Interaction of Dropdown and Conditional text

[NL_Derek-GsBV5a]

In my project I create both CHM and PDF deliverables, and use Conditional Text to suppress CHM navigational items ("click here to ...") in the printed version.

I want to use dropdown text to show/hide a section of text (a list of preconditions), but I want the text to be included in the PDF. So I have the sentence "For preconditions click here." where "here" is a DHTML hotspot for the dropdown text.

But if I use conditional text to suppress this message I also lose the dropdown text in the PDF. I managed to get it working by including one character (the period) in the DHTML hotspot and excluding it from the conditional text, but this is a very inelegant solution. Is there a better way to do it?

I have RoboHelp 7.02.001.

--- Derek

[Peter Grainge]

Try two sentences and duplicating the dropdown, one for online and one for print. For print "The preconditions are:"

Then by use of appropriate expressions you use the sentence for the media.

[NL_Derek-GsBV5a]

Thanks Peter, I had a similar idea yesterday as I cycled home.

It works, but is still not optimal since it involves double information; if a precondition changes I must remember to change both the PDF text and the dropdown.

But it's probably the best I'll get.

--- Derek

[Peter Grainge]

Not sure, can you put Snippets in dropdowns?

[NL_Derek-GsBV5a]

Alas, it doesn't seem to be possible. Oh well....

--- Derek

[Captiv8r]

Tell me it ain't so!

I've done this by inserting the snippet on the topic just below the text I wish to use for the drop-down trigger. Then select it and cut it to the clipboard. Now paste it into the little DHTML Drop-Down window.

In preview, it would appear the snippet has lost connection with the drop-down contents. (I tried changing the snippet to see if it would reflect in the topic) But I also tried compiling a CHM and it seems to update just fine in the compiled output.

Maybe this will work for you too.

Cheers... Rick

[NL_Derek-GsBV5a]

Thanks for your interest, Rick.

But I still can't get it working.

Directly inserting a snippet into the dropdown doesn't work, but your idea of pasting from the clipboard does work. And the dropdown snippet is successfully suppressed in the print output (Condition: Print). As you had noted, the Preview window result is sometimes incorrect, but after compilation the snippet is present and updated.

But I couldn't suppress the "fixed" snippet in the Online output. Indeed, if I peek in the HTML I see that the "x-condition: Print;" ends before the "placeholder" of the snippet, and begins again afterwards.

I tried editing the HTML directly; adding the x-condition to the placeholder, then wrapping the snippet in a <span>, but RoboHelp silently cleaned up my efforts.

Any other suggestions?

--- Derek