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A
AnandUtpala
Known Participant
May 20, 2020
Question

Frameless output: How to make imported PDF files open within the project skin and not in a new tab

  • May 20, 2020
  • 6 replies
  • 1121 views

I have created a topic that contains a link to a PDF document. No matter which display setting I apply to the PDF hyperlink, the PDF document opens in a new tab. It does not open within the display frame of the project (the skin). It is difficult to navigate back to the topic or home page from the new tab (as it contains only the open PDF without any other trimmings of the project I am building). How do I get the linked PDF to appear within the frame of my project (and not in a new tab)? 

Steps I took:

1. Created a topic

2. Added an image with a hyperlink to the PDF document

3. Rt-click on image with hyperlink > Edit hyperlink

4. In the Link to window, under Display in, I have selected Frame > Parent Frame.

(Here, I have tried Frame > New Window, Frame > Same Frame, Frame > Whole Page, but nothing worked). Every display setting opens my PDF in a new tab, taking the PDF document out of my 'project container'/skin). I can't afford to lose the navigation because I will be linking multiple PDF files to the content. 

Any pointers? Thanks.

 

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    6 replies

    A
    AnandUtpalaAuthor
    Known Participant
    May 22, 2020

    Thank you Peter and Amber. 

    A
    Community Expert
    AmebrCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 22, 2020

    Your best bet would be to check the documentation for the analytics tool you're using and search for how other people are tracking pdfs on their websites.

    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 21, 2020

    To the best of my knowledge, you can only track calls to an HTML page.

     

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    A
    AnandUtpalaAuthor
    Known Participant
    May 21, 2020

    Thank you for your responses, Peter and Amber. From what you say, it certainly looks like PDFs will always open outside the frame. Since PDFs open outside of the frame, I am wondering how we would add analytics to those PDF pages to monitor customer visits. If a customer got to a PDF by running a Search (instead of through linear navigation within the project), how would I monitor that? What is the best way to apply and monitor analytics on pdf page hits through Search? 

    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 21, 2020

    Amber is absolutely right. With frameless by definition the PDF cannot open within what would have been the topic frame as there is no frame to open in.

     

    The various options such as Whole Page have to be there when authoring as the topic could be for an output where they are valid. At that point RoboHelp doesn't know what skin you will use.

     

     

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    A
    Community Expert
    AmebrCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 21, 2020

    When I test with Page Default (none), the pdf opens in the same tab. Clicking Back takes me back to the help.

     

    Because frameless doesn't have any frames, I don't think the pdf can open within the skin. (I can imagine it might be possible with fancy custom javascript, though.)

     

    You might better off deliberately opening pdfs in new tabs. Perhaps it's more obvious to close the pdf tab than press the back button to go back to the help?

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