Protecting Help File.

[TawfiqB]

I intend to use RoboHelp to automate my company's policies and putting them online on the company's intranet. To protect its copyright rights, the company wants to restrict users from printing the pages or copying and pasting the texts. How easy is it achieving this in RoboHelp? I tried the oncontextmenu="return false;" but that it tedious since I have to add this command on every page. This method (using oncontextmenu) has a number of other deficiencies such as: users can still print through the print button (I didn't figure out how to remove that button from the final chm file), and I couldn't insert the same code in the Contents frame (the left hand side frame where the table of contents is displayed). Right clicking on the books or topics in the left hand side pane gives the users the options to print the topic or the whole book!!! Any help?

By the way, I am new to robohelp (using the trial version)m and I am not a programmer.

Thanks.

[darkagn · Accepted solution]

Hi TawfiqB,

I'm not sure about the copy/paste question, but for the Print button try this:

In the Project Manager, open the Windows folder, and right-click your window and select Properties. There are many window properties to choose from, but one section is called Buttons and this allows you to set which buttons are visible in the chm window that is created. If it's ticked it's set to be visible, so untick the Print button and press OK to confirm. That should take care of your Printing dilemna!

Hope this helps a little,
darkagn.

[TawfiqB]

Thanks darkagn. It worked.

[Chet Zeshonski]

I suggest you adopt one of the following approaches (or combine them):

1. The legalese approach: Include a copyright statement on the welcome page that explicitly states your company's policy regarding printing, copying, and pasting. In addition, include a copyright statement on every page of the Help system.

2. The PDF approach: Generate a PDF copy of the Help system. Use Adobe Professional to remove the ability to print, copy, and paste.

No matter which approach you take, your users will always have the PrintScreen key, just like book-buyers will always have Kinko's. For this reason, it's important that you state the restrictions up front and then do hat you can to restrict rights. When in doubt, consult your company's legal department/expert.