Using the Theme Editor

For Eclipse Help and EPUB themes, the Theme Editor is used to view and edit themes and configurations, and to choose the stylesheet. All three of these options work together to create the look, behavior, text, color scheme, accessibility options, and language you want for your theme.

For other targets, see Customizing NetHelp Themes and Customizing HTML Help, Help Viewer, Help 2.0, and JavaHelp Themes.

  1. On the Home ribbon, click the Theme drop-down button and select the them you wish to view. The Theme Designer opens.
  2. Click the Preview tab in the Theme Designer to view a preview of the theme you selected.
  3. If you would like to create a custom theme or configuration, create a new theme first. See Adding a Theme or Theme Configuration.

  4. Click the Design tab in Theme Designer. A full list of configuration options appears in the right side of the dialog.

    Note You can only edit themes and configurations for customized themes. If you try to edit one of the original Doc-To-Help themes, you will see a note in red stating that you cannot edit the theme.

  1. Open the Theme Designer.

  2. Using the Style sheet drop-down, select a stylesheet.

    Doc-To-Help includes stylesheets for Eclipse Help, and you can create more using the jQuery and Wijmo theme rollers.

    jQuery UI themes can be downloaded from and created at http://jqueryui.com/themeroller/.

    Wijmo themes can be downloaded from http://wijmo.com/theming/.

    Copy the new themes to the following locations on your computer:

    • jQuery C:\Users\[username]\Documents\My Doc-To-Help Projects\Doc-To-Help\Themes\Common\[type of theme]\css\jquery-ui

    • Wijmo C:\Users\[username]\Documents\My Doc-To-Help Projects\Doc-To-Help\Themes\Common\[type of theme]\css\wijmo

Note Customized themes and configurations are stored by default on your computer in C:\Users\[username]\Documents\My Doc-To-Help Projects\Doc-To-Help\Themes.

Theme options are available through the Theme Designer. You can enable specific items in the theme (the header, plus tabs and buttons), change icons in the navigation panes (TOC, Index, Search), insert a logo in the header, and change the icons for related topics and expanding/collapsing sections.

  • The name, baseTheme, and baseVersion of the theme. These fields are read-only for default themes.
  • updateTitle Switches the header title displayed on the browser tab from the topic title to the project title.

You can modify or even turn off the header at the top of the theme.

  • visible Turns the header on or off.

You can change the icons used for automatic subtopic links and expanding/collapsing sections.

  • applyStylesheet (Eclipse Help only) Set to true by default.
  • relatedTopics Choose the icon that will appear before subtopic links.
  • collapsibleSections (Eclipse Help only) Choose the expand all, collapse all, expanded, and collapsed icons for expanding/collapsing sections. See Creating Expanding/Collapsing Sections.

You can change the icons for the table of contents.

  • icons Choose the leaf (topic with no subtopics), expanded, and collapsed icons for the topics in the table of contents. You can also select the "No icon" option.

You can turn the Search tab or accordion button on or off, as well as change the icons for the search features.

  • buttons Choose the icons for go (begin search), help, and highlight (turns search highlight on/off).

You can turn the buttons in the theme on or off, change the button icons, as well as display text on the buttons.

The button labels and tooltips can be edited using the Configuration Options.

Each button has an ID that matches the ID element in layout.html.

  • prev Turn the Previous button on or off, choose the icon, and display button text (showLabel).
  • next Turn the Next button on or off, choose the icon, and display button text (showLabel).

These options are available by clicking the Edit Configuration button and are used to edit the language strings used in the theme. Doc-To-Help includes configuration files for multiple languages. There are also options for right-to-left languages (under "general") and accessibility strings.

  • English = settings.en-us.xml
  • Danish = settings.da-dk.xml
  • German = settings.de-de.xml
  • Spanish = settings.es-es.xml
  • Norwegian = settings.nb-no.xml
  • Portuguese = settings.pt-pt.xml
  • Russian = settings.ru-ru.xml
  • Swedish = settings.sv-se.xml
  • Hebrew = settings.he-il.xml
  • Chinese = settings.zh-cn.xml
  • Japanese = settings.ja-jp.xml
  • Italian = settings.it-it.xml
  • French = settings.fr-fr.xml
  • Dutch = settings.nl-nl.xml
  • rightToLeft The theme text direction will be set for right-to-left languages. If you choose the Hebrew configuration file (settings.he-il.xml) this check box will be selected automatically.
  • The name of the theme this configuration is used in.
  • topicSpinnerText The text that displays when the topic is loading.
  • strings The tooltips for the splitter button: "Show Side Panel" and "Hide Side Panel."
  • index (EPUB only) The header label for the index.(Value).
  • strings "Topic Not Found" text (notfoundText, notfoundTitle).
  • collapsibleSections The "Expand All" and "Collapse All" text displayed for expanding/collapsing all sections. See Creating Expanding/Collapsing Sections.

The text displayed on the Index tab or accordion button. Also the text for the following:

  • "Filter keywords" (filterTooltip) Tooltip for the Index text box.

  • "No keywords found" (notfound) This message is shown when no keywords are found.

  • "#{count} keywords found" (found) This message is shown when one or more keywords are found. It can contain a {count} macro that is replaced with the number of keywords found.

  • "More…" (more) The text for the link that displays if the keywords don’t fit on the screen and aren’t scrolled.

The text displayed within the Search tab or accordion button.

The text for the following:

  • "Search topics" (filterTooltip) Tooltip for the Search text box.

  • "Logical Operators" (helpMessage) This text will be shown in a popup when the user clicks the Help button on the Search tab.

  • "Loading Search Engine" (loading) This message is shown when the data is loading.

  • "Search engine failed to load" (loaderror) This message is shown if the data fails to load.

  • "Search disabled" (disabled) This message is shown when search is disabled.

  • "No topics found" (notfound) This message is shown when no keywords are found.

  • "# {count} topic(s) found." (found) This message is shown when one or more topics are found. It can contain a {count} macro that is replaced with the number of topics found.

  • "Did you mean #{query}?" (correcting) This message is shown when the search engine suggests a search string correction to the user. It can contain a #{query} macro that is replaced with a link to the corrected search string.

  • "More…" (more) The text for the link that displays if the found topics don’t fit on the screen and aren’t scrolled.

The text for the Go, Search, Help, and Highlight Search Hits button tooltips.

The name of the search operators AND , NOT, and OR.

These buttons and their labels can be turned on and off using the theme options.

  • Previous (prev) The label text and tooltip text for the Previous button  (label).
  • Next (next) The label text and tooltip text for the Next button  (label).

These strings are only editable if the Accessibility Mode for this target is set to Section 508. This is done in the Help Targets dialog, in the Advanced section.

  • toc The titles for all of the icons in the table of contents.
  • collapsibleSections The titles for the collapsible section icons.
  • akLinksMenuHeader The header for the list of topics (#{count} topics found) if a keyword or group link has more than one topic to display.