Breadcrumbs in CHM?

[Jared Hess]

I have them enabled for our WebHelp output and find them very useful for knowing where you are contextually in a project. Is there a way to enable these inside a .CHM output as well?

[RoboWizard]

Hi Jared

While RoboHelp 7 introduced Breadcrumbs they are a WebHelp and FlashHelp only feature. I believe RoboHelp 8 offers this capability for CHM files.

Cheers... Rick

[RoboColum_n_]

Rick's correct. RH8 has the ability for breadcrumbs in CHMs. They are set via an option in the single source layout.

[Jared Hess]

Thanks for the info.

Personally, I would like to upgrade to RH8, but finances are really tight with the messy economy, and our company is cutting personnel and budgets; so it probably won't happen right now.

I'm wondering if there are external tools (OpenSource ones?) out there that can do essentially accomplish the same thing. Any ideas?

[RoboColum_n_]

I don't think so Jared as CHM files are a single compiled version of the individual topics. I can't see how you can amend the output of that compiled output. The only way would be to use an open source HAT and I'm not aware if one exists with that functionality.

[Jared Hess]

I was thinking along the lines of decompiling the CHM file, doing whatever is needed to get breadcrumbs that way, and then recompiling. But I don't know if recompiling outside of RH would disable existing RH functionality (such as browse sequences, glossary tab). Anyway, it's not a huge issue. I'll try to do some research when I get time.

(I should say "if I get time". What with the hiring freeze and company reoganizations, I inherited about six more projects! Hopefully that translates into job security at least...)

[RoboColum_n_]

Compiling a project outside of RH with things like DHTML and browse sequences would probably fail. Maybe decompile, do what you have to do and import back into a RH project may work?

BTW we all feel your pain. Thankfully we are still recruiting but our workload is horrendous. Maybe a dual monitor approach will help

[Jared Hess]

Well, I do compile outside of RH on our foreign languages and DHTML works fine (drop down and expanding links), but browse sequences and glossary tab don't work. Maybe I'm just missing whatever component makes them work.

(Yeah, I do have two monitors already. Maybe I need four. :-) )

[RoboColum_n_]

Yes browse sequences and glossaries are RH specific and require the hhactivex.dll file.

[Jared Hess]

Yeah. We do have that file installed and registered but they still don't appear unless compiled within RH, so I'm guessing something else is needed.

[RoboColum_n_]

Maybe errr....RoboHelp 😉

[Jared Hess]

Heh... Yeah, probably. 😄
Anyway thanks and take care.

[RoboWizard]

Hi Jared

You might try this and see what you get.

Copy the project and generate WebHelp to get modified topics. I'd suggest turning off the "Show navigation pane link in topics" option.

In that copy of the project, replace the source files with the WebHelp output topics. (they should have the code for the breadcrumb trails).

Compile a CHM from that and see how it looks and behaves.

Cheers... Rick

[Jared Hess]

Interesting suggestion, Rick. I'll have to give that a try. Thanks!

[johnmccallum]

Jared,

I have no trouble compiling with HelpWorkshop and maintaining browse sequences. If the files are there (i.e. the project created in RoboHelp, with RH features), I can then do the tweaks I need to the .hhp file and then compile with HelpWorkshop, and the browse sequences remain. I assume I could also edit topics and still have it work.

John