Dropdowns

What's covered?

This topic describes methods of inserting dropdown text / images other than the method built into RoboHelp.

The methods do not require any RoboHelp functionality so they can be used with any HTML editor. I have tested them in RoboHelp and Dreamweaver 8 only.

The sections below summarise what I have found including Show Hide 3 which is what I use on my Dreamweaver based site.

For CHM users, Show Hide 4 is rather special as it provides something that many people have wanted for a long time, the ability to create one topic and reuse it many places. When you click the dropdown hotspot, what you see is the content of another topic. Unfortunately the script does not work satisfactorily with webhelp.

The links to the demos will open a RoboHelp project but note that all the methods will work independently of RoboHelp, although obviously they do need to be tested in whatever you use. I have tried them in both RoboHelp and Dreamweaver 8. Click here if you want to download the RoboHelp project so that you can get behind the scenes.

I am always interested in learning of more methods. Please let me know if you have something that you feels is better than the methods shown here. There is a Contact menu on my site.

Showhide 1

Source	www.simon-jones.org.uk
Functions	Dropdowns from text. Dropdowns from graphics including twisties (the graphic changes when the text is clicked but does not form part of the hotspot. No "Show / Hide All" dropdowns.
Browser Compatibility	IE and Firefox.
CHM Compatibility	Will not work in compiled help [.chm] if edited in RH X5. X3 is OK.
RH Issues	X5 breaks the script but easy to fix in output (for webhelp). The script relies on the div style having the attribute style="display: none;". X5 changes this to a style class which is not what the script expects. You need to find class="whs1" and replace with style="display: none;" in the output. I have not checked whether RH uses the class whs1 anywhere else so apply the find and replace carefully until you are sure.
Script Issues	None.
Demo	Click here.

Showhide 2

Source	www.jpartner.com
Functions	Dropdowns from text. Dropdowns from graphics. See Script Issues re Twisties. No "Show / Hide All" dropdowns.
Browser Compatibility	IE6 and Firefox
CHM Compatibility	Yes but if using the graphics an internet connection is required. Also the users firewall will probably give a warning that HHLauncher.exe is attempting to link to a site. The site is where the graphics are so it is OK but, nonetheless, it is probably not what you want your users to have to contend with. Probably best not to use this method for this type of help.
RH Issues	RH WYSIWYG editor cannot render it properly making it difficult to work with. Better in other editors.
Script Issues	Dropdowns can operate from a toggling + / - sign but I have not been able to change script to use own graphics. Only seems to work using graphics available from third party site and with an internet connection. Risk factor if they remove images.
Demo	Click here.

Showhide 3

Source	www.interactionarchitect.com
Functions	Dropdowns from text. Dropdowns from graphics but not twisties. "Show / Hide All" dropdowns can be run from text or graphics. One button for Show and one for Hide. No single button
Browser Compatibility	IE and Firefox
CHM Compatibility	Yes.
RH Issues	By far the easiest to edit. You can see the content of the dropdowns in the WYSIWYG editing window including RoboHelp's editor. The snag with this method is you cannot use bullet points or numbered lists if you use the RoboHelp built in WYSIWYG editor. In both preview and the online help, the bullets and the numbers will display, albeit without the text. I did find that if I pasted the html from Dreamweaver, then the output was OK in the generated help but not in the preview. If you don't need to use lists, the method otherwise worked fine in my limited testing.
Script Issues	None.
Demo	Click here.

Showhide 4

Source	Dan Deming. Instructions in the RoboHelp download.
Functions	Dropdowns from text. Probably with images, not yet tested.
Browser Compatibility	Method not suitable for webhelp whether produced using RoboHelp or another editor.
CHM Compatibility	Yes.
RH Issues	None beyond the webhelp incompatibility.
Script Issues	Minor. See the demo topic.
Demo	Click here.

Topic Revisions

Date	Changes to this page
12 Feb 2006	New topic.