How to change the background image at top of Webhelp?

[Cecily]

I'm using Flare v8 to edit Webhelp while a colleague is away (normally I work with html/chm help).

I need to change the image that is used across the top of the browser tab, between the address/url and the help content. It's the background for the the Back, Previous, Search etc buttons.

There is no image on the master page, or link to one in the skin or target properties, as far as I can see.

I found several images in the Resources folder that look like the one displayed, but View Links, shows none of them link to or from anything.

Just in case View Links was wrong, I edited all of them, to no effect.

Now I' m stumped.

I'm sure it's easy to do, but I don't even know the correct term for that bit of the tab, so trying to find it in Flare's help is proving impossible.

[kwag_myers]

There might be an easier way than this, I've only been using Flare for a few weeks:

1. With the project open in Flare, go to the Project tab and click Primary Target.
2. Click General, and then the Edit button for Skin.
3. Go to Styles > Frame > Toolbar.
4. Expand the General Properties and locate BackgroundImage.
5. Click on what ever file is there and go to the top of the menu.
6. Click Browse for Image.

[Cecily]

Thanks. That fixed it, though I'm not sure why, as I just swapped to the image it was already using. I suppose it was a bit like "switching it off and on again".

[kwag_myers]

Yeah, Flare doesn't work that way. Often, it will overwrite something you've changed and that can be very frustrating. Also, the tool bar is very tricky. Moving the logo to the left took me forever to figure out.

You can edit the CSS the same way and it's a lot easier than trying to find the right file.

[LTinker68]

I've never understood why Flare was set up this way, but when you add an image to the skin, even if the image you're loading is in the project, Flare will place a copy of that image somewhere outside the project until the output is built, then it saves a copy of the image in the output. So if you make a change to an image used in the skin, you need to re-select that image in the skin so that the new version can be loaded over the original image. No idea why MadCap didn't set up the skin to reference the images instead of storing them somewhere on the computer.

[Cecily]

Thanks for the additional explanation, Lisa. It makes sense (in a not-making-sense sort of way ).

[LTinker68]

And if you change the image and it still doesn't show up, do a forced refresh of the browser or delete the output folder then rebuild -- changes to the skin aren't always picked up by the browser because it loads the skin from cache. A forced refresh usually works with IE but doesn't always work for FF. Deleting the output folder then rebuilding should work, though.