McPopupSpot Problem in Flare V5

[rlestes]

Using Flare V5 in topics with links to some topics as full pages (target="_self") and other topics displayed as popups (target="_popup"), inserts a class="McPopupSpot" in the compiled (runtime)topic. As a result, the text in the topic linking to the popup is reduced to 8pt from the desired 12pt. But the link still works fine and displays the page/popup as desired. When I manually delete the class="McPopupSpot" from the compiled topic, the link text returns to 12pt but it would be very cumbersome to look through the entire project to manually remove the class="McPopupSpot" text.

Has anyone run into this problem with Flare V5? I checked some of our earlier deliveries and did not find this font size change in linked-text font.

Thanks in advance for your help.
RLEstes

[NorthEast]

I'd check your stylesheet, have a look in the a.Popup class to see if the font-size has been set.

[rlestes]

Dave;

Thanks for your response.

I looked in the CSS style sheet linked to the topic and could not find an entry for a.Popup. So I made a new entry and assigned the font as 12pt. However, that did not seem to correct the problem.

Thanks for your help.

RL Estes

[NorthEast]

Hmmm... I'm a bit stumped, I know you can format text popup links with MadCap|popupHead, but that doesn't appear to apply to topic popup links.

The MadCap.css file (in the output Content\SkinSupport folder) does have an entry for .MCPopupSpot, but that style is empty in my projects; and I'm not sure where it would be derived from in the main stylesheet.

If you know the style is being set to 8pt, have you tried opening your CSS file in text mode and searching for '8pt' ?

[KevinDAmery]

Another option would be to add a generic class (.MCPopupSpot) to your main stylesheet and set the font size there. That should over-ride the settings it's getting elsewhere.

[rlestes]

Thanks for the suggestions. I looked in the MadCap.css file (in the output Content\SkinSupport folder) with the entry for .MCPopupSpot and also found it empty. So I tried filling in the font size (12pt) there, with no result. I searched my normal CSS sheet looking for 8pt and found three entries, none of which had anything to do with MCPopupSpot.

Finally, I tried Kevin's suggestion and put an entry in my normal CSS for MCPopupSpot with a 12pt font. Again no result but I may have not done the entry correctly. Should I have put "a.MCPopupSpot" or just ".MCPopupSpot"?

One more question: can I test my project by just making changes to the appropriate files in the "runtime" version? It is my theory that if I use a text editor and make changes to the MadCap.css or style sheet in the appropriate runtime directories when I restart the runtime projext, it will load the changes. Is that a correct assumption?

Thanks for all your help.

RL Estes

[KevinDAmery]

Finally, I tried Kevin's suggestion and put an entry in my normal CSS for MCPopupSpot with a 12pt font. Again no result but I may have not done the entry correctly. Should I have put "a.MCPopupSpot" or just ".MCPopupSpot"?

Either one is valid - if you use "a.MCPopupSpot" then the style will only apply to "a" tags with that class, whereas if you use ".MCPopupSpot" it will apply to any tag with that class applied (this is what is known as a Generic Class). Generic classes are useful if you need to apply the same formatting to multiple tag types. In this case, "a.MCPopupSpot" probably makes more sense.

[rlestes]

Dave, Kevin;

Thanks for all your helpful suggestions. Kip Mitchell of MadCap Tech Support was able to help with a solution that worked. After we talked on the phone, he sent me the following e-mail:

"Solution: We weren't able to determine the source of the "8pt" setting, although we did override it by setting the CSS class of an example link to "a.Popup" and then explicitly setting the "font-size" property of <a.Popup> to "12pt" in the stylesheet."

Once I applied the "class="popup" to the text using the Link Editor, the text behaved as desired in the runtime project.

Dave, I believe this was the solution you were suggesting in your response but I apparently failed to execute it properly.

I am still looking for the "8pt" style that is lurking somewhere in the project but at least it is under control for the moment.

Thanks again for all the help!

RL Estes

[NorthEast]

Dave, I believe this was the solution you were suggesting in your response but I apparently failed to execute it properly.

I am still looking for the "8pt" style that is lurking somewhere in the project but at least it is under control for the moment.

Thanks again for all the help!

RL Estes

Glad you got it working.

Usually the MadCap.css file is my first point of call for finding any 'mystery' styles like this. This CSS file is used only for the help outputs, and inside are some styles derived from what you set in the main stylesheet for the MadCap|... styles (which is fine). However, it also includes some 'automatic' style properties that Flare will add whether you want them or not (which is a confusing, and a pain).

For example, in an empty project your mini-TOC and breadcrumb proxies will have black border lines; but these styles aren't actually in your main stylesheet, there will be nothing there set for the border. The border property is added automatically in MadCap.css - confusing, eh? To get rid of the border, you have to go in your main stylesheet and set the border to none to override it.

Anyway, as you can see, it's one of my gripes with Flare!