Flare 3.1 - Custom Size for Topic Popups

[pouliotmax]

I want to try this new feature... i don't see a place where i can specify the size of the popup! Anybody found it?

[dano]

I'm sure you've found it by now, but if not, it's the a.popup style in your stylesheet. You can specify the dimensions using mc-popup-width and mc-popup-height.

I'm a little disappointed though. I was hoping that you could resize each individual popup. The auto-resizing works well most of the time, but sometimes only one or two popups need tweaking.

[KevinDAmery]

I wonder if you could get around that by creating a class for A tags--that should give you all the pseudo styles as well.

[NealPozner]

Indeed, you can create a subclass of the a tag, creating custom definitions for the mc-popup-width and mc-popup-height for the subclass, and use that subclass for the topic popup links that need to be a different size than the autosized ones.

[TheGreatAndPowerfulOz]

I just upgraded to 3.1 and published to both CHM and WebHelp formats, but was startled to see that all my popups (whose mc-popup-width and mc-popup-height are set to \"auto\") are now extremely wide—to the point that they extend clear off the right side of the topic page and produce a scrollbar in the browser window! For the WebHelp output, I verified that this is the case when using both IE (6.0.2900.2180) and Mozilla Firefox (2.0.0.7).

I also noticed that in CHM output, the popup window has a beveled edge all the way around, as opposed to the former solid line border. NOT what I bargained for when making the upgrade to 3.1...

Has anyone else seen this behavior? Am I going to have to set the a.popup mc-popup-width property to some fixed width, to avoid the extreme width that \"auto\" now seems to produce? I use popups extensively throughout my Help system, and have relied on \"auto\" to do its job (which it has quite well until now). I'm hoping I don't have to force some fixed width on all my popups to get around the (bug?) in 3.1.

Please advise if anybody has any info.

Thanks.

[doc_guy]

I don't use pop-ups in my help system, so I can't verify for you. However, the first thing I'd do in your shoes is to log a bug, or contact the help desk (if you are a maintenance subscriber).

[TheGreatAndPowerfulOz]

I received a new \"MadCapEffects.js\" file from MadCap Tech Support (thank you!), which overwrites the one shipped with Flare v3.1 in the C:\\Program Files\\MadCap Software\\MadCap Flare V3\\Flare.app\\Resources\\WebHelp\\Content\\SkinSupport directory.

I indicated in the Subject of this reply that the solution was only \"partial\" because I found that in WebHelp output, the popups are back to auto-sizing correctly. In CHM output, however, the popups now auto-size well enough (that's the good news), but they now always have a vertical scroll bar, even when no scrolling is necessary, and they also have a \"3-D\", or \"beveled\" border (as opposed to a 1px solid black border, as before).

For all I know, there may be some other setting which is somehow affecting the border and scrollbars of the popups in CHM format, so I can't truly say that the new MadCapEffects.js file doesn't work all the way around. It's certainly \"good enough\" for now, in any case!

[doc_guy]

Glad to hear it is working.

Let us know if you figure out how to resolve the border/scroll bar issues you describe.

[NealPozner]

The patch is now available for download, for those that need it. To install this patch, please take the following steps:

- Download the patch from http://www.madcapsoftware.com/support/f ... ects31.zip
- Make sure you are running Flare 3.1
- Close all instances of Flare you have running
- Navigate to C:\\Program Files\\MadCap Software\\MadCap Flare V3\\Flare.app\\Resources\\WebHelp\\Content\\SkinSupport
- Unzip the new MadCapEffects.js attached to this message and replace the existing version found in the SkinSupport folder
- Relaunch Flare
- Regenerate your output

[dano]

This presumably just fixes the popups in Webhelp output? Is there a fix available for chm output as well?

Thanks

[GegeM]

I tried to regenerate my output after intalling the patch and effectively it seems not to fix the chm outputs.

Resizing is working better, but \"beveled\" border and scroll bar (even when no scrolling is necessary) still here.

[NealPozner]

A new patch is available that addresses the beveling in HTML Help, and issues with the back button and popups in Webhelp and HTML Help. The download, install instructions, and a more thorough explanation of the issues fixed can now be found in our Knowledge Base.

http://kb.madcapsoftware.com/default_CSH.htm#PATF3103

[TheGreatAndPowerfulOz]

Neal,

Thank you for posting the latest patch for popups.

I placed the new MadCapEffects.js and MadCapUtilities.js files in their directory, and the latest B3.CatapultCompilerKit.dll in its directory. On attempt to compile a CHM target, however, I got the following error:

Compiler (Internal Error): Method not found: 'Boolean B3.CatapultProjectKit.CatapultTargetFile.get_FixHtmlHelpLinks()'.

This error caused the compilation process to be aborted.

I still had the B3.CatapultCompilerKit.dll which was contained in the earlier patch (packaged in an archive named B3.CatapultCompilerKit31.zip), so I replaced the latest one with it and was able to compile with no errors. The popups in my CHM still have the beveled border and unnecessary vertical scroll bar, however.

I suspect that the \"key\" to getting the popups \"back to normal\" may lay in the .dll, since even though I've got the new .js files on board, my output is still the same.

Any suggestions?

Austin.

[NealPozner]

I apologize for any confusion. I have just discovered that for this patch to work, the patch that came out on Monday, http://kb.madcapsoftware.com/default_CSH.htm#PATF3102 must also be installed.

I will work to update the instructions and perhaps roll up a comprehensive patch that includes all the updated components we released this week.

[TheGreatAndPowerfulOz]

Installed the other patch and all is well with popups in CHM targets!

Thanks for your help, Neal.

BTW, I noticed that the popups do still \"reserve\" some space on the right of the frame for a scrollbar, when/if it's needed. I don't recall this having been the behavior in v3.0, but I'm not complaining (it would simply appear to someone as though the margin-right property was set larger than the other three sides—not as bad, at least, as the disabled scrollbar area that was there prior to the patch).

Austin.

[NealPozner]

I've made a comprehensive patch, that you can download from http://www.madcapsoftware.com/support/f ... Fix_31.zip . Install instructions are included in the ZIP, and I'm updating the Knowledge Base as well. Thanks for letting us know!

[i-tietz]

I installed the patch and it does what it's supposed to do, apart from:
In HTMLHelp AND WebHelp the popup sometimes produces scrollbars in the topic (not the popup), depending on the position of the link in the help window.
- If the link is on the right half of the topic (or so) I always get a horizontal scrollbar, because the popup stands so far right, that its shadow moves 1 or 2 pixels out of the topic ...
- If the position of the link is too low I get both scrollbars: Vertically because the topic moves slightly out of the topic vertically. And horizontally, because that scrollbar comes as a consequence, because some of the width of the topic is taken by the vertical scrollbar and the browser \"thinks\", the scrollbar is hiding information, so a horizontal scrollbar is needed to access that information.

Any ideas why that happens? Any parameter in the style sheet that I can change to correct that?

[i-tietz]

Is that problem solved? I still have the problem!

The link before clicking:

topic_with_link.gif

The popup makes the topic look like this:

topic_with_popup.gif

[i-tietz]

Update for Flare V6
It still doesn't work for me:

popup_link_start.png

popup_link_robohelp.png

popup_link_flare.png

The handling of popups was better with RoboHelp. Why not adopt what was good in RH? Problems with copyright?