Always Show WebHelp Navigation Pane

When a user opens a topic in WebHelp directly, the navigation pane is not visible. In the properties of the SSL, you can choose to show a link when a topic is opened directly. With a simple script, you can force WebHelp to always show the navigation pane.

RoboHelp 9 and below

For RoboHelp 9 and below, you can add a script to the footer of your master page (template in RoboHelp 7) :

1. Go to your master page and select the footer.
2. Click Insert > HTML > Advanced > Script…
3. On the Source tab, add the following JavaScript:

if(typeof(whMessage) != "undefined") {
  var panevisible = new whMessage(WH_MSG_ISPANEVISIBLE,this,1,"");
  if(!SendMessage(panevisible)) {
    show();
  }
}

4. Click OK to add the script to the master page.
5. Save the master page and generate your output.

Note: Make sure the master page is assigned to all the topics. If you use multiple master pages, add the script to all your master pages.

RoboHelp 10, 11 and 2015

For RoboHelp 10 and upwards, you can add a script to the footer or the header of your master page:

1. Go to your master page and select the header or the footer.
2. Click Insert > HTML > Advanced > Script… (Insert > Javascript on RoboHelp 2015)
3. On the Source tab, add the following JavaScript:

if(isTopicOnly()) {
  setTimeout('show()', 100);
}

4. Click OK to add the script to the master page.
5. Save the master page and generate your output.

Note:

• Make sure the master page is assigned to all the topics. If you use multiple master pages, add the script to all your master pages.
• When you find that a topic keeps reloading constantly, increase the number 100 to another value. The number stands for the milliseconds the script has to wait before executing. 100 means that the script will wait one tenth of a second before calling the skin. By increasing this number, other scripts on which this method depends are allowed more time to execute.