New HTML Help files - suggestions here please!

[ghisler(Author)]

Those who have used the CHM help files already in previous versions of TC may have noticed that I changed various things in the new CHM files of RC1: I wrote a small tool which takes the (quite outdated) HelpScribble output and converts it to HTML+CSS style sheets automatically. This way it's easy to support also older browsers like IE4 (Win98) or even IE3 (Win95b).

The private beta testers and myself have discussed already in the private forum about how to improve the look of the CHM help file, e.g. by using different default colors for links. I would like to bring up this question also here in the public forum.

If you want to try different colors, you can use the chmdir plugin to look into the CHM file and even edit the style sheet yourself:
http://www.totalcmd.net/plugring/chmdir.html

Thanks for any suggestions!

[Lefteous]

Large list like the settings help page are currently formatted in a very strange way. Each line is a div with a span tag inside. It would be great if such pages could be formatted similar to the page in the wiki:
http://www.ghisler.ch/wiki/index.php?title=Wincmd.ini

1. Use a table
2. One row per setting
3. An section index in top

[petermad]

I suggest to use:

body {background-color: window; color: windowtext} in ie.css

[Samuel]

Here are my proposals from Beta board:
1. Green proposal:

a:link {color:#008000;text-decoration:none;}
a:visited { color:#88BB88;text-decoration:none;}
a:active {color:#00A000;text-decoration:none;}
a:hover { color: #00A000;text-decoration:underline;}

In action (hovering over 1a - 2b and 2c were visited):

Total Commander Help Index

1. Introduction
... a. What is Total Commander?
... b. What's new in this version?
2. General Information
... a. Ordering
... b. Updates and Support
... c. Licence/Copyright
... d. We are an ASP member

2. What Windows 7 uses in its help:

a:link {color:#0066CC;text-decoration:none;}
a:visited { color:#990099;text-decoration:none;}
a:active {color:#0066CC;text-decoration:none;}
a:hover { color: #0066CC;text-decoration:underline;}

In action (hovering over 1a - 2b and 2c were visited):

Total Commander Help Index

1. Introduction
... a. What is Total Commander?
... b. What's new in this version?
2. General Information
... a. Ordering
... b. Updates and Support
... c. Licence/Copyright
... d. We are an ASP member

Other Proposals:

3. link (color:#008000) visited (color:#800000)

4. link (color:#008000) visited (color:#008080)

5. link (color:#008000) visited (color:#004000)

6. link (color:#008000) visited (color:#808000)

7. link (color:#0066CC) visited (color:#004080)

If it can be another color but green i would suggest 2 or 7. Otherwise I prefer 1, 4 or 5.

[fenix_productions]

2Samuel
#2 and #3 are closer to what I consider good: truly visible difference between visited links and others.

Green proposal is "one mass" for my eyes and "visited" colour is almost invisible for me. Depending on your screen settings like contrast / brightness 4,5,7 might look the same too.

[petermad]

May I suggest a change to main_index.htm;

<div class="p4">Total Commander is Copyright © 1993-2009 by Christian Ghisler, Ghisler Software GmbH</div>
to:
<div class="p1">Total Commander is Copyright © 1993-2009 by Christian Ghisler, Ghisler Software GmbH</div>

Otherwise you get a weird indentation of the line if it is wrapped.

[ghisler(Author)]

2Lefteous
Tables do not work for the typical indented text when the described string itself is too long. That's why this construct is used by HelpScribble. I don't see any problems with it.

I just read the Help and gathered strange text in it:
Its time to remove the entries about dos and Win 3.1.

2Samuel
2fenix_productions
Sorry, this thread is about CHM formatting, not help contents. Please write such suggestions in a separate thread.

I suggest to use:
body {background-color: window; color: windowtext} in ie.css

Indeed I suggested this myself in the private beta forum, and I plan to use it in the next version.

Otherwise thanks for your suggestions! I will try some of them.

[Balderstrom]

Well I vote no green. It should be Blue & Red, Just use TC's Icon colours

[Lefteous]

2ghisler(Author)

Tables do not work for the typical indented text when the described string itself is too long. That's why this construct is used by HelpScribble. I don't see any problems with it.

I don't quite understand what you mean. Can you give an example?

[Clo]

2ghisler(Author)

Good evening,

• There is a strange unexpected side effect when changing the font size in the CHM Help
(I kwew it already using Universal Viewer) :
1. Open the CHM Help, then increase the font size with 1… 2 click¦s on the <Let_Guess_How_I_Work> Font button.
2. Open IE (6, or any browser using its engine), go to the M$ Hotmail site for instance,
- The page has the same large font size than the CHM…

• Just FYI, it seems that no workaround exists to prevent that, according to the Alextp's search and test…
- However, in Universal Viewer there are two zoom buttons (in-out), so it's easy to come back to the original size
with the same click-count on the zoom out one…
…while in the CHM, retrieving the original size is rather “acrobatic”

VG
Claude
Clo

[Vansumsen]

Clo

Confirmed !

Paul

[Samuel]

I just read the Help and gathered strange text in it:
Its time to remove the entries about dos and Win 3.1.

2Samuel
2fenix_productions
Sorry, this thread is about CHM formatting, not help contents. Please write such suggestions in a separate thread.

May a mod please move the two posts to a new thread? Thanks.

Well I vote no green. It should be Blue & Red, Just use TC's Icon colours

IMO not a good idea, because the help uses red extensively to highlight things. (another red color would be confusing)

[Hacker]

Samuel,

May a mod please move the two posts to a new thread? Thanks.

Which two posts? Direct links and the desired new thread title, please.

Thanks
Roman

[petermad]

I have tried to straighten the layout of the two pages: dlg_configbuttonbar.htm and dlg_usermenu.htm so that they can also look decent in narrow windows.

Here is how it looks now: http://madsenworld.dk/tcmd/params-help-old.png

And here it is with my modifications: http://madsenworld.dk/tcmd/params-help-new.png

I have made the changes by only only changing one css item (.s28) which was only used in dlg_configbuttonbar.htm anyway, and adding one new css item. The rest is done by cleaning up the html code. So the change is in no way affecting the other help pages.

I have also fixed some html error in the two files (mostly overlapping tags like <B><I>xxx</B></I>)

The modified files can be downloaded here: http://madsenworld.dk/tcmd/new_totalcmd_chm.zip - including a new compiled totalcmd.chm file.

[Samuel]

2Hacker:
Sorry for me it was clear
http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?p=181090#181090
http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?p=181100#181100
Title: Content changes for the TC help

Thanks in advance.