WebHelp Classic output layout and features

The WebHelp Classic is designed for use with DITA document types. This section contains information about configuring a WebHelp Classic system and customizing the output.

This type of WebHelp system can be generated by using the webhelp or webhelp-feedback transformation type in your DITA WebHelp script.

Layout of the WebHelp Classic System Interface

The layout of the WebHelp Classic system is comprised of the following components:

Left Pane or Frame

This section on the left side of the help system includes the following tabs:

Content: A typical table of contents style presentation of your content. You can use the Expand all/Collapse all buttons to expand or collapse all the topics presented in the Table of Contents.
Note: You can enhance the appearance of items in the Table of Contents. See the Customizing WebHelp Classic Output chapter for more details.
Index: Presents the index terms for your content. If your content does not contain any indexterm elements, this tab is not generated.
Search Results: This tab is generated when the Search field is used. It presents the search results in the form of links to topics where the search terms are found, along with a rating scheme for each result. For more details, see the Search Feature section.

Upper Pane or Frame

The upper section of the help system includes the following features:

Search Field: Use this feature to perform searches in your content. When you enter search terms in this field, the results are displayed in the Search Results tab in the left section of the help system, along with a rating scheme for each result. For more details, see the Search Feature section.
Frames Option: Click on this option to display the output rendered in HTML frames.
Print Option: Opens a dialog box with various printing options and a print preview.
Navigation Links: You can navigate through the content of your output using the navigation links or arrows in the upper-right part of the page. These arrows allow you to move to the Parent topic, Previous topic, or Next topic. Links to the parent topics of the currently opened topic are also presented at the top of the page. For DITA output, these navigation links are controlled by the collection-type attribute. For example, if you set collection-type="sequence" on a parent topic reference, navigation links will be generated in the output for that topic and all of its child topics.
Tip: To hide the Parent, Next, and Previous links, you can edit the transformation scenario and set the value of the args.hide.parent.link parameter to yes.

Main Pane or Frame

The content of the help pages are rendered and displayed in this main section.