Character Styles

Use the following options to configure character styles. Unavailable options will be grayed out.

  • Name The name of the style or topic type.
  • HTML Name This applies only to HTML source documents from legacy projects. It defines the name to be used to identify the style as a cascading stylesheet style in legacy HTML source documents. Every style specified in a Doc-To-Help project has two names: its name and its HTML name that identifies it as a CSS style, or selector. When you use a style in an HTML document, make sure you use its HTML name. According to the standard CSS rules, the HTML name can have one of three forms:

    • <stylename> The style can be used with any HTML tag.

    • <tag> The specified tag (for example, H1 for style Heading 1) is considered by Doc-To-Help as having this style, even if the user did not format this tag with any particular CSS style.

    • <tag>.<stylename> The style can be used only with the specified tag; it is ignored if used in other tags.

  • Affects Appearance If selected, this style defines the appearance of the text (font, color, etc.) in the target Help file. If cleared, the style is only used to create a hotspot or keyword and does not affect target appearance. Character styles with this check box selected can be used to specify the appearance of links generated by other means. For example, a style with Affect Appearance selected and a Type = None can be used to format topic links, dynamic links, and margin notes if you need to override the default link appearance for them.
  • Include Page Number in Reference In a manual target, if this check box is selected, the page number of the referenced topic will be placed next to the text formatted with this style. This option is only available for Jump and Popup links.
  • Hidden If selected, any text formatted with this paragraph or character style is omitted from the target. If a topic heading is formatted with this style, the whole topic is omitted from the target.
  • Replacement In certain cases, returns a string that overrides the generated default text. For paragraph styles and topic types with the "Auto next" check box selected, this string is used instead of the topic title next to the generated button. For character styles with the "Include page number in reference" check box selected, this string specifies the format of page number references in printed manual targets. This string is ignored unless it contains a pound sign, which is replaced with a PAGEREF field.
  • Window The name of the window in which topics formatted in this style are displayed.
  • Auto Index If selected, index keywords are automatically created from text formatted with this character style and associated with the topic that contains the text.
  • Multi Link If selected, each occurrence of a "jump" character style (in a given topic) generates a link. If cleared, only the first occurrence generates a link and all other formatted occurrences are skipped.
  • Behavior Determines the authoring behavior associated with this character style at compile time.

    • None No hot spot

    • ContextString Context string hot spot

    • Group Group hot spot

    • Topic Link Topic link hot spot

    • Group Link Group link hot spot

    • Keyword Link Keyword link hot spot

    • Link Tag Link tag hot spot

    • Context ID Context ID hot spot

    • Conditional Text Conditional text hot spot

    • Contents Title Contents title hot spot

    • Topic Properties Topic properties hot spot

    • Keyword Keyword hot spot

    • Inline Expand Inline expand hot spot

    • Inline Popup Inline popup hot spot

    • Inline Text Inline text hot spot

    • Inline Dropdown Inline dropdown hot spot

    • Variable Variable hot spot

  • Link Type Determines whether a link hot spot is a jump or a pop-up.

    • Jump Topic jump hot spot.

    • Popup Topic pop-up hot spot.

  • Script Displays the script to be run during compilation whenever text formatted with this style is encountered.

For more about conditions, see Conditions.

  • Platforms Sets a platform-based condition for the selected style. The style will be included in all the target platform(s) selected. A platform includes all the targets that produce the output specified; Online Help, HTML Help, NetHelp, Printed Manual, etc.
  • Targets Sets a target-based condition for the selected style. The style will be included in all the target(s) selected.
  • Attributes Sets an attribute-based condition for the selected style. The style will be included or excluded when creating conditional builds (e.g., internal or external.) Use the Attributes dialog (Project > Attributes) to create custom attributes.