dropDownHead vs dropDownHotspot

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ktbCA57
Sr. Propeller Head
Posts: 472
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2009 7:45 am

dropDownHead vs dropDownHotspot

Post by ktbCA57 »

so I've never really noticed this issue in all the years using Flare.. doh! but I'm noticing that two elements (nodes) are available for setting styles on my dropdown header... and I have been setting both the last few days but finding that cumbersome.. and a pain if something needs to change... so do I really need to set both - or can I get away with just one... if just one, which one is best. I only have one type of dropdown heading.. I only use it in VERY specific instances.. so I only need one style...

BOTH OR ONE? If only one, which is best... plz see attached image for clarification:
dropdown question.png
THANKS!
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NorthEast
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Re: dropDownHead vs dropDownHotspot

Post by NorthEast »

The head is the whole heading, whereas hotspot is just the clickable link - it's described in the help:
http://webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/flare ... n_Text.htm
ktbCA57
Sr. Propeller Head
Posts: 472
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2009 7:45 am

Re: dropDownHead vs dropDownHotspot

Post by ktbCA57 »

well.. since the entire heading is the clickable area... it seems like i can still use one or the other... but which is best? Seems to me like it doesn't matter.. no?
NorthEast
Master Propellus Maximus
Posts: 6359
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2007 8:33 am

Re: dropDownHead vs dropDownHotspot

Post by NorthEast »

Text in the header isn't clickable, if it's outside the hotspot.

There's not a 'best' - it just means you can style both elements as you choose.

If you never have text in the header outside the hotspot, then just style the hotspot.
ktbCA57
Sr. Propeller Head
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Re: dropDownHead vs dropDownHotspot

Post by ktbCA57 »

COOL.. THANKS DL! I was hoping that's what you would say! lol

TYTYTY!
RecPerch
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Location: Denver, CO

Re: dropDownHead vs dropDownHotspot

Post by RecPerch »

Adding to this topic since it seems related.

I create output for help, Word, and PDF. So when defining my print output for the dropdowns I found that:
  • Putting the "margin" attribute in the dropDownHead DID WORK for print.
  • Putting the "margin" attribute in dropDownHotspot had NO affect.
I don't want to have to apply a class to both the Head and the Hotspot (when using SecondLevel dropdowns, which I use often), so I next tried moving all attributes into dropDownHead and dropDownHead.SecondLevel.
  • Print output worked as expected.
  • Online help used all of the defined attributes EXCEPT color. It's using the a:link color instead of the color set in Head and Head.SecondLevel. I guess this makes sense since dropdowns are nothing more than fancified hyperlinks, but it makes me wonder why the print output accepted the "color" attribute but online output did not.
Is there a color setting I can use in dropDownHead that will set the color of the dropdown hotspot text in the online help?

Thanks.

Gary
RecPerch
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Location: Denver, CO

Re: dropDownHead vs dropDownHotspot

Post by RecPerch »

So my workaround was to change a:link to the color I want for my dropdowns then I created a new class of links (a.link:link) to handle hyperlinks.
RecPerch
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Location: Denver, CO

Re: dropDownHead vs dropDownHotspot

Post by RecPerch »

FIXED (see the bottom for the solution)

So this seems random.

I use a lot of dropdowns for my online help (see my post above ^^^ ). All is working as expected in the online help, but not in ONE chapter of the PDF.

In my PDF output, I have a chapter with four dropdowns that have multiple sub-dropdowns under them. The top-level dropdown converts to an H2 and the sub-dropdowns are H3s. In the main PDF TOC, the H2 > H3 hierarchy/indenting looks as expected. In the body of the guide, the headings all look as expected.

In the PDF's left-hand BOOKMARK pane, however, the 1st and 3rd dropdowns (H2s) appear as expected, letting you click to expand to view the H3s. The 2nd and 4th dropdowns (H2s) are "flat" (can't be expanded) and the H3s beneath them aren't visible in the BOOKMARK pane (but show up as expected in the body of the guide).

FYI. There are multiple levels of dropdowns in all my chapters. Except for this ONE chapter, all the other chapter BOOKMARK panes work as expected (knock on wood). I'm hoping that by writing about this problem a fix will pop into my head. The problem chapter is one of two chapters that are shared across multiple guides. The other shared chapter works as expected. Both chapters use dropdowns/sub-dropdowns. Both chapters use snippets. Both use conditional text. I'm thinking of recreating the problem chapter from scratch.

Oh, and that's today. A month ago when I created a PDF of the SAME guide, the 1st and 2nd H2s could expand in the BOOKMARK pane and the 3rd and 4th were "flat." With that said, I have made changes to this chapter since then, so whatever the glitch is, maybe it's in one of the dropdowns that I moved around, which altered which dropdowns show up correctly in the BOOKMARK pane ... hmmm.

The Fix

File this under: Seemed like a good idea at the time.

The problem was that awhile ago I put "pageBreakBefore" inside some of the dropDownHeads. I tried it awhile ago to see if it would work and when it did, I failed to notice that it screwed up the PDF bookmark TOC. So I reset those dropDownHeads to normal and added a blank paragraph above with a page break (squeezing the paragraph element between dropdown elements).
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