Popup topic issues

Mouseover popups did not stay open after moving the mouse away from the popup link.

Image links to popups were not initialized correctly.

Rounded corners and drop shadow settings for popups are now taken from the JavaScript popup settings in your project.

Vertical scrollbar in IE and CHM

In Internet Explorer and CHM files setting tables to a percentage width could sometimes cause the vertical scrollbar to display incorrectly, also affecting links scrolling down to headings in the topic. This is caused by a bug in Internet Explorer (IE calculates the height of elements incorrectly in the presence of a percentage-width table in some situations). A workaround has now been implemented to prevent this behavior.

Permalink dialog in IE7

In some cases the interactive permalink dialog was displayed too wide in IE7. Note that in IE7 the topic content may sometimes be invisible while the permalink dialog is being displayed. It will reappear when you close the dialog or resize the browser window slightly. This is caused by a bug in IE for which the only solution is to update to the latest version – IE8 if you are on XP or IE9 if you are on Windows 7.

URL switches for navigation panes

Addition of optional switches that can be used in WebHelp URLs to open the help with the keyword index or search panes and optionally perform a search for a specified keyword or search term. Specific topics can also be opened at the same time with the same link.

See URL switches for details.

iOS 5 compatibility

Apple has corrected the Safari browser history bug in iOS 5, so the Previous and Next buttons in the Safari web browser now work correctly on the iPad and iPhone. This version of the Premium Pack checks for the presence of iOS 5 on these devices and activates the Previous and Next buttons if it is present.

In addition to this, single-finger scrolling now also works in the ordinary Premium Pack skins on the iPad and iPhone in iOS5, not just in the dedicated iPad skin. Performance in the iPad skin is still better, but the normal skins are now more usable on the iPad.

Sortable tables

In some cases date columns in certain formats were incorrectly sorted as text or normal numbers.

Animated toggles

Small refinements in animation routines, including bug handling for Internet Explorer.

Toggle Jump

Small corrections for links to anchors in toggles from search and index entries.

Help corrections

A couple of typos and oversights in the Premium Pack help have been corrected.

Toggle bug in dedicated iPad skin

In the dedicated iPad skin opening a toggle closed any other toggles on the page that were open. However, it was then not possible to close the current toggle without opening another toggle. This has been corrected and toggle animation has been added.

Second vertical scrollbar in WebHelp print preview

On some browsers a second vertical scrollbar was visible in the print preview window in WebHelp. This wasn't printed but it didn't look very good in the preview. It now no longer appears.

iPad skin adjustments

•Tapping on the current topic in the TOC no longer reloads the topic.

•Similarly, the Top, Next and Previous buttons no longer reload the current topic if the target is the current topic.

•The default indent for the TOC levels has been increased slightly to make sub-chapters/sub-topics easier to see.

New configuration variables for index and search highlight colors

Version 1.40 adds three new configuration variables that enable you to change the index and search highlight colors from the standard yellow to any other color you like. See the variable reference page for details.

Fix for history buttons bug on iPad and iPhone

The version of Safari installed on the Apple iPad and iPhone have an annoying uncorrected bug in the implementation of the history buttons that prevents these buttons from working correctly on pages using frames. On these pages the browsing history is not stored and played back correctly. In some cases the browser history buttons do not activate, and when they do the address bar often hangs at 50% with the rotating "loading" icon. This is purely cosmetic and can be worked around by tapping on the X button at the end of the address bar, but for most users it looks like a serious error.

Unfortunately, there is no way to make the history buttons work correctly for frame pages on iOS Safari. This version of the Premium Pack implements a fix that prevents history entries from being stored while you are browsing WebHelp on the iPad and iPhone. This eliminates the buggy behavior in the address bar but it also means that the history buttons cannot be used to navigate your browse sequence within the help. When you use the Search function in the Search tab a maximum of one or two of pages will still be saved in the history (this can't be avoided), but the bug will still no longer activate.

We will remove this workaround as soon as the history bug is fixed in iOS Safari. We have posted a bug report to Apple but have not yet received an positive response.

Fix for printing problems in Firefox 4, Chrome 11 and Internet Explorer 9

In some cases the Print button did not format the printable version of the topic page correctly on these new browser versions. This was caused by a timing problem that prevented the page formatting from finishing before the Print dialog was displayed. This has now been fixed.

Spurious Chrome warning message

In the current version of Google Chrome the Chrome warning message sometimes appeared incorrectly even when the WebHelp was accessed on a server. A double check has been implemented to make sure this doesn't happen.

"No index entries beginning with..." text in the Index

This text was hard-coded into the index script and could not be changed by changing the configuration variable text. This has been fixed.

Body background color in pages without headers

In the last update the body color of topic pages couldn't be changed on pages without topic headers. This has been fixed.

Show/hide TOC button on iPad and iPhone

This button is no longer displayed when WebHelp is displayed on the iPad and iPhone.

Vertical scrollbar in Internet Explorer 9

On some systems the vertical scrollbar in the topic pane did not display properly in Internet Explorer 9 when toggles were opened on the page. This is caused by a bug in IE9 that is also sometimes present in earlier versions of IE. Rather than programming a complex workaround we have made the vertical scrollbar permanent, so it is present in greyed-out form even when the scrollbar is not active. This also prevents annoying page reformatting that happened when the scrollbar suddenly appeared.

Vertical scrollbar "flash" on load

The vertical scrollbar in the topic pane sometimes seemed to "flash" on topic load on slower connections. This has been alleviated.

New function:
Initial support for mobile devices

Version 1.31 adds some basic options to handle users viewing your WebHelp with the Apple iPad and iPhone and other mobile devices. The help can now be viewed reasonably well on the iPad and iPhone using two-finger gestures to scroll in topics and the table of contents, index and search panes. An alert is displayed automatically at the beginning of the user's browsing session explaining that they must use two fingers to scroll.

However, the Google Android operating system cannot currently handle scrolling elements on the screen at all and is thus not compatible with this version of WebHelp. The new version automatically displays a warning that the help is not compatible with Android and less capable mobile devices (Blackberry, Windows CE, Series 60, Symbian). Optionally, you can also enter a web address to which users should be redirected when they view your help with one of these devices. You can also enter redirect addresses for iPhone and iPad users if you want.

Fix:
Second click on Index tab replaced topic with nav pane

A second click on the Index tab after displaying the keyword index replaced the contents of the topic pane with a second copy of the navigation pane. This has been corrected.

Fix:
Insert linkable images in the nav pane header.

If you inserted an image (for example a logo) in the nav pane header a copy of the tab backgrounds was added to the link in the image. You can now add linked images to the code of the nav pane header without this happening.

Fix:
Activate fix for problem in some IE installations

On isolated computers the TOC failed to align in the navigation pane in Internet Explorer. Users who experience this problem can now activate an option that corrects it by reloading the TOC once in Internet Explorer the first time the help is loaded.

New function:
Advanced JavaScript Popups

The standard JavaScript popups function of Help & Manual is quite basic. Popups are displayed below and to the right of the popup link clicked, even if this means that they are displayed partly outside the browser or help viewer window. Advanced JavaScript Popups change this. See Using Advanced Popups for details.

Features:

•Popups are sized and positioned automatically to ensure that they are always completely visible.

•The new popups use the JavaScript Popup settings from your Help & Manual project. Normally you don't need to configure anything.

•Popups with a lot of content automatically get scrollbars – this means it is practical to create popups with a lot of content.

•The user can drag and resize the popups with the mouse.

•You can create popups containing videos (these are not draggable or resizable)

•Small popups are draggable but not resizable. You can set the dimension that distinguishes between a "large" and "small" popup.

•The popups stay in the same position when the window is scrolled. This means you can use them for reference information that the user wants to keep in view while scrolling the window.

•The popups have a drop shadow and in modern, standards-compliant browsers they also have rounded corners. This is not possible in non standards-compliant browsers like Microsoft Internet Explorer and the Microsoft HTML Help viewer. These browsers have incomplete implementations of CSS3.

•Graphics in popups now always display in Internet Explorer and CHM files – the IE bug that sometimes prevents graphics display in JavaScript popups has been identified and disabled.

New tool: PP Updater

The PP Updater utility copies your configurations from one skin or template to another. This eliminates the need to reconfigure your skins when you switch to a different skin or when the Premium Pack is updated.

New function:
Search in keyword index

There is now a Search field in the Index tab in WebHelp. All keywords containing the search characters are highlighted automatically and scrolled into view. Pressing Enter or Search again scrolls to the next hits in the index.

New function:
Generate Permalink

Instead of a simple link at the bottom of the topic the old Topic URL feature has been replaced with a Generate Permalink dialog. now inserts a link that displays a small dialog containing the selectable permalink to the topic. There are buttons to select the permalink and to bookmark the topic in the user's browser.

Mail feedback button for webmail clients

When users have configured a webmail client like GMail as their primary mail program a click on the mail feedback button will open their new email message in a new browser tab or window.

Important: Yahoo Mail is currently not compatible with this. It is not able to process complex mail links that include subject lines and mail body text.

Chapter printing bug in CHM files

In CHM files the HTML Help viewer's own Print function would display a JavaScript error message when you selected the option "Print the selected heading and all subtopics". This did not prevent correct printing but it was annoying and has now been corrected.

Printable version with preview in WebHelp

Recent changes to some browsers have reduced the ability to print a whole topic directly from the topic frame. Selecting the Print button now generates a printable version of the topic with a print preview in an external window. This ensures that printing works in all browsers.

XHTML is now standard

In past versions of the Premium Pack XHTML output mode was recommended, now it is standard. This prevents Internet Explorer from switching to "quirks mode", in which it emulates the behavior of IE version 5.5 and earlier, causing all kinds of problems with modern web technologies.

Whether or not you set XHTML in your project no longer matters. It is activated automatically by the skin.

Workaround for TOC Show/Hide bug in Chrome and Safari

Browsers based on the WebKit engine (Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Google Android browser and others) have a bug that makes it impossible to set the dimensions of frames correctly after the user has changed the frame dimensions by dragging the border with the mouse. This broke the Show/Hide TOC button in Premium Pack WebHelp output.

We have implemented a workaround that fixes this. You have two choices: If you want the Show/Hide button to be available the TOC frame becomes fixed-width in WebKit-based browsers. Alternatively, you can choose to disable the Show/Hide button for these browsers; then the TOC pane will be resizable but there will be no TOC Show/Hide button.

Warning for Chrome WebHelp bug

Google Chrome has a poorly-implemented new security feature that prevents the correct display of WebHelp files when they are opened locally without a web server. WebHelp displays normally in Chrome on the Internet and when opened locally with a local web server.

An alert explaining this is now displayed automatically when the user opens WebHelp locally in Google Chrome or any other browser with this bug (we test for the bug, not for the browser). You can turn this alert off if you like, but it is not recommended.

Dummy 3-frame header file export

This file's include option is now set so that it is only exported when you activate the Premium Pack 3-frame option. This prevents it from turning up in search results. However, this also means you must leave the 3-frame option OFF for CHM export, otherwise you will get errors when it is exported to CHM files.

Workaround for old IE8 tables bug removed

When Internet Explorer 8 was introduced it had a bug that interfered with some features in the Premium Pack skins when tables were defined with percentage widths. The Premium Pack had a workaround that converted percentage table widths to absolute values and adjusted the widths when the user changed the browser window size. This is no longer necessary.

New version of the jQuery JavaScript framework

The jQuery framework used in the Premium Pack has been updated to version 1.42. This speeds up script processing slightly and prevents a rare yellow warning bar in some installations of Internet Explorer.

New function:
Show/Hide Navigation Pane

A small slide-out button to the left of the topic title in the topic header shows and hides the navigation pane. Activate with the PP TOC Show/Hide option in the Include Options box in the Publish menu.

ToggleJump improved for slower computers

On some slower computers ToggleJump with anchors sometimes failed in Internet Explorer because IE did not wait long enough after displaying a topic to scroll the content down to the anchor position.

ToggleJump added for hotspots in images

ToggleJump will now also work for hotspots in images when the links in the hotspots are to anchors inside toggles on the same page as the hotspot. This previously only worked for anchors in other topics.

Improved formatting in sortable table header rows:

You can now use "mixed" formatting in sortable table header rows and all the formatting will be transferred to the sortable version. For example, you can now format part of the header bold and part italic, if you want.

You are still limited to one paragraph only per header cell, however. Entering more than one paragraph in a header cell will cause errors.

Brackets in sortable table header text turned off formatting.

Round and square brackets – ( ) and [ ] – in the text of sortable table header rows turned off the text formatting in the surrounding text. This has been fixed.

Paragraph alignment in sortable table header rows:

Paragraph alignment (left-aligned, centered and right-aligned) in sortable table header rows is now transferred to the sortable version along with the space above and space below attributes. Please don't try to use justified paragraphs in sortable table header rows, however.

Sortable table tooltips in Internet Explorer and CHM:

Tooltips on the sort icons in sortable tables in Internet Explorer sometimes displayed the fallback icons instead of the tooltip text.

NoWrap added to headers in sortable tables:

The headers in sortable tables now have a nowrap attribute that prevents the sort icons from slipping to the next line if the column is too narrow.

Quotes and apostrophes in topic headers did not work with feedback button:

Because of a change in the main Help & Manual program it was necessary to change the way text from the topic caption and header are processed for the mail feedback button. Topic headers containing quotes and apostrophes will now work correctly with mail feedback. Accented and illegal characters are converted for the mail link.

New options for "simple" mail feedback:

If you have trouble with the mail feedback function because of complex characters in your topic titles or headers you can now turn on a "simple" feedback function by setting the FB_SIMPLEFB configuration variable to "true".

Hidden search form in some versions of IE:

In extremely rare cases some instances of Internet Explorer hid the search form in the search tab behind the search tab header. It should now be impossible for this to happen.

XHTML setting:

You no longer need to set XHTML 1.1 output in your HTML export settings. You are free to have this either on or off, as required.

Non-scrolling header problems in Internet Explorer 7 and 8:

If topics contained horizontal lines and/or tables with a percentage width IE 7 and 8 were unable to see the length of the topic, resulting in problems with the vertical scrollbar. This only happened if XHTML 1.1 mode was activated and appears to be due to a bug in IE 7 and 8 in parsing XHTML code. A workaround has been implemented that prevents this bug from activating in IE when XHTML mode is used.

Script error in topics without headers:

You can now also use topics without headers with PP 1.21. You will not have any of the navigation functions, of course, but both sortable tables and ToggleJump will work. If you want to create an Expand/Collapse Toggles link yourself in topics without headers use the following code in a script link:

javascript:toggleToggles();

Mail feedback links are not possible in topics without headers.

Disappearing text in JavaScript popups in CHM files:

The text was sometimes not visible in JS popups in CHM files if the text was formatted with single-cell tables.

ATOC-Entries for toggles without icons:

Toggle headers without icons did not open when scrolled to with ATOC entries.