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Anonymous
May 30, 2008
Question

Mixing units of measure

  • May 30, 2008
  • 5 replies
  • 517 views
Working in RH7, with content distributed as Webhelp, any reason to prefer one unit of measure over another? Does HTML or do browsers generally handle any better than others? RH logically seems to require points for fonts, defaults to pixels for graphics, but what about setting (1) line spacing in styles, including the RH native Lists style, or setting (2) table column width. I have never switched to a monitor with a different pixel size and had things look messed up, but wouldn’t that happen?
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5 replies

Anonymous
June 4, 2008
Yes, it's the mixing of print measurements with electronic media measurements that makes me wonder where things might go wrong, or why they don't. A pixel is a thing of arbitrary size, not a dimension, right? So the displayed size of a picture sized to 200 x 150 pixels depends on screen resolution. A point is a fixed dimension, yet the displayed size of text that sized and spaced in points also changes depending on screen resolution. So points are not treated as fixed dimensions. At least not always. Why not? And where not? And what happens when you move content from an electronic display environment to a print environment when, for example, you convert from Robohelp topics to Word documents? If no one ever has problems these inconsistent units of measure, what's going on behind the scenes that makes it all work out so well?
MergeThis
MergeThis
Inspiring
June 4, 2008
Don't know...don't care.

This whole "better" thing doesn't usually help anyone looking for specific answers to specific problems in this forum.


Good luck,
Leon
Anonymous
June 3, 2008
That's interesting, thanks.

About line spacing, why are pixels better than points?
MergeThis
MergeThis
Inspiring
June 4, 2008
Ah, another situation in which there might not be a "better."

If you need to set the spacing of graphics and text in combination, it would be best to be using the same measure (pixels) throughout. In addition, points and inches are more old-school (printed documentation), whereas pixels are better interpreted by Help viewers (hh, browsers, etc.).

However, your ultimate solution will speak to your own comfort zone, which only you can determine.


Good luck,
Leon
MergeThis
MergeThis
Inspiring
June 2, 2008
Line spacing is usually best done in pixels.

As to tables, percentages are the best method, since printing (either from WebHelp or from a Printed Doc output) handles percentages much better than specific numeric values. Don't obsess over the exact percentages for Column 1 (or Columns 1 & 2, etc.), because the HTML protocol automatically reserves enough space (from left to right) to handle up to the longest single word string in each column. For example, Column 1 will be increased to 13% if necessary, overriding your 10% configuration.


Good luck,
Leon
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