Custom global footer - doable or not?

[goopher]

Hello all,

I am trying to create a GLOBAL footer for RoboHelp HTML. By that I mean a global footer that always is pesent at the bottom of the frameset / framework - i.e. not a topic footer. I have managed to tweak the header to my liking but since all other pages on our site have a footer at the bottom, I want to create the same for our RoboHelp pages. Anyone know how to do this? Thanks in advance!

[Pete_Lees]

Hi, goopher, and welcome,

You may want to try the techniques described in the following article, which regular contributor MergeThis recently drew to our attention (so credit to him):

http://www.xoc.net/works/tips/non-scrolling-region.asp

Either technique would suit. In each case, you'd need to swap around the scrolling and non-scrolling regions so that the non-scrolling one is at the bottom rather than the top. I guess you could use a "snippet", if working with RoboHelp 7, to reuse the same block of HTML code in each non-scrolling region. There are alternatives involving JavaScript, however, if snippets aren't an option for you.

Pete

[goopher]

Hello, and thank you for your instant reply! The problem is, however, that there's a frameset involved - that splits the screen vertically, making it impossible to run a footer at the bottom... I'd like to introduce a new frame at the bottom of the page that stretches all the way from left to right of the browser - I think this is the only way to solve my problem. Any tricks for this? It seems that the built-in frameset options does not include an option for this... Any ideas? Cheers, and thanks again! / Jonas

[MergeThis]

The second solution in that non-scrolling article uses a table, not a frame.


Good luck,
Leon

[MergeThis]

Hold on here!

When you say "there's a frameset involved - that splits the screen vertically, making it impossible to run a footer at the bottom," do you mean that your topics contain a frameset split vertically, or are you talking about the RH frameset that splits the topic from the TOC/Index/Search pane?

Getting back to your original question, have you read the RH help on templates? You can assign content to headers and footers which will carry over nicely.


Good luck,
Leon

[goopher]

Hi, and thnks for all your time & effort! Yes, I mean the "RH frameset that splits the topic from the TOC/Index/Search pane". I want to add one more frame at the bottom - a frame that would feature the full-width footer - but I don't know how to do it. You know the tricks? Thank you! Sincerely / Jonas

[MergeThis]

Can't be done, sorry - unless you want to completely eliminate the TOC/Index/Search pane and include some form of navigation in each topic that would replace those functions.


Good luck,
Leon

[goopher]

OK... damnation! OK, I'll find some other solution... However, do you know how to make the top frame higher? I mean, how to edit the default RH frameset parameters to make the top frame a certain height? There's supposed to be a frameset file in my RH assets - but there is none. Thanks again! / Jonas

[Guest]

Can you create a bottom frameset that is specified in the .htm start page? Just a thought--I don't know much about framesets.

--Ben

[Guest]

I know that at least in a FlashHelp skin file (.fhs), you can specify the pixel height of the header/toolbar frame. It may be the same for WebHelp. You never mentioned which output type you're using. If you edit the skin file in your source files, the change will apply every time you generate your output.

--Ben

[goopher]

I use HTML output... But I keep running into trouble. Have I understood this correctly: When you create a new HTML help project, the system ALWAYS give you the same HTML framework in terms of numbers of frames and their positions? MUST I use frames or can I do it in a single page fashion? I get no options when I set up a new project. Thank you for bearing with a beginner! / Jonas

[Guest]

I'm a little confused. Your output is Microsoft HTML Help--so your output is a .chm file? (I don't take that for granted in this forum because I think it's misnamed. There's a RoboHelp for Word forum, and then there is an HTML Help forum, so I think this one is supposed to be just RoboHelp HTML.)

If you are doing MS HTML Help, I don't see how you can make that look anything like a company website (unless the website has a flat, gray look). They're two totally different animals. WebHelp or FlashHelp skins could be configured to look like a website.

If you could come back and clarify whether you're creating a .chm or WebHelp/FlashHelp files, we can go from there. It's all HTML.

[goopher]

Thank you - again! I am using the WebHelp output - so it's all HTML based, displayed in a browser. My main concern is that I can't seem to be able to do changes to my frameset:

It seems to always be one frame at the top for the tools, one to the right for content and one to the left for TOC - is this editable at all or is this how it has to work?

To match our company website, we'd like to create a system that can have a solid header and footer with our corporate design and have all the actual RH stuff happening "between" the header and the footer.

Can it be done or is it days & weeks of work? Cheers! / Jonas

[Guest]

I suggest doing some quick research on the Web about creating a frame at the bottom of a page, and/or ask a Web developer if that can be done. As I mentioned earlier, I don't know enough about framesets to say it can or can't be done or how long it would take to set it up.

I would think the framesets would be editable, but it would be safest to make a backup copy of your project first (in case tinkering breaks something) and have someone who's familiar with framesets take a look at it. RH's default is a two- or three-pane layout, so doing a footer frame is beyond its scope and would require manual programming.

[ameurope2]

On the topic of header and footers, I created a footer which I will apply to all topics, but because I have my breadcrumb trail at the bottom of my pages the footer actually appears just above this breadcrumb trail.

Is there a way to have the breadcrumb trail appear at the bottom of a topic BUT above the footer?

Thanks in advance, novice here just learning. I am creating a Webhelp project.
anna