CSH that calls entire Help system

[jbean]

We have buttons in our help that will call topics that deal with the particular window the user is on.

Currently only that specific topic opens up, not the entire help system. My boss would like to have the entire Help come up with that particular topic opened, so that users can also see the TOC and go to other topics if they want.

Any insight ?

Thanks

[doc_guy]

Can you post your CSH call from the application? I'm wondering if your CSH call is requesting a skin that doesn't show the whole help system, because if you use the default skin (and your default skin shows the whole help system) then you should be seeing the whole framset.

Either that, or you are linking directly to the topic in the help system. If that is the case, then you need to change your CSH links to use the alias you create for each help system target page.

But if you show us your CSH call link from the application, we'll be able to better advise you.

[Paul Griffiths]

Look in the Skin Editor for your WebHelp, on the WebHelp Setup tab, and make sure the Hide Navigation Pane on Startup check box is clear.

[RamonS]

Currently only that specific topic opens up, not the entire help system. My boss would like to have the entire Help come up with that particular topic opened, so that users can also see the TOC and go to other topics if they want.

Any insight ?

Usability studies showed that this is very confusing to users, especially when the help is also accessible context free (such as from the Help menu). I was surprised about that, but I think I am not the typical user. A compromise would be to point out that there is the link at the top of the topic to display the navigation if desired. I don't know if that will sway your boss' opinion, but I figured I mention it.

[KevinDAmery]

Usability studies showed that this is very confusing to users, especially when the help is also accessible context free (such as from the Help menu). I was surprised about that, but I think I am not the typical user.

Surprises me as well. One of the quickest ways to irritate me is to provide CSH to a topic that's not quite what I'm after, but then not give me any way to get into the rest of the help system.

I think the idea of opening to just the relevant topic only works if you can guarantee that the topic really is relevant. This is fairly easy to do in applications that have linear workflow, but not so much in applications with a more open ended workflow. (For example, suppose I set the focus in a topic in Flare then hit F1: what exactly do I want help on? a) editing text? b) adding a span tag? c) inserting an index marker? etc. etc. I could reasonably be trying to do just about anything at this point, so restricting F1 to only one help topic would be most annoying....)

[RamonS]

I think the idea of opening to just the relevant topic only works if you can guarantee that the topic really is relevant.

That should be the case of CSH, if not then the H is not CS, but just H.

[KevinDAmery]

True, but what I'm saying is we need to take into account the fact that in many application the same screen or tool can be used for multiple purposes, so the context won't always be the same. Therefore, it should be possible for the user to fine tune the help selection if necessary, rather than saying "here's what you get, you couldn't possibly need anything else, amen and good night."

[jbean]

At the bottom of the WebHelp Setup pane in the skin there is a section called Topic Settings.

I Checked "Show navigation link at the top of topic" and that does the trick.

Good compromise

Thanks for the help.

[NorthEast]

It sounds like you're not using Flare's CSH, and are just directly opening the topic file in the output. To open the WebHelp and display a topic, see this section in the help:
Features > Output (Distributing) > Connecting WebHelp to Applications > Connecting WebHelp - Developers

For example, instead of directly linking to the topic file MyTopic.htm, you could open the topic in WebHelp using a link like this: MyHelp_CSH.htm#MyTopic.htm.

That example is a link to a topic filename. A much more flexible method is to use an alias file, so your help call would be to an 'identifier' name which is linked to a particular topic; e.g. MyHelp_CSH.htm#IdentifierName. The advantage of this is that you can set which topics are displayed for each link inside Flare (using the alias editor), without having to change any links in your application.

[Adrian Durand]

Hi,

I had exactly the same problem, and posted a similar question.

The result was as Dave suggested, in your call, get the developers to add the default_csh.htm into the path, similar to the example below.

//help/folder/default_csh.htm#folder1/module1/page1.htm

This works fine for our application, and when the user clicks the help icon for a page, the csh for that page is opened, and is displayed within the main frame so that the TOC etc are all available.

Regards

Adrian

[jbean]

excellent. will explore that. thanks !