Re: Shading in Winhelp tables

Subject: Re: Shading in Winhelp tables
From: Cindi Fisher <cfisher -at- MESADEV -dot- COM>
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 12:03:07 -0700

Susan,

I agree with Lee's suggestion. I've used this technique several times and it works well.

One thing to keep in mind if you do this is that users might use the Options button (if you include one) to change the font size. This will affect how your table appears, so make sure you test the compiled help file in small, normal, and large font size.

Another point: you can use this same technique to add horizontal lines to a table (or any area of a help topic, for that matter. I always draw a line as a bitmap and use that, rather than using the underline key to create a horizontal line. The reason for this is that, if you use the underline key, Winhelp thinks of the underlining as characters (which they are). Thus, when the user creates a full text search using the Find tab, the underlining shows up at the top of the list, above the words that begin with A, like this:

_________________
_________________________
_________________________________
apple
applesauce
arabian
Atlanta
etc.

Therefore, it's better to use a bitmap to create a horizontal line.

Hope this helps.

-Cindi Fisher

------------------------------

>2. Is there any good way to insert a table with lines and shading (two
>features not supported by RoboHelp) into a RoboHelp document without an
>outside graphics program. If I cut and paste into Draw, the results are
>awful. Screen captures are also awful when saved in Draw and imported into
>RoboHelp.
>
Add an extra column to the table on the left. In the first cell for the row
you wish to highlight, place a bitmap (solid colored, if you wish) slightly
wider than and as high as the row you want the shading to appear in. Place
your data in the cells to the right of the first cell.

Then make the first column as narrow as possible and compile your help. The
bitmap in the first cell will "spill over" into the cells on the right.

You may need to experiment both with the image and the cell width and
spacing settings a bit to get the image and table to align right, but with
a little patience, you should be able to achieve the results you want. A
good way to start is to do a screen capture of the table and use that as
the baseline for creating your "background" bitmaps.

Best regards,

Lee Kimmelman




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