AirHelp printing: can RH redirect user print requests to PDF/.doc versions? Or can the print menu be disabled perhaps?

[mindv@mp]

Hello. I am looking for a way to either: remove the 'Print' menu option in an AirHelp app... or if that is not possible, some way to point that menus options to print PDF or perhaps .doc versions of my content (as the quality of printing from AirHelp is atrocious at best)? Essentially I seek any way to improve upon my customers' experience when and if they migrate to that pesky print button.  Unfortunately however, I have yet to find anything. Is there a way to do one or both of these tasks, or if not... perhaps there is another way to improve the quality of printing from AirHelp (or remove the option entirely)?  Any advice would be most appreciated, thank you!

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I think you’re posting in the wrong forum – you want the one that discusses AIR apps – this one is for AIRHELP produced by RoboHelp as a help output.

[mindv@mp]

Thanks for your reply! I should have clarified... our project is output as AirHelp from RH 9

[Peter Grainge]

There is a lot of information about AIR Help on my site but solving your problem is not there. Print is bad and you cannot force how a user prints. Sorry but you are stuck with it.

Normally I would say submit a feature request but it's the same in Rh11 and there have been no changes to AIR Help in recent versions of AIR Help. Hint!

Print is what it is. Sorry.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

In that case, you’ll need to polish up your AIR and Flash programming skills to go under the hood to hack the AIRHelp itself – there’s no way to control the Print part from within RH.

[Peter Grainge]

You cannot go under the hood on this one. The app that produces the AirHelp is not there in a form it can be worked on.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Looks like there’s an AIRSDK present in my install of RH10, but I have no idea if any of the components can be hacked (I’m no programmer) ;>)

[Peter Grainge]

I think that would be like having Rh and part of a project. The missing bits will stop you working editing how he AIR app is generated.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

LOL, probably! I guess the OP could fake it out by editing the Print icons to make them appear as a small block of background colour & then use the Skin editor to swap out the “normal” print icon for the “doctored” one. I had the same issue with the RSS feed – I might try that to make it “disappear” ;>)

[mindv@mp]

Thank you both for the information! Personally I think it is somewhat silly for this project to have such a high priority on printing, but alas, atop the food chain I do not sit  LOL.  I suppose I understand Adobe's lack of attention to printing in this case, though I do wish they would at least allow RH users to opt-out of the option altogether (maybe there is a feature request here after all?).  I'm still interested in somehow "vanishing" the print menu option and then perhaps adding a topic full of exported PDFs which the user could open individually and print if need be... if I find success I will report back, but I am not all that optimistic at this point.  At any rate, thank you gentlemen for your time and input!

p.s. I have been to your site numerous times Peter, and consider it to be an excellent collection of all things RoboHelp

[Peter Grainge]

Thank you for the kind words.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[mindv@mp]

Just as a belated follow-up... I was able to make the print icon vanish... sort of.  By replacing the 4 icon states of the print popup graphic with a transparent PNG at 35x24 px. However, when this clean, empty area is clicked for some reason, the hover text associated with printing in the LNG file still appear... but will take what I can get as far as this issue goes.  Thanks again!

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

To tidy it up even further, you could edit the hover text to not say anything – the LNG file can be edited through the Project Settings