More Advanced Procedures > Templates and Secondary Windows

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Winhelp and HTML Help can both display topics in external windows. This makes it possible for you to display a second topic with a link while leaving the first topic on the screen so that the user can refer back to it. This can be very useful for lists of instructions, for example.

External windows are handled quite differently by Winhelp and HTML Help. You need to take this into consideration when using them. External windows are not supported in Browser-based Help or eBooks – in these formats you can only use secondary windows to change the appearance of topics.

Links in external windows:

External windows are complete new instances of the HTML Help and Winhelp viewer. This means you can insert links to other topics (and to other external windows) in external windows. However, this is not generally a good idea as it can get very confusing for the user when you do this. It is best to keep your main navigation in the main viewer and to only use external windows to display single topics.

How to use external windows in HTML Help:

Step 1 – Define a help window type:

1.	Go to Project > Project Properties > Help Windows and define a new window type.

2.	Select the new window type in the list and select the option Allow secondary HTML Help windows in its HTML Help Options tab. (This is a global option and will display all topics associated with secondary window types in external windows.)

3.	Define the appearance of your secondary window in the Color & Position and HTML Help Options tabs. See Help Windows settings in the reference section for details.

In most external windows you will generally want to switch off the navigation panel and all the normal control buttons.

4.	Click on to close the Project Properties dialog.

Step 2 – Create a topic in the Invisible Topics section:

Topics you always want to display in secondary windows should almost always be created in the Invisible Topics section. See External windows and invisible topics for more background information.

1.	Create a new topic in the Invisible Topics section.

2.	Select the new topic, display its Topic Options tab and select the secondary window you want to use in the Help Window: field.

This applies the settings of the help window type to that topic and also links the HTML template of that help window type to the topic. HTML templates can be used for even more control over topic appearance and layout.

Step 3 – Link to the topic:

You don't need to do anything special to display a topic associated with a secondary window in an external window. Just create a normal link to the topic. If the Allow secondary windows option is set (see Step 1) all secondary windows in HTML Help will display in external windows.

How to display ordinary topics in external windows in HTML Help:

Sometimes you may want to display a normal topic that is usually displayed in the main help viewer in an external window. To do this you just need to specify a different window type for it in the hyperlink dialog when you create the link to the topic:

1.	Open Project > Project Properties > Help Windows, select the Main window type and activate the option Allow secondary windows in HTML Help in the HTML Help Options tab. (This is a global option for all secondary windows.)

2.	Create a link to the topic you want to display in an external window.

3.	Double-click on the link to open the hyperlink dialog if it is not already open.

4.	Select a secondary window type in the Window: field and click on OK.

This will only display the topic in an external window, with the viewer navigation features associated with that secondary window type. It will not change the topic's appearance. Since the topic is not defined with the attributes of the secondary window it will still have the background color and other features associated with its own window and associated HTML template.

How to use external windows in Winhelp:

The basic procedure for using external windows in Winhelp Note that Windows Vista does not support Winhelp. If you want to be compatible with Vista you must transition to a different help format. is exactly the same as for HTML Help, except that you define the navigation features of the window in the Winhelp Options tab in Project > Project Properties > Help Windows.

Also, unlike HTML Help you do not need to activate external windows with a special option because secondary windows are always displayed in external windows in Winhelp when accessed with hyperlinks. You need to bear this in mind when using secondary windows in Winhelp. See External windows and invisible topics in for more background information on this.

How to display ordinary topics in external windows in Winhelp:

1.	Create a link to the topic you want to display in an external window.

2.	Double-click on the link to open the hyperlink dialog if it is not already open.

3.	Select a secondary window type in the Window: field and click on .

In Winhelp window definitions are applied dynamically at runtime, so this will apply all the properties of the secondary window to the link target topic, including header, background color, position and size.

In HTML Help the target topic will be opened in an external window but it will keep its own appearance attributes, which are defined by its HTML template (the colors from the original help window definition are hard-coded in the template).