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A
Anonymous
July 28, 2014
Question

HTML5 Output - Download Option?

  • July 28, 2014
  • 2 replies
  • 539 views

Hi,

at the moment we are setting up HTML5 outputs containing manuals for our software. Everything works fine thus far, however we are missing an option to download the output as a PDF file as we would like our users to be able to do so.

Is there a hidden (or to me unknown) option, to simply copy&paste the link for the PDF file within FrameMaker and have that option included?

Thanks in advance! I appreciate your help.

Julian

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    2 replies

    Deb Sauer
    Deb Sauer
    Inspiring
    July 20, 2015

    I am also looking for a way to enable our users to download a PDF file of our responsive HTML 5 guides. Our users will access the responsive HTML 5 version of our guides from our website. I want to include a link on the first page of the responsive HTML 5 guide, so they can download the PDF version of the same guide in case they want to print the entire guide. I could include a link that would allow them to open the PDF of the guide, but I prefer a link that automatically downloads the guide. I know that I can add the download attribute to a cross reference, but that requires editing the <a href> tag in the .htm file for the topic (in Notepad or a similar editor) and I am looking for a way to do this that does not require post processing.

    Jeff_Coatsworth
    Community Expert
    Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 20, 2015

    In the TCS world, you would add the PDF file(s) as Baggage files in the RH project and add the HTML code to the topic; but in the FM publishing world, I don’t think you have that sort of control.

    Deb Sauer
    Deb Sauer
    Inspiring
    July 20, 2015

    Thanks for the reply! I was hoping to avoid importing the content into RH. I have upwards of 200 responsive HTML 5 guides, so that would be cumbersome.

    F
    FieryPantone
    Legend
    July 29, 2014

    How do you make the HTML pages accessible to the user? are you using any sort of Help system? I'm thinking that if you tell us a bit more about the process, other people may be able to give you a helpful answer. For myself, I could imagine at least two scenarios: print CSS so users can print a usable hard copy of a single page, or a default link on every page to download the full guide in .pdf … but I'm pretty sure there will be other options.

    A
    Anonymous
    July 29, 2014

    Thanks for your response.

    The HTML files/pages will be uploaded on our webserver so that they are accessible via internet. It's supposed to be an online help. A print option is already implemented but that's not exactly what we are looking for.

    Your second idea comes close to what I was thinking about, however I was hoping for other solutions. But maybe there aren't any and this is the best way to do it.

    F
    FieryPantone
    Legend
    July 30, 2014

    Well, I think one of the characteristic differences between on-line help and "document-based" help is how much info the user is presented with at a time: typically, one small topic (though often with links to others) on-line and a complete information set on paper. And I'm fairly sure that an option to dump all the online topics to a single .pdf wouldn't be altogether satisfactory; so I'd be minded to start with the same stack of information and generate two outputs, which is one of the many things FM does rather well.

    Now back to my current project, reusing introductory/overview material from a monster book to generate html pages for delivery as WebHelp :-}

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