Does anyone have experience with nested drop-down controls? Our team is in the process of converting several RH projects to Flare and one of the projects has drop-downs within drop-downs. I'm not advocating its use, just wondering if Flare can support it. I think not as when I tested inserting a drop-down control within the body of an existing one, the topic preview feature wouldn't work and when I built the test system, the topic displayed the drop-downs as open instead of closed. I could close them and then they looked OK, but the display is not acceptable.
Any thoughts? Thanks
jan
Drop-Down Controls--Nested
Re: Drop-Down Controls--Nested
I use nested drop-downs in WebHelp (often three of four levels), and I'm happy with the results. My overall requirements aren't that complex, though. All mine are closed initially and I don't think I've done anything specific to ensure that.
There are a couple of issues with getting them to expand when you want them to. If you have a hyperlink that points to a drop-down, the drop-down won't open unless the referenced bookmark is inside the drop-down. I believe there was also an issue with search results that refer to text in drop-downs not expanding the drop-down correctly, although that may have been fixed now?
There are an eye-watering number of bugs to do with drop-downs though, especially if, like me, you single source WebHelp and PDF content. I've had several attempts at getting a structure that works half acceptably for PDF content, and the best I can do is still far from ideal. This is very disappointing because single-sourced drop-downs that use the ordinary heading styles in PDFs would be a real bonus.
I have a "template snippet" for a drop-down, that has been carefully coded to avoid the worst of the bugs. I place that where I need a drop-down, then convert to text. That saves a bit of time. One tip is to put the whole body of the drop-down in a <div> - that gets rid of some of the bugs.
There are a couple of issues with getting them to expand when you want them to. If you have a hyperlink that points to a drop-down, the drop-down won't open unless the referenced bookmark is inside the drop-down. I believe there was also an issue with search results that refer to text in drop-downs not expanding the drop-down correctly, although that may have been fixed now?
There are an eye-watering number of bugs to do with drop-downs though, especially if, like me, you single source WebHelp and PDF content. I've had several attempts at getting a structure that works half acceptably for PDF content, and the best I can do is still far from ideal. This is very disappointing because single-sourced drop-downs that use the ordinary heading styles in PDFs would be a real bonus.
I have a "template snippet" for a drop-down, that has been carefully coded to avoid the worst of the bugs. I place that where I need a drop-down, then convert to text. That saves a bit of time. One tip is to put the whole body of the drop-down in a <div> - that gets rid of some of the bugs.
Marjorie
My goal in life is to be as good a person as my dogs already think I am.
My goal in life is to be as good a person as my dogs already think I am.
Re: Drop-Down Controls--Nested
Very interesting! I will try your method of placing the control into a div. That's a great tip. And it's good to know you consider nesting a good practice. Thank you, Msquared!
Re: Drop-Down Controls--Nested
If you're not generating PDFs from the same content, you should be good to go, so long as you remember the need for referenced bookmarks to be inside the dropdown in order for them to open when they are the target of hyperlinks.
If you do need to generate PDFs from the same content, or think you may need to do so at some point in the future, let me know and I'll tell you the other things you need to consider in order to avoid the bugs. You really do need to get a working structure correct before you code hundreds of these things (I have several hundred). It's a real pain to decide you need a slightly different structure later on.
If you do need to generate PDFs from the same content, or think you may need to do so at some point in the future, let me know and I'll tell you the other things you need to consider in order to avoid the bugs. You really do need to get a working structure correct before you code hundreds of these things (I have several hundred). It's a real pain to decide you need a slightly different structure later on.
Marjorie
My goal in life is to be as good a person as my dogs already think I am.
My goal in life is to be as good a person as my dogs already think I am.
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atomdocs
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Re: Drop-Down Controls--Nested
Hi Marjorie, yes I think this was fixed in v10.Msquared wrote:I believe there was also an issue with search results that refer to text in drop-downs not expanding the drop-down correctly, although that may have been fixed now?
Tom
Flare 2022, Capture 7
Flare 2022, Capture 7
Re: Drop-Down Controls--Nested
I'm looking to move to drop-downs for my PDF and web content at some point in the near future, so I'd be very interested in your experiences if you can spare some time to share them!
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ChoccieMuffin
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Re: Drop-Down Controls--Nested
Personally I think they can sometimes be over-used. For example, the Flare help files even have their NOTE paragraphs as drop-downs (which annoys the pants off me).
I know that doesn't add any information to the thread, but do think before trying to shove them absolutely everywhere, as end users might find they get in the way of the information you're trying to communicate.
I know that doesn't add any information to the thread, but do think before trying to shove them absolutely everywhere, as end users might find they get in the way of the information you're trying to communicate.
Started as a newbie with Flare 6.1, now using Flare 2024r2.
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Report bugs at http://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx.
Request features at https://www.madcapsoftware.com/feedback ... quest.aspx
Re: Drop-Down Controls--Nested
I was looking for a solution for nested drop-downs, thank you, will try divs.Msquared wrote:I use nested drop-downs in WebHelp (often three of four levels), and I'm happy with the results. My overall requirements aren't that complex, though. All mine are closed initially and I don't think I've done anything specific to ensure that.
There are a couple of issues with getting them to expand when you want them to. If you have a hyperlink that points to a drop-down, the drop-down won't open unless the referenced bookmark is inside the drop-down. I believe there was also an issue with search results that refer to text in drop-downs not expanding the drop-down correctly, although that may have been fixed now?
There are an eye-watering number of bugs to do with drop-downs though, especially if, like me, you single source WebHelp and PDF content. I've had several attempts at getting a structure that works half acceptably for PDF content, and the best I can do is still far from ideal. This is very disappointing because single-sourced drop-downs that use the ordinary heading styles in PDFs would be a real bonus.
I have a "template snippet" for a drop-down, that has been carefully coded to avoid the worst of the bugs. I place that where I need a drop-down, then convert to text. That saves a bit of time. One tip is to put the whole body of the drop-down in a <div> - that gets rid of some of the bugs.
Quick question, is it the MCDivs you're using or straight HTML divs?