Publishing > Configuring Your Output

Windows Exe eBooks are stored in a single .exe file that contains both the eBook and the viewer. They can be viewed on any Windows computer without additional drivers or software, all the way from Windows 95 to Windows Vista. To display one of these eBooks the user just needs to double-click on the eBook file. They cannot be viewed on other platforms, however.

The appearance and functionality of Windows eBooks output are controlled by the settings in the following location:

•Configuration > Publishing Options > eBooks > Windows EXE eBooks

In addition to thi,s the shared HTML Export Options settings in the Publishing Options Settings for WebHelp are also used for both Windows Exe and ePub eBooks as well as for all other HTML-based output formats.

Click on the Help button in each screen for detailed descriptions of all the settings in these two screens.

Visual Appearance:

The only really important option here is Viewer template:, which selects the template that controls the entire appearance of the embedded Windows eBook viewer, including whether or not it has a Table of Contents pane. These templates are not user-editable – just try them out and see which one you prefer.

Miscellaneous Options:

These options configure some of the functions of the embedded Windows eBook viewer, including the language of the user interface and whether the viewer has a keyword index and a full-text search function. You can also activate some practical security features.

This section provides access to the HTML templates used in all HTML-based output formats, including both Windows and ePub eBooks. These templates define the layout of the HTML pages into which the text from your topics is inserted.

In the Simple Template Layout tab you can make a number of modifications to your topic pages. Editing HTML templates directly in the Source Code tab requires experience with editing HTML code. If you are just getting started with Help & Manual it is recommended that you only use the Simple Template Layout tab. This allows you to use the default template while you are getting used to using the program.

For full details on all the settings in this section see Topic Pages in the HTML Help section of the Project Configuration chapter.

For information on using and editing HTML templates see the Templates and Secondary Windows and Using HTML Templates chapters in the Reference section.