Skip to main content
J
James_K__Patrick
Inspiring
August 14, 2009
Question

Appearance of buttons for browse sequence

  • August 14, 2009
  • 1 reply
  • 509 views

Hi all,

I just need a sanity check here (RH8).

It looks to me like a browse sequence is presented in CHM files with Previous and Next buttons (so labeled), a dropdown list of browse sequences, and a graphical representation of the topics in the browse sequence across the top of the topic.

It also appears to me that in WebHelp output, the only thing indicating a browse sequence are unlabeled Previous and Next buttons appearing above the TOC.

Is this correct, or am I just not enabling things correctly in my WebHelp output?

If it's just the 2 unlabeled buttons that appear in the WebHelp output, how in the world are users supposed to pickup on that?

Thanks,

Patrick

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 15, 2009

    You understand it correctly and I agree it is difficult as people are used to Previous and Next relating to the sequence they have navigated through, rather than a logical sequence defined by the author.

    The CHM sequence bar cannot be replicated in webhelp so what do you do? Can you suggest another way to represent it or deal with the issue? It would be interesting to get some views on this.

    See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

    Help others by clicking Correct Answer if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.
    J
    James_K__PatrickAuthor
    Inspiring
    August 16, 2009

    Peter,

    Thanks for the confirmation.

    I guess there's a couple of ways folks could deal with this in WebHelp tho I am certainly no XHTML guru. They could manually create a set of links to display at the top of a group of topics, perhaps putting this navigation in a frameset? Not very friendly, and tough to update/maintain.

    Or (ab)use the mini-TOC and have a series of subtopics of subtopics that would be followed in waterfall fashion. Or completely hack the mini-TOC structure and CSS to get a series of previous/next buttons along with the subtopics.

    I'm sure there are folks out there with better ideas than mine.

    Patrick

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices