How could I change the heade in Flash Help

[Guest]

Hi everybody,
I am pretty new to this forum, that is I just began to probe with RH7, and it is going well so far, because of your help and the technical service's help from Adobe.
I tried different layers to see which one is the most appropriate for my project, and the Flash is very interesting.
However, I would like to put a logo or a text in the header (the coloured one), and I have no clue how, and what tool I should use.
Is anybody familiar with Flash Help tweaking?
Thank you,
Bogdan

[Guest]

You'll need Adobe Flash. Open skin_background_tb.fla in Flash, import and place the image or type the text, and export as a SWF. The FLA and SWF files for your skin can be found in the !SkinSubFolder! directory in your project source files.

Hope this helps,

Ben

[Guest]

Thank you very much Ben!
You are a lifesaver!
Bogdan

[Captiv8r]

Hi all

Ben, I might suggest you add a huge disclaimer there. From what you posted, it would seem that you are possibly well versed in Flash. Good on ya!

For Bogdan, maybe you know it as well. If so, terrific! But most help authors aren't going to find this process so easy. First, you have to actually have Adobe Flash installed on your PC. Assuming you have passed that hurdle, the next step is actually knowing how to comfortably use it!

Cheers all... Rick

[Guest]

Not extremely well versed, but I can sing a few lines.

True, that post was the Reader's Digest version. Bogdan (or anyone else), if you need more detail, feel free to post back--I just didn't want to post an entire instruction manual if it wasn't needed.

--Ben

[Guest]

Fair enough.
Thank you both Ben & Rick

Bogdan

[Guest]

Alright, I seem to be experiencing some problems. When I import skin_background_tb.fla into Flash, it doesn't show me the image, but a small menu that has the name of the file on it. I can't do anything with the menu however. When I tried to just paste the image onto skin_background_tb.fla, that didn't work either. I'm not skilled in Flash. Any help would be appreciated!

[Guest]

So, yeah.
I am a totally new user of Flash. I never used it before.
So, if it would not be too much to ask, I would like just to be able to embed that jpg in the top bar on the FlashHelp.

Thank you,
Bogdan

[Guest]

I see that I am not getting any response regarding that, though Ben offered to help previously.
Is this because this is a RoboHelp forum and the question is about Flash, or is it something else.
Can anybody help with that?
Thank you,
Bogdan

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Bogdan.

I expect this is right. It would be fair to say that Flash knowledge here is at a premium. Have you tried the flash forum?

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply Colum.
I posted this request here because Ben, as you can see the discussions above, offered to give some advice.
I also posted it on the flash forum, however nobody looked at it yet.
I am waiting for the Flash forum to react, and hope that perhaps Ben, or somebody else, will take a short look at that and give me some advice.
Bogdan

[Guest]

Bogdan, sorry I didn't get back to you sooner; I just got back into town yesterday from a conference.

You said that you are importing skin_background_tb.fla into Flash. So you are going to File > Import? Instead, open that file in Flash directly so you are editing that file. It sounds like you may be importing skin_background_tb.fla into an empty, unsaved canvas.

Let me know if that helps you get past the problem.

Ben

[Guest]

Missed a bit. To open skin_background_tb.fla in Flash, double-click on it in Windows Explorer, or after opening the Flash program, go to File > Open and select skin_background_tb.fla.

[Guest]

Hi Ben,

I managed to do the opening, however it is not that what is bothering me, it is the embedding of that simple jpg into that bar that is creating me headaches.
I posted this issue also on the Flash site and nobody even touched it.
So, I am kind of alone in that.
You are the only one who contacted me about that till now.

Thank you,
Bogdan

[Guest]

Sorry,
I did not see that you wrote something else before that last messsage.
I am opening actually an fsw file, not a fla.
So, you say that I actually should open a fla file?
I opened the fsw and it showed me all kind of things I did not know what to do with.
Bogdan

[Guest]

I'm not familiar with the .fsw file type. Where are you finding that file? Is it named skin_background_tb?

Try searching for skin_background_tb.fla in your project's source files. I think .fla is your best bet.

It's been long enough since I've started a brand new FlashHelp project that I can't remember if the "FlashHelp Default" skin is included in the project automatically or if you have to generate the layout with a skin from the gallery before any Flash skin files appear in your source files. If you haven't done so already, open the FlashHelp layout dialog, select a skin, and generate the layout. Once you've done this, you should see a folder within the !SkinSubFolder! directory that has the name of the skin you selected. That skin folder should contain all the .fla and .swf files for the skin. Those .fla files are the ones you would edit to change the skin. (Whenever you edit a .fla file, you then export it as a .swf movie to that same skin folder, then generate the layout again to see the results.)

[Captiv8r]

Hi Ben

I'm guessing FSW is a mistype and what was intended was SWF.

Cheers... Rick

[Guest]

Thanks, Rick. That's what Google thought, too.

A SWF is a finished movie, so I doubt it's editable. FLA is the editable version.

[Guest]

Sorry for the typo.
Yes, there are only swf files around.
I managed to open that file, however did not manage to do too much with it, or I do not know how I could do anything with it.
If it is a finished movie file, then it is not editable, right?
Then the only option might be to make one from scratch, I guess.
There are no fla files in the Flash project.
Thank you,
Bogdan

[Guest]

I think that this particular file may be straightforward enough for creating a new one to work (I don't think it has any ActionScript or events in it).

If you create a new canvas that's 1200 px wide by 50 px high, insert a colored rectangle to cover the canvas, and then import and place your JPG over the rectangle, that's probably all you need. Save the file as skin_background_tb.fla, then export as skin_background_tb.swf.

I'm confused as to why there are no FLA files in your project source files. Another place you could check is in the FlashHelp SDK files provided where your RoboHelp program files are installed. Mine are here: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp 7\FlashHelp SDK\Standard\

There are both FLA and SWF files there for a default skin. You could use the FLA toolbar file from there to create a new SWF.

[Guest]

Thank you Ben.
You are a life saver!
I will try this and keep in touch.
Thank you again,
Bogdan

[Guest]

Hi guys,
It is me again.
I managed what Ben suggested to modify that header, however the one I found in the RoboHelp directory he suggested, is gray in colour, and after I embed the logo in it, and recompile the project, the one blue that I chose (from the MX template) is not changed in any way.
I checked both the fla and swf files and they look correct, so I have no idea what I am doing wrong.
Are those the incorrect files. Should I look for the files from the MX template, and if so could anybody tell me where I could find them?
Thank you,
Bogdan

[Guest]

If you exported a SWF from the FLA file in the SDK folder, the default location was probably that same folder. If you didn't copy the SWF or export it to your RoboHelp project's skin folder, you won't see any change in your output.

Can you confirm whether you exported or copied the toolbar SWF to your project's skin folder? If you didn't, copy it, and generate FlashHelp again.

[Guest]

I did copy it in my project folder, however the colour that it is in the SDK folder is gray, and my project is blue. I will have to work on that.
After I copied it in the project folder, I was able to see the changes I have done, only the colour was gray.
As I read the instructions in the SDK folder, I thought that if I change those files and export them in SDK, then I will have a new skin of my own.
I would have liked to be able to change the MX skin, however I did not find any fla files pertaining to that skin.
Thank you for your response Ben.
Bogdan

[Guest]

I hope I've been able to help a little bit and haven't made things worse! Is there some way for you to show me a screenshot of the blue toolbar you've created and the gray version that shows up in your output?

I usually don't work with the SDK directly; I pick a skin from the gallery that I like, generate my output, and then edit the skin files that show up in the !SkinSubFolder! directory. That's the only way I can think of to edit the skin files of a particular skin in the gallery rather than what's generically provided in the SDK.