How do you change the default tab in a chm file

[stevtar]

I want to make the 'Contents' tab the default in my chm file (the default is currently the 'Index' tab).

I can't locate the dialog which allows you to make this change (though I remember coming across it at some point).

[johnmccallum]

I'm not sure there is a setting. It is usually stored in the user's hh.dat file in order to open how they last left it. If there is a way to override it, I don't know of it.

John

[Amebr-ke0mH4]

There is a Default Tab option in the Window Properties for each window you have defined. (in RH6. I assume there is something similar in RH7?)

I believe John is correct and the default really only applies for the first time the help file is opened and after that it's whatever you user accessed last.

[RoboColum_n_]

Amebr is right if you are producing Webhelp - you can define this in your single source layout properties - but with CHMs there is no "default tab" option.

[Amebr-ke0mH4]

quote:

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Originally posted by: Colum McAndrew
Amebr is right if you are producing Webhelp - you can define this in your single source layout properties - but with CHMs there is no "default tab" option.

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Hmm, that's strange, because I'm looking at a project that has only ever been compiled as CHM and there is a "Default Tab" option in the Window Properties (HTML Help) dialog box. I think you're talking about the SSL and indeed there is no default option there for chm files.

[NL_Derek-GsBV5a]

Is there any possibility of adding a bit of javascript to the default page to force the Contents tab?

--- Derek

[Pete_Lees]

Hi, Derek,

> Is there any possibility of adding a bit of javascript to the default page
> to force the Contents tab?

I'm afraid not, as any script operates within the boundaries of the topic pane only, and not on the viewer as a whole.

The best that you can do, assuming that the help file is called programmatically from an application, is to use the HTML Help API command HH_DISPLAY_TOC to select the Contents tab in the navigation pane. See:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms670083(VS.85).aspx

Otherwise, the most recently-used tab is always at the front when the user opens the help file.

Pete

[RoboColum_n_]

Maybe but I'm wondering if this would overwrite the HH.DAT file or the other way around. Worth testing.

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Amebr.

You don't see these options on the window properties if your project was originally a Microsoft HTML Help project. The window properties are taken from the default SSL so your project must have been a WebHelp project initally and then the default SSL changed. This will retain the window properties of the Webhelp output. If you were to create a new window in your project now, the properties would be different.