Customer blocks access to internet making default.css and font.css hang until timeout

[Joe@Majiq]

So, we've got a customer who doesn't allow internet access from the server they're using to host our application help. This causes to default.css and font.css hang until they timeout.

The issue seems to be this line in the files...

@Import url(http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans:300,400,600,700,800);

What should we do? It doesn't look like the customer is going to allow internet access from that server. Can I just delete those files? Or that line from those files?

Thanks!

[Peter Grainge]

You can set up font awesome for offline use. See Fonts (grainge.org)

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My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Joe@Majiq]

Thanks! But I seem to be missing/missunderstanding something important.

On the page you linked to, I see an red arrow with a circle around it. In the text above the arrow, it says, "This image is from the desktop version of Font Awesome. All that has been done is to open the SVG downloaded from Font Awesome in a text editor, paste that text in source view and apply the class."

The problem is that I cannot find an SVG to download from Font Awesome. And even if I could, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to paste into the source view or how to apply the class.

Is it at all possible not to use these google fonts? How can I root them out of my help system?

Thanks!

[Joe@Majiq]

Would it be easier to have the customer install the Open Sans font on their server? Would that prevent the @Import commnad from trying to access that website?

[Amebr]

Peter mistyped when he mentioned font awesome.

You can either download the google font (from fonts.google.com), change  @ import to @ font-face as per Peter's site and distribute the font file with your help.

Or you can delete the @ import references and change the font used throughout your project to a websafe font family. You probably need to use a text editor to see the specific locations that need to change from Open Sans to your font-family. A fairly standard websafe font-family would probably look something like "font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;".

[Amebr]

I should note I haven't tried doing either, so there's a chance it's not as simple as the theory. 🙂

[Peter Grainge]

@Amebr Thank you for picking that up. Yes I replied in haste as I switched off the computer at bed time. Apologies.

Joe@Majiq On this page you can download the project behind the demo in my previous link. It includes Google fonts.  

Using Font Awesome, Google Fonts, @font-face and SVGs in RoboHelp (grainge.org)

You will need to upgrade it and I thought you could then adapt the Google Fonts page in the way @Amebr has described. That will enable you to get it working without touching your main project until you are happy with it.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Joe@Majiq]

Thank you both very much for your help. I've been trying to exercise the demon, err, Open Sans, from the project, but the font is still in the project somewhere. As you can see from this screenshot, the default.css file still has a reference to Open Sans and Google. But as you can see from Robohelp, the Center Panel Topic Box uses Verdana. I've tried editing default.css, but it is overwritten when I generate the output.

How can I remove the reference to Open Sans and Google? Thanks!

[Peter Grainge]

Content deleted. I think it got posted while I was preparing the reply later in the thread.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Joe@Majiq]

I'm sorry. What does a default forum name have to do with removing a font from my project?

Thanks!

[Peter Grainge · Accepted solution]

First of all set Topic Box to Default in the dropdown. I'm not sure why that is there as the font for topics is set in the CSS applied to the topic.

Then open the default.css in assets/css in the skin editor.

Next comment out line 3. Prefix it /* and add */ at the end.

Then for safety duplicate line 5 and comment out the original.

Delete 'open sans' from the new line.

See if that helps.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Amebr · Accepted solution]

When you open the default.css file, it will open in a wysisyg editor. Click the "Source" (</>) button to switch to code view. (Apologies if you know this, it's always hard to tell what someone does or doesn't know. 🙂 ) Or you can open it in a text editor of your choice, of course.

You won't find a 'topic-box' entry to change in the default.css as that is only in the default.css that's created during generation. But the body tag most likely will have the 'Open Sans' font listed. Make the change Peter suggested to that style instead. Also check the rest of the stylesheet for other references to 'Open Sans' and make the same change.

Which default skin is your skin based on? Some of them have further customisations in the skin. For example, for Oceanic you may need to open the skin > Layout > General and change the Layout Font to, say, Arial. This font only affects the skin elements like the content in the right panel and header, not the topic content. That  'should' take care of it, but let us know if not with further details of what is still wrong and I can poke around further.

[Joe@Majiq]

Thank you both for the help. I believe the demon font has been exorcised! I'm waiting to hear back from our customer, but I couldn't find a reference to the font when searching the output files.

I couldn't have done it without you two!!!!