Trying to have navigation pane minimized initially

[Guest]

I am generating webhelp and need the navigation pane to come up minimized.

Anyone know how I can do this?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Generally that’s done as a CSH call – it strips off the “full” panes and just gives you the topic.

[Guest]

I'm unfamiliar with that. It would seem like it would be an option somewhere to generate with the pane already minimized. I want it there, I just want it minimized.

[Captiv8r]

Hi Rick

What Jeff is referring to is a context-sensitive call that would open only the topic of interest. But in thinking about this, you could also accomplish something similar quite easily.

When you generate your WebHelp, one of the SSL options is named "Show Navigation Pane Link in Topics". If you generated with that feature enabled, here is how a page behaves.

Normally, one follows a link to the "WebHelp Start Page" to open the WebHelp. This page launches a cascade of events. Sniffing the browser to see what is being used and making small adjustments accordingly. It builds a frameset and loads each frame with content. As a final action, it loads the default topic into the topic pane.

As your user navigates the help, different topics are loaded into the topic pane. Note that each topic that loads into the topic pane has its own unique address. So it's possible to obtain the URL that would point to only that individual topic. And with that option mentioned earlier in place, as the topic loads into the browser, JavaScript code checks to see if the topic is being loaded into the topic pane of the WebHelp frameset. If not, then a link is added to the topic that allows the user to click in order to see the topic within the full frameset.

So one thought would be to create a special topic that you would point to in order to not have the navigational elements present. Then allow the user to click the link that would then open the topic within the full WebHelp frameset.

Cheers... Rick

[Guest]

Cativ8r,

Yes! I realized that myself after thinking about it a little more. I had just tested it before I read your email! Thanks for the very complete answer though!

[Guest]

Ok, the above answer still doesn't solve my problem of minimizing the nav pane on startup.

I need Webhelp to come up with the navigation pane minimized rather than maximized. If I can click the "x" and minimize it after it loads, I should be able to tell it to load in the minimized state shouldn't I?

[Willam_van_Weelden]

Something like this?

http://www.wvanweelden.eu/blog/2012/08/03/hide-webhelp-navigation-pane-load

Greet,

Willam

[JustinIPP]

I'm actually having the exact opposite problem of Rick, the original poster. I want my navigation pane to display in my product UI when the webhelp is launched. Currently, it's launching hidden in the product and I'm not sure why.

I'm using RH 10.

Here's what I'm doing:

1. I right-click on my Webhelp SSL and bring up Webhelp Settings.

2. I select the Navigation setting.

3. I click Edit next to In Topic Navigation.

4. In the In Topic Naviation Options dialog box, I uncheck the Show/Hide Navigation Pane check box. It was selected previously and was I'm assuming producing the single-pane output with the Show/Hide button in the top right corner of the topic pane.

5. Click OK.

6. Save and Generate. Help launches with the navigation pane displayed.

7. I hand my webhelp SSL output to development.

8. Test the help output in the product and it still launches as a single-pane with the Show/Hide button displaying. Almost as if something is getting lost in the translation between generating in RH and in development.

The single-pane webhelp window that launches is a CS link too, i.e., the user clicks the help link on a tab in the UI and he sees a topic on the tab that he just clicked in.

Is this a problem on the RH side, or something I need to fix with development? Under the gun to fix this as this is something I told management we could launch the help in a tri-pane format without the Show/Hide button.

[Captiv8r]

Justin, you need to re-read the thread. Earlier in the thread I gave a bit of an explanation of how the SSL option for Show/Hide Navigation. It's not something you even configure in the SSL.It simply governs whether or not a specific bit of JavaScript gets added to the topics as they are massaged during the WebHelp generation process.

If you want the full navigation showing when the help is launched, you need to open the Project Set-up pod and configure the window you are using to do just that. And you need to ensure your developer is calling that window.

You might also want to investigate Peter Grainge's site at the link below:

Click here to view Peter's site

Cheers... Rick