Can you change the TOC font size and pane size?

[SteveCTWriter]

I am using RH 9 to generate WebHelp whose output is ultimately being viewed by a QT browser on a Linux platform machine. In my WebHelp settings, I am using "(Traditional style -no skin)" and using "Show/hide navigation pane" in my topic navigation.

Because of the small size screen that it is being viewed on, the default TOC pane size is too big (takes up half the screen), and the TOC font is too small (defaults to 10 pt). I can't seem to find any where in the RH UI to change these two settings. Does anyone know the specific output file(s) where these are being stored so can I change these settings manually? I know that if I manually change them outside of RH, I'll need to do it every time file I publish my help system, but that's an acceptable workaround to me, given the importance of this issue to me.

[Peter Grainge]

Try

http://www.robowizard.com/RoboWizard/NewProject.htm#Downloads/Skinny_on_Skins.htm

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[SteveCTWriter]

Peter - I downloaded the webhelp.chm from your link above, but when I can launch the chm file, I only see the TOC (no topics display). It looks impressive (if I only can read it!).

[Captiv8r]

Hi Steve

Sounds like you missed seeing this link on the page where you downloaded it from:

Click image below for larger and clearer view

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcerStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks

[SteveCTWriter]

Duh - that worked (thanks).

After reading the wondeful tips you've created and asembled, I tried creating a skin as my first line of attack. In the skin editor, it does allow you to change the fonts size for the TOC, so I did that via RH. For the opening TOC pane width, I used your tip to edit SkinName.skn file via Notepad and changed the Frameset Cols to a smaller value.

The results, however, were disappointing. It seems my browser doesn't work well using a skin - all I saw was a blank TOC pane, no books, no default topic displayed, etc. (see image below).

However, it does display properly in IE 9 and Firefox (see image below), exactly the way I wanted it to!

In your topics, you mention saving the SkinName.skn file in the correct format. I tired both ANSI and UTF-8, but it didn't matter.

Is there anything else I need to know about skins that maybe I have missed?

My next line of defense is to go back and not using a skin and just edit the values in RH-generated output files. I will try editing whtdhtml.htm per your topic "Setting a specific font for the TOC" and see what that does.

[SteveCTWriter]

Update - I regenerated my help without a skin (see settings image below), and then edited the font settings in whtdhtml.htm. Unfortunately, nothing changed in the TOC pane when viewing it on ANY browser, so I'm inclined to think that that file is not used for my type of output (maybe because of  the "Pure HTML" setting?).

I've even as gone as far as editing the following files in my WebHelp folder (using Notepad) and bumping up the font sizes to "11pt" within each, but none of these files seem to affect my browser viewing:

whtdhtml.htm

whthost.js

Whgdata > whnvt30.htm

There's GOT to be file somewhere that the browsers are using to pick up the TOC font size and pane width!!!

[SteveCTWriter]

Further Update - via some helpful contacts from both within (Anjaneai) and outside of Adobe (Neil Perlin), I have found a solution to ONE of my issues - changing the default pane width of the TOC (while not using a skin):

• To change the navigation pane width for one output only, open the start page in the output folder (e.g., index.htm) using a Notepad and locate the code “whPfset" cols="260,*” where 260 is the width of the TOC pane. I changed 260 to 170 for my purposes.
• To change the naviagtion pane width for ALL (future RH) outputs, go to <InstallFolder>\WebHelp5Ext\template_defaultskin\ and edit whd_home.htm file using Notepad. Locate all instances of whPfset\" cols=\"260,* as well as the line getElement("whPfset").cols = "260,*"; where 260 is the width of the TOC pane, and change accordingly.

My other issue is still unresolved - changing the default font size of the TOC (while not using a skin).