Footer issues in Robohelp 2022.3.93 (Topic Layouts)

[JenniR_12]

I'm trying to set up a footer, which seems pretty simple.  Create a topic layout and add the footer into the footer region of my topic layout and then add that to the topic layout line of the Layout tab in my Frameless preset.  When I do this, the footer doesn't show up where I thought it would.  I guess my question is this correct.  It seems awfully high on the screen.  I think I thought it would show up in the bar going across the bottom rather than above this bar (see yellow horizontal bar across the bottom of my example).  It looks awkward  where it's placed.  What am I missing?  Thank you.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Yes, it does look a bit weird - where is that yellow bar coming from?

[JenniR_12]

Well if I told you I didn't know where the yellow bar came from would you believe it?   I swear it was just there.  I have no idea how it got there though.  I guess I thought it was from the template.....I'll see if I can figure that out and report back.  Weird!!

[JenniR_12]

I have no idea where the yellow bar came from.....

[JenniR_12]

Here is the code for the bottom of the page.  Does this tell us anything about where the yellow bar came from, perhaps?

</div>
	<div class="RH-LAYOUT-BRS-container" id="rh-brs"></div>
	</div>
	<div class="RH-LAYOUT-RIGHTPANEL-container" id="rh-rightpanel"></div>
	</div>
	</div>
	</main>
	<footer role="contentinfo" class="RH-LAYOUT-FOOTER-container" id="rh-footer"></footer>
	<script type="text/javascript">//<![CDATA[
	gRootRelPath = ".."
	gCommonRootRelPath = ".."
	gTopicId = "6"
	//]]></script>
	<script src="../template/scripts/topicpage.js"></script>
	<script src="../whxdata/layoutconfig.js"></script>
	<script src="../whxdata/brsdata.js"></script>
	<link rel="StyleSheet" href="../template/KEES_Demo_Oceanic/font.css" type="text/css"/>
	</body></html>

[JenniR_12]

Is the yellow bar replacing the gray bar in this screenshot?

where does this gray bar come from?  I turned off static footer and it didn't seem to do anything....

[Peter Grainge]

Assuming we are still talking about a customised Oceanic skin, it's difficult to know where the yellow is coming from. In theory it is the Home Page > Footer > Container colour.

If you create Topic Layout footer that will appear above the template footer.

________________________________________________________

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

[JenniR_12]

OH!!  Ok, so I don't want a topic layout containing my information because I don't like the way it looks.  Can I only have links in the footer then that the template provides?  Can I have a logo and a text or if I want that stuff, I have to use the topic layout?

[Peter Grainge]

I'm not sure, it will require setting up a test which I cannot do until sometime tomorrow at best. Essentially I think you need to get rid of the template footer and create what you want in the topic layout. Not sure though so test required. 

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

[Peter Grainge]

In another thread that is now locked you have asked about a fixed footer. See RH2022 Non-Scrolling Area (grainge.org)

________________________________________________________

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

[JenniR_12]

I didn't see this, so thank you for pointing me to this information Peter.  I wasn't connecting "non-scrolling area" with anything I needed for the footer.  

On a different note, I have disabled the static footer in 2 places in the template editor under the Layout Tab at the top and then I clicked on Home Page and Topic Page and toggled off the static footer and I added back in my Topic Layout, regenerated and viewed and the empty yellow bar is still at the bottom.   I thought maybe it was coming from the Topic Layout, so I took the topic layout back out of the Frameless Preset and have the static footers turned off in the template and yet the yellow bar is still there.   I'm going to look at the code again and see if I can figure out where it's coming from.  You have given me some goood info, Peter.  Thank you.  I've got a bit more clarification on what is controlling what with these footers , I think.  The key was that the topic layout doesn't replace the template footer but shows above the template footer.  So that part right there is very helpful.  

[Peter Grainge]

I'm not entirely clear on the desired appearance now. I suggest you use something like Snagit to mock up what you want it to look like and indicate what is to be non-scrolling. Non-scrolling at the bottom will work but not at the top of the page, in the middle text would disappear behind and then come out above further up. In short, I wouldn't use it other than at the bottom.

See what you can manage with the information provided and then let us know it is sorted or add an image to explain things.

________________________________________________________

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

[JenniR_12]

I had a chance to look a this again last night and here is what I found.  That yellow bar is coming from something called div#rh-brs.RH-Layout-BRS-container that I can see when I right click on that yellow bar and choose Inspect.  I will put a screenshot below of what I'm referring to.  When I right click on that div#rh-brs.RH-Layout-BRS-container and choose delete, the bar goes away.  Of course, when I refresh my screen, it comes back.  I opened the layout.css and the userstyles.css and I actually removed the div#rh-brs.RH-Layout-BRS-container reference from those files.  But, when I regenerate and view, the yellow bar is back.  Knowing this information, does anyone know how or where I need to remove this reference?  I'm not sure how it got there, but I need it gone for sure.  I just can't figure out where to make it happen since I'm using Robohelp, I'm not sure where to go to edit out that line in the code.  The yellow bar is showing on all pages except for my Home Page (I don't want it on my Home Page so that is good).  I've copie and pasted some screenshots below. indicating what I found.

 In the screenshot below you can see tha the yellow bar shows up even in the template editor.  

Here, I think that the development tool is showing me that it's in the 2 css files that I mentioned above.

 

Any help would be appreciated.  I have no idea how that got there.

[Peter Grainge]

The default template does not have that so it is something you have changed along the way. I don't know if you have done that at code level or in the UI but I hope you listened to me saying you should keep copying your template so that if things go wrong, you can go back to earlier versions and find out where it started.

I have also encouraged you to work within the UI. On the forum people can suggest where in the UI to look. We have no idea what code changes you have made or how to reverse them. When you generate an output, your customisations in the UI will apply but changes at code level can, I believe, be overwritten by internal files as the generation process is probably not expecting them

Your images are so far removed from Oceanic that the template looks more like Studio!.

Without examing your project, I cannot help more on this. I have indicated where I thought the problem is but that doesn't seem to work for you.

________________________________________________________

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

[JenniR_12]

I have worked within the UI.  I don't even know where to go to find the code?  I had to insert some code I found to get the borders to not show on the table I uysed to setup my footer.  I set the borders to "none', but they still showed up.  So, I had to add some code to get those to disappear.  Can I even find the code for the entire webpage so I can look there?  How do I edit the webpage outside of Robohelp?

If I have to recreate this entire thing it's going to take me forever.  I have been working off of a copy of the template, but I can't go back and recreate all of these changes quickly.  I have foud the problem, I just need to understand how to now remove that problem.  Where do I do that from is my current question.

[JenniR_12]

Crisis averted.  It was the Browse Sequene Container inside the UI.   I had the background color set to yellow.  I don't even know what browse sequence means....I have it resolved.  Thank you Peter.

[Peter Grainge]

Somewhere you said you had clicked on every option.

From what you are saying now, it looks like you missed this one. 🙂

As you kept referring to code, I was thinking you had been working at that level.

Assuming you are fixed now and this thread has served its purpose.

________________________________________________________

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

[JenniR_12 · Accepted solution]

I have clicked on every single optioin (a few times)  It dawned on me that this had to be a container of some sort but I kept thinking it was related to my footer.  This morning I just looked for anything that said container and came across it.  BSC referenced in the inspector = Browse Sequence Container.  I've learned so much doing this.  This is officially resolved.

[Peter Grainge]

Next time you have a template problem, take a look at Item 21 in RoboHelp Gems (grainge.org).

It's a method of seeing all the changes you have made to a template. I haven't ever used it but it is information that Adobe gave me. In your case, the shere number might be a case of not seeing the wood for the trees. 🙂

I'm still banging my head as to why you customised Oceanic to look more like Studio does by default. As someone who used to frequent these forums used to say, it's like changing the spark plugs via the exhaust pipe. 🙂

________________________________________________________

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

[JenniR_12]

I have already bookmarked the RH Gems page.  It is wonderful.  I ran on to this a month ago or so.  It's been very helpful!!

Ok. So on the Oceanic / Studio templates.  I was given a directive to use the Oceanic template bc that is something that was decided on prior to me starting here a year ago.    I had no idea what I was going to do with it or how I wanted it to look and so slowly by surely, I figured out how to make some changes and the end result just happened day by day.  Wouldn't recommend this for my next project, but I sure didn't know Robohelp from Robocop when I started here.  I had no idea what I was doing.  At the point you told me that Studio would have been the better choice, I just thought I'm too far in to switch it now.  I've never been one just to take the most direct approach to a problem.  I always have to make it a little interesting.  I am going to look at the Studio template, though,  because I'm curious to see how much extra stuff I have had to do to get this far.  

[Peter Grainge]

That's even funnier.

You must use Oceanic.

OK.

Later - I have used Oceanic, I've just made it look like something else.

BTW - I wouldn't tell you what to use, I was just pointing out that it looked like there was an easier route to what you wanted. You have done well to make so many changes when you are new to RoboHelp.

________________________________________________________

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

[JenniR_12]

Peter - your car references make me giggle.  You have used many of them and they resonate for sure.  Changing the spark plugs via the exhaust pipe.......that's me!!!!  Never a dull moment.

[JenniR_12]

I have found myself back in the forum trying to understand what I'm doing wrong and what it is I'm not understanding about footers in Robohelp.  I'm close, but I just don't really understand, this is what I'm seeing happen....Ok here goes.....I want a footer to show up down at botton of page that spreads the width of the screen and it should be the sameon every single page including the Homepage.   In the Oceanic template I have the toggle for show static footer set to ON for both topic page and home page.  I did nothing else besides make sure those 2 buttons are on.  I then go to my Contents tab and add a topic and set up my footer (what I want it to say, how I want it layed out with my background color and spacing, etc.  It looks great on the screen and even under the Preview tab.  I save everything and I go to my frameless and I add that new topic I just created for my footer into the line that says Footer Content on the layout tab of Frameless.  I generate and view and I see the footer showing up on all pages, but the HomePage looks different than the subsequent pages and the spacing is off between my logo and the text that I want to be beside it and centered vertically.   Here are my questions:

1. Why does it look different than Home Page footer when it's the same file in the Footer Content line of the Layout tab in the Frameless preset controlling it? Shouldn't they look identical?

2. How do I change the heighth of this footer "container"?   I've tried selecting the table and changing the table height and it simply does nothing?  Maybe I'm doing so in the wrong places.

3. Why does my topic that shows my footer content look perfect and even when I press the Preview button in Robohelp it looks perfect.  Then when I generate and view, it's messed up?  I've tried to  move my logo around by dragging and dropping but I'm guessing you can't do this but the alignement buttons I've been trying aren't working now either so I can align my logo with the text off to the right and have it centered vertically.  Why won't 'my logo move? 

4. In an effor to srhink the container, I've tried to remove the paragraph marker under the search line but it is apparaenlty tied to the search because when I remove the paragraph marker the whole search box disappears. So how can I decrease the amount of space showing under the search bar and ultimately decreaase the entire yellow portion so it's not coming up so high on the page.

5.  I'd be thrilled if I could figure out all or even 1 of the answers to my questions.  Especially the "how do I shrink the container height".  

6.  Is using a table in the footer to align your "stuff" a good or bad way to do what I'm trying to do?  What is the easiest recommneded way to get your stuff to align in footers.

7.  I think I have a scrolling issue because when I scroll down on a page that has a lot of content, someting werid happens in the top left hand corner.  It becomes almost unattached and starts moving as I'm scrolling.  I've attached those screenshots, too.  

Thanks for any help anyone may be able to provide.  

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I still don't have a clear idea of what you're trying to make the page look like. As a user, my perception is that you've got an enormous blob of content at the bottom of the page that could be put on a diet.

[Peter Grainge]

I think adding images has been mentioned before. 🙂 Inline please. Put yourself in the position of someone trying to help you. They have to memorise all those images whilst reading a very lengthy post, in between whatever else they are supposed to be doing. 

You also need to keep in mind that many users, myself included, use the default template with minimal customisation so there's not so much knowledge of customisation. We just poke around to get what we want. By customising your template so heavily and to put it bluntly, you have dug a hole for yourself. 🙂

For Now

The home page and topics are two different things that have to be set up separately, albeit made to look the same. I think it can be same source but adding it in may require different settings.

You asked elsewhere about dragging but did not mention within a template. There the position is based on settings.

The Rest

To answer your other questions would require a deep look at your template or at least some time consuming work on a default template, I think beyond what can be done on the forum with an already customised template. Nonetheless I will take a look and see what I can fathom out.

What would really help is one image with text on it that says "This is too wide" "I want this image wherever". If it's easier, a number of images but the same idea. A picture is worth a thousand words etc.

________________________________________________________

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