hi mfeik and welcome to our community

For starters, whether you can banish the navigation pane will depend on your output. Or I suppose I should rephrase that to say "How difficult it will be to banish will depend on your output". Note that with RoboHelp, you have different output types available.

Normally the popups are triggered with a mouse click. But you can pretty easily attach something called "Alternative text" or "Tooltips" that consist of only text that will appear when you mouse over.

If you are familiar or comfortable with JavaScript, your imagination is really the limit! Our support forums here are some of the best around with all sorts of folks eager to help.

Hopefully you will find RoboHelp to be as much fun as we do. (I began using in in 1992 and haven't looked back) But beware, it's so addictive (for me anyway) that it will eat your life if you let it!

If you do choose to continue with it, you may benefit from a class. This bit is a little suggestion that if you are interested in training, you may wish to contact me with some details and attractive rates. Don't worry though, this is the only time I'll mention it. I don't hound folks.

Sincerely... Rick

[Cro1410]

Hi mfeik,
There is a very quick and dirty way to trigger pop-ups on mouse overs for images. I am not sure an expert would recommend it, but I tried it and has never failed me yet.
When you create image maps (image hotspots) you should see the following type of code is inserted at the top of htm file:

<map name=MAP298031934>
<area shape=rect
coords="1, 35, 118, 115"
HREF="javascript:BSSCPopup('TopicFileName.htm');"
id=area1><!--begin!kadov{{--><script type="text/javascript"
language=JavaScript1.2><!--kadovFilePopupInit('area1');//--></script><!--}}end!kadov-->
</map>

All you need to do to trigger mouse over pop-up is to edit this code as follows: :

<map name=MAP298031934>
<area shape=rect
coords="1, 35, 118, 115"
HREF="javascript:BSSCPopup('TopicFileName.htm');"
onMouseOver="javascript:BSSCPopup('TopicFileName.htm');"
id=area1><!--begin!kadov{{--><script type="text/javascript"
language=JavaScript1.2><!--
kadovFilePopupInit('area1');
//--></script><!--}}end!kadov-->
</map>

Unfortunately, you cannot remove the "HREF" from the code as the js function expects such an argument. It doesn't really matter as if the user clicks on the image, the pop-up will just redisplay.

-Chris