Expand and Collapse Dropdowns in CHM output

This forum is for all Flare issues related to the Microsoft HTML Help target.
This target produces "CHM" files in the output.
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Mari0n
Propeller Head
Posts: 29
Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2015 11:35 pm

Expand and Collapse Dropdowns in CHM output

Post by Mari0n »

Sharing my findings / solution :)

My topics can be reasonably lengthy and contain dropdowns so users don't have to see what they do not need to see until they actively choose to do so.
However: Finding content in the dropdowns by using Ctrl-F doesn't work when they are collapsed - as is their default state. And finding the dropdowns first to expand them individually before searching the topic is a bit hit-and-miss and definitely time consuming so (with a little help from Flare) I have devised a solution which will put Expand All / Collapse All buttons in front of the title of the topics where I have applied them. This has to be done for each topic in which there are dropdowns but then looks neat (in my opinion :D )
Flare's alternative is to add the Topic Toolbar proxy to the master web page, but this inserts way more than I wanted.

Put cursor at the top of the topic where the ExpandAll / CollapseAll buttons need to appear.
On the Flare ribbon: Insert, Proxy, Topic Toolbar Proxy
Accept Skin as it is set with the topic, select ExpandAll and CollapseAll buttons only. These will only appear in the CHM, not in PDF.
Move the toolbar proxy into the h1 by using the Text Editor like this:
<h1><a name="top"></a>
<MadCap:topicToolbarProxy style="mc-topic-toolbar-items: ExpandAll CollapseAll;" />
<MadCap:keyword term="abcdefg" />Topic Title</h1>
Make sure there are no spaces between keyword and heading text.

NB. Do not just drag the proxy in front of the topic title as this results in nested <h1><h1></h1><h1>, which results in the topic being dropped from the toc - which it did for me after I imported the parent into a child project.

Hope it helps some of you out there.....
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