How to Leverage Inline Frames in RoboHelp

In April, long-time Adobe partner, Rick Stone, shared some of the many advantages to using Inline Frames in RoboHelp to obtain unique display and layout. Rick revealed several simple, yet potent steps you can take to improve your published on-line project’s appeal.

You may view the recording by clicking on the TITLE below:

RoboHelp HTML and the Inline Frame (IFRAME)

04:00 Overview of what FRAMES in HTML are … beginning of DEMO showing traditional WEBHELP output from RoboHelp
05:00 Frameset help separate critical information. They were intro’d in 1996 by Netscape — when WebHelp initially loads … a frameset is loaded.
06:00 Initially, a split occurs between narrow top area, and wide area below. A second split occurs creating 2 frames to the left; navigation mini toolbar and navigation frame for TOC/INDEX/SEARCH
07:00 Discussion focusing on inline frames due to advent of HTML5. Discussion of how framesets changed somewhat w/in HTML5.
08:30 The VALUE of framesets w/in RoboHelp — Rick shares a historic example of an older WebHelp application he created which had all company phone numbers w/in ONE topic, so he only had to change numbers in one place.
11:00 Finish review over the non-scrolling area of a frameset
12:00 View an index which used a frameset that wil populate fields in a ‘static’ frame to the left area ..
14:00 HTML5 doesn’t support the traditional framesets … but it does support the INLINE FRAME …
15:00 Discussion of actual customer case study of client who had stayed stuck on complex set of nested framesets, instead of more flexible RoboHelp layout that would transit to HTML5 more easily …
18:00 view an iFrame or inline frame version of a page vs. the traditional “frameset” (almost identical)
19:00 DEMONSTRATION of how to insert an IFrame for a controlled layout area.
20:00 choosing NAME of iFrame you are inserting. The name will be critical for referencing information w/in the frame …
21:45 comparison of published iFrame … the scrolling area to right of iFrame is only as deep as the iFrame
23:00 ACTUAL BEFORE/AFTER case study of a topic that had a huge, deep table with alphabetized information.
24:30 AFTER version shows use of iFrame to break up chunks of tables linked to full alpha index above it.
25:30 in general, iFrames will translate well when you use ROBOHELP to generate responsive HTML5 output … DEMO of how generated HTML5 responsive will resize content for smaller screens, and will also relocate navigational icons to be more effective with smaller screens.
28:00 Discussion of Multiscreen HTML … which required multiple outputs for multiple screens
29:00 responsive HTML5 gives you a single set of files for uploading, etc.
31:00 QUESTIONS and “visual” answers on Rick’s desktop —
33:00 Viewing the CUSTOMIZE button on properties of RESPONSIVE LAYOUT in RoboHelp in order to “visually” change color, icons, etc., w/o going into CSS code …
35:00 Questions about SEO …
42:00 QUESTION and DEMO regarding search for term that may be in iFrame … talk about SEO indexing … show how to remove status of “exclude topic from search” …
44:00 Creating an index instance to show how that relates to search