Set window focus for tripane WebHelp?

[Andy Crawford]

(Cross-posted on Adobe's Support Forum)

Currently, the help (uncompiled WebHelp from RoboHelp) for my company's
ecommerce application targets specific topics in a named window. Each topic
uses the following onLoad command in the body tag to force the named window
to the top.

onLoad="top.window.focus()"

Using the named window prevents users from opening endless help windows.
Using the onLoad command is thus required, otherwise the help content would
remain hidden behind the web app window and users would think the help link
was just broken.

But the help links only target the standalone topic, not the complete
tripane help navigation. Users have to click the "Show" link to reveal the
tripane. Recent user evaluations expressed a preference for displaying the
tripane immediately.

The problem is that I cannot see a way to deliver the same "bring to top"
function in a frameset. In fact, if we target a frameset using a named
window link, and the user pushes that help window back, clicking another
named window help link not only doesn't bring help to the top, it doesn't
even refresh the content pane.

Any know solutions out there?

thanks,

Andy Crawford
andy at crawford.net