User Interface

Applies to HTML Viewer, IE Browser publications.

Thanks to this tab, you can customize the user interface of your publication from A to Z. Any component can be modified with the object editor available on this tab.
If this tab seems complicate to you, please post your questions to the user forum.

Introduction to the object editor

The object editor is divided in two parts: on the left you can find the component browser, and on the right the component properties editor.

The component browser lists all of the components of the user interface that may be customized. Each component has its own properties and can be configured with the properties editor. To edit the properties of a component, just select it in the list.
The properties editor lets you modify the properties of the selected component: it works like the one you can find in Paquet Builder. If you are not familiar with this grid editor, see below for a brief description about how it works. Warning: all changes made are directly saved!

Menu Bar

The "menu bar" component displays the standard GUI menus at the top side of the main window. It lets your end users access to various commands such as page printing, navigation tools or help information. To hide it, set Visible to false.

You can add your own menu items to the menu bar thanks to the menu editor (click Edit).

List of properties:

AnimatedMenus: if True then menus have fade effect.
CustomButtonURL: indicates the URL that should be executed when the Custom button of the toolbar is clicked. See more information about the custom button below.
HowToUsePageURL: URL to the "How To Use" HTML page of your publication (if any). This property should be filled in if the ShowHowToUse property is set to True.
MenusTransparent: if True then skin menus of the main window will be paint with alpha-blend effect.
MenusTransparentValue: value of alphablending (0..255).
NoFavorites: if True, the publication will not manage any user favorites. The Favorites panel is not included nor the Favorites button.
ShowEdition: show/hide the Edition menu allowing end users to select and copy parts of your HTML text.
ShowFileMenu: show/hide the File menu allowing end users to print pages or exit the publication.
ShowHelp: show/hide the Help menu allowing end users to see the About box or contact information.
ShowHowToUse: show/hide the "How to use" menu command, allowing end users to display the help about how to navigate in your publication. Also fill in the HowToUsePageURL property if you plan to use this feature.
ShowNavigate: show/hide the "Navigate" menu command allowing end users to get the standard navigation commands like Previous Page, Forward Page, Go to homepage...
ShowWebHomepage: show/hide the "Web homepage" menu command allowing end users to go to your website. Please fill in the WebHomepageURL property also.
SkinDataName: internal use only at this time. Do not change the value.
Transparent: if True then the menu bar will have an alpha-blend effect.
TransparentValue: value of alphablending (0..255) for the menu bar.
Visible: if set to false, the menu bar will be removed.
WebHomepageURL: the URL to your homepage on the Internet. Example: http://www.gdgsoft.com

Status Bar

The "status bar" component displays a panel at the bottom of the main window. It displays information for your end users, it is similar to the ones in Web browsers. When an end user moves the cursor on a hyperlink, the URL may appear in the status bar. To hide the status bar, set Visible to false.

List of properties:

AutoShowURLs: determines whether the publication should display the URL of a link which is under the mouse pointer. Set it to False if you want to keep your internal URLs secret.
DefaultText: the text to be displayed by default when no other information needs to be indicated.
ProgressForLargeFiles: if set to True, the gauge of the status bar will show the progression when a large file is being unpacked.
SkinDataName: internal use only at this time. Do not change the value.
TextAlign: specifies how text is aligned within the panel.
Transparent: if True then the status bar will have an alpha-blend effect.
TransparentValue: value of alphablending (0..255) for the status bar.
Visible: if set to false, the status bar is removed.

Notes:

It is recommended to include a status bar in your publications.
Status bar for IE browser publications also have additional options that you can set in the IE browser options.

Tool Bar

The "toolbar" component displays an enhanced bar with buttons providing an easy way to quickly access to the most used commands. To hide it, set Visible to false.

List of properties:

BorderStyle: style of panel border (you can give a 3D bevel to your toolbar).
ButtonWidth: you can set the width in pixels for the toolbar buttons. By default the width is set to 65 pixels. All buttons have the same width (including custom ones).
LogoBitmap: if you wish to display your own logo on the toolbar, just select the bitmap to be shown. Please consider a 50x50-sized bitmap. Click the '...' button to open the Bitmap editor, allowing you to select a bitmap or remove it.
SkinDataName: internal use only at this time. Do not change the value.
Transparent: if True then the tool bar will have an alpha-blend effect.
TransparentValue: value of alphablending (0..255) for the tool bar.
Visible: if set to false, the tool bar is removed.

To configure the properties of the buttons, to add new buttons and remove existing ones, you need to use the toolbar editor (click Edit).

IE Browser Properties

For IE Browser publications only.

The "IE browser" component is the most important one: it displays one or more HTML documents in the main window (subdivided if working with frames). These options are also related to the behavior of Internet Explorer and the WebBrowser control.

List of properties:

AllowIEGlobalOptions: indicates whether the menu command "Display Internet Explorer Options" is displayed or not. Note that the IE browser uses the same properties as Internet Explorer so if JavaScript is disabled for example in Internet Explorer, then it will be the same for your publication. This menu could let end users modify their Internet Explorer options, at least for the time they view your publication.
AllowOtherCtxMenus: the main mouse context menu of Internet Explorer (the one which lets you show the source code of a HTML page) is automatically superseded by the publication's own context menu. However some other context menus like for images are also available. If you want to disable these menus too, then set this property to False.
IEStatusBar: if enabled, the status bar (see above) will work like the one of Internet Explorer. It can then be accessed via JavaScript commands too.
No3DBorder: if true, removes the 3d border of the IE browser.
NoAutomaticPopup: if true, IE publications won't display any popup window automatically. Internal link targets are ignored and links to websites with the _blank target are displayed in the default web browser; it mimics the behavior of publications made with HTML Executable 3.2.
NoScrollbar: if true, removes the scrollbars of the IE browser. Not recommended.
ScriptNoErrorMsg: if true, this disables the automatic Script Error dialog box when a JavaScript/VBScript error is found in a HTML page by the Internet Explorer engine.
SearchFrameTarget: important property if you use frames in your publication and if the search engine is active. When a search is complete, it displays links to the found HTML documents so end users can open them. You can specify in which frame these documents should be opened, otherwise if you leave this property blank, the frame system will be ignored. Note that this is only supported by IE browser publications.
SearchResultShowSpanStyle: when a search through a publication is done, end users can click on a search result and the associated page is displayed. Then the publication will automatically try to highlight the words of the search query. Highlighting is actually done by changing the text style of the word(s): you can define the HTML style you want. By default it is: background-color: Lime; font-weight: bolder;
ViewImages: decides whether the IE browser displays images or not.

HTML Viewer Properties

For HTML Viewer publications only.

The "HTML Viewer" component is the most important one: it displays one or more HTML documents in the main window (subdivided if working with frames). The default HTML properties and other things can be configured as you want.

List of properties:

DefBackground: sets the viewer's default background color. This is the background color when no background information is present in the HTML document file. Either clBtnFace or clWindow are appropriate values.
DefFontColor: sets the viewer's default text color. This is the color used when no text attribute information is present in the HTML document file.
DefFontName: sets the viewer's font name.
DefFontSize: sets the default font size for the viewer's normal text. The value entered is the point size. Headings, spacing, and other various sizes are scaled appropriately.
DefHotSpotColor: sets the viewer's default color for links. This is the color used if the link color is not otherwise specified in the HTML document file.
DefOverLinkColor: sets the default color for links when the mouse is over the link and the OverLinksActive option is set. This is the color used if the active link color is not otherwise specified in the HTML document file.
DefVisitedLinkColor: sets the default color for links which have been previously visited. This is the color used if the VLink attribute is absent from the <body> tag in the HTML document file.
MarginHeight, MarginWidth: These two properties determine the margins around the HTML Viewer display. Values are in pixels. The default vertical margin is 5 and the default horizontal margin is 10.
MetaRefresh: handles the Refresh meta tag in HTML pages or not. Not really useful however.
NoLinksUnderline: turns off underlines on links, even with the <U> attribute.
OpenUnknownExtensions: if True, when a HTML hyperlink points to a non HTML-compatible page, the target file can be extracted temporarily and opened with the associated program. Example: Microsoft Office documents (like .DOC, .XLS...) will be opened in the corresponding Office programs (Word, Excel...) if they are available! If set to False, the HTML viewer will try to open the file itself and display its contents. For PDF files this property is ignored, as these files are internally supported.
OverLinksActive: when set, link color will change when the mouse is over the link. Color is determined by the special olink attribute of the <body> tag, if present. If this attribute is absent, the DefOverLinkColor property determines the color.
StopMediaOnNewPage: if True, when a media file (WAV, MIDI) is played by the internal media player (for example, if a HTML page has a <bgsound> tag), the latter is stopped if the user navigates to another page.
ViewImages: decides whether the HTML Viewer displays images or not.

IE Browser Printer

For IE Browser publications only.

The "printer" component sets properties for the printer and handles how HTML pages are printed.

Warning: this component remains experimental due to the introduction of IE browser publications in HE 3.2.

List of properties: these properties are taken in account only if OverrideDefOptions is set to True!

FooterText, HeaderText: sets the text to be displayed at the bottom/top of each printed HTML page. The options are the same as for Internet Explorer.
OverrideDefOptions: if set to True, the publication will use your settings to print the HTML page. Otherwise the default user settings are taken into account. Important: as Internet Explorer automatically saves these settings, your settings will then replace the ones of the end user, and for each document. Be sure to enable this property only if necessary.
PrintLandScape: determines how the page is print.
PrintMarginXYZ: the Print Margin Properties determine the margin dimensions when printing. Dimensions are in centimeters and you can enter floating values. Note that some margin values may be refused by Internet Explorer because they are not compatible with the printer.

HTML Viewer Printer

For HTML Viewer publications only.

The "printer" component sets properties for the printer and handles how HTML pages are printed.

List of properties:

FooterAlign, HeaderAlign: specifies how footer/header text is aligned within the document page.
FooterBGColor, HeaderBGColor: the color of the background (white generally) for the footer/header.
FooterText, HeaderText: sets the text (HTML tags allowed) to be displayed at the bottom/top of each printed HTML page. At this time you can only use the two variables %DOCTITLE% (current HTML document's title) and %PAGENUM% (current page number).
PrintBackground: if true, then the page's background will be printed too (including background images).
PrintMarginXYZ: the Print Margin Properties determine the margin dimensions when printing. Dimensions are in centimeters and you can enter floating values.
PrintMonochromeBlack: If set, monochrome printers will always print black. This is set by default since some monochrome printers apparently will not print anything but black.
PrintScale: determines the scale of the printed output. The default value is ,.0 which scales a "screen inch" to one inch on the printer. Larger values allow more print per page and smaller values magnify the printing. Values of 0,75 to 1,25 would be appropriate.
PrintTableBackground: If set, allows Table background colors to be printed. This is set by default.

Contents bar

Adding a table of contents (TOC) to your publication provides end users with a hierarchical view of the content. Users click a topic listed in the table of contents, and are taken directly to the information they are looking for. To enable it, set Visible to true.

List of properties:

AutoExpand: set AutoExpand to True to cause the selected item to expand (its children will be visible) and the unselected items to collapse.
AutoFindTopic: if True, the publication will always try to locate the current displayed HTML page in the TOC and make it as selected. Automatically set to True if a Browse Sequence is used.
HideSelection: if True, the current selected node is hidden when the TOC does not hold the focus.
InitialWidth: the initial width (in pixels) of the TOC. Use this option to set the size so no horizontal scrollbar is displayed.
IsSticky: if True, the TOC will always remain visible. End users cannot close it (the Contents button is in this case unnecessary).
ShowAtStartup: displays the TOC tree at startup or not. End users can then use the Contents button (see above) to display it.
ShowButtons: if ShowButtons is True, a button will appear to the left of each parent item. The user can click the button to expand or collapse the child items as an alternative to double-clicking the parent item.
ShowLines: if ShowLines is True, lines linking child nodes to their parent nodes are displayed. Nodes at the root of the hierarchy are not automatically linked. To link nodes at the root, the ShowRoot property must also be set to True.
ShowOnRightSide: if True, the contents bar and other navigation panels will be displayed on the right side of the window (instead of the left one by default).
ShowRoot: to show lines connecting top-level nodes to a single root, set the tree view's ShowRoot and ShowLines properties to True.
SkinDataName: internal use only at this time. Do not change the value.
Visible: if set to false, the contents bar feature will be removed. Do not forget to set this crucial property to True if you create a TOC in the TOC editor.

Context Menu

The "context menu" component controls the menu that pops up when clicking with the right-hand mouse button. It lets your end users access to most-used commands.

You can add your own menu items to the context menu thanks to the menu editor (click Edit).

List of properties:

ShowEditionItems: set it to False to remove commands like "Copy to ..." & Paste from the context menu.
ShowFavoriteItem: set it to False to remove the "Add to Favorite" item. To completely disable favorites in your publication, use the NoFavorites command of the Menu bar (see above).
ShowNavigateItems: set it to False to remove commands like "Back", "Forward", "Go Top" from the context menu.
ShowPrintItem: set it to False to remove the "Print page" item from the context menu (this property does not remove the Print option of the File menu). To disable the entire print function, use Security Profiles.

Notes:

If you turn all of the properties to False (and no custom item is available), the context menu will be always disabled (unless you allow other context menus with AllowOtherCtxMenus).

To disable the context menu, you can also use Security Profiles (see page restrictions) instead of turning off all of the properties. Moreover specific commands (like copy to clipboard) can be disabled with Security Profiles too.

How does the Properties Editor work?

The Properties Editor enables you to set properties for the selected component. By setting properties you are defining the state of a component. If the Properties are arranged by name, the first column lists the names of the selected action�s properties: If a plus sign (+) appears beside a property name, this can be clicked to display the sub-properties of that property. These can be a list of possible values when the property represents a set of flags, or sub properties if the property represents an object (the value column gives the name of the object, enclosed in parentheses). Similarly, if a minus sign (-) appears, this can be clicked to collapse the sub properties. When a property has focus, you can also use the keyboard + and � keys to expand or collapse properties.

The second column displays the property values: When the property is selected, the value changes to an edit control where you can type a new value. If the value can be set using a dialog, an ellipses button (...) appears when the property is selected. Click this button to display a dialog where you can set the property. You can also display the dialog by double-clicking.

If the value is an enumerated type, a drop-down button appears when the property is selected. Click this button to display a drop-down list that you can use to set the property.