Editing Drop-Down Effects

You can edit drop-down text that you have inserted into a topic in at least three different ways: (1) Edit the content in the drop-down text, (2) edit the style of drop-down text, and (3) unbind (or remove) the drop-down effect (see Removing/Unbinding Drop-Down Text). Following are steps to edit drop-down content and styles.

How to Edit Drop-Down Content

  1. In the XML Editor, click in the area containing the drop-down hotspot or drop-down body. Then add, remove, or replace the content as necessary.
  2. Click Save the active file. to save your work.

Example You have drop-down text in a topic that contains the words "click here" as the hotspot, then one paragraph and an image in the drop-down body.

If you want to change the text of the hotspot to "see this," you would simply replace the hotspot text between the small brackets in the topic.

If you want to add another paragraph in the drop-down body, you would simply click somewhere in the drop-down body, press ENTER, and type the additional paragraph.

And if you want to edit an image in the drop-down body, you would simply edit the image just as you would if it were not contained in a drop-down (e.g., right-click the image and select Edit With MadCap Capture.

How to Edit the Style of a Drop-Down Effect

You can edit the style (e.g., font, color) of a drop-down hotspot or body. When you do this, the style changes for all drop-down text in any topics in your project.

Example You want to change the font for your drop-down hotspots to red and italic. The following steps show you how to accomplish this.

  1. From the Content Explorer, open the stylesheet that you want to modify.

  2. Complete one of the following sets of steps, depending on whether you want to use the Simplified view or Advanced view in the Stylesheet Editor.

    • Simplified The Simplified view displays styles in a grid view and is often best for brand new users.

      This view provides an easy way to apply properties to styles, with format options available from a toolbar and dialogs (similar to the way one would use an interface such as Microsoft Word). In some cases, only the most common property options are available in the Simplified view (e.g., font, letter/word spacing, paragraph alignment/indentation, autonumbering format, borders, background). One advantage of the Simplified view is that you can apply a property to multiple styles at the same time. You can also click a check box to hide the properties in the editor, allowing you to see only the styles.

    • Advanced The Advanced view displays styles in a tree structure, and despite the name, is user friendly for authors of all levels.

      For the properties, you can toggle between a grouped display and an alphabetical display. The Advanced view of the Stylesheet Editor lets you edit more settings than are available in the Simplified view. In addition, the Advanced view lets you see and apply settings to multiple mediums and media queries at the same time.

    3. If Using Simplified View

    1. In the local toolbar, make sure the first button displays The button to change the stylesheet to the simplified view. (which means that the Simplified view is currently shown in the editor). If the button displays The button to change the stylesheet to the advanced view. instead, then click it.
    2. In the upper-left corner of the editor, click in the drop-down field and select .
    3. From the grid in the bottom portion of the editor, find and select the appropriate style, depending on what you want to change.
      • MadCap|dropDown This style affects the entire container holding a drop-down effect, including the image that is shown when a drop-down effect is open or closed.
      • MadCap|dropDownBody This style affects the content that is shown when users open the drop-down effect.
      • MadCap|dropDownHead This style affects the entire container holding a drop-down hotspot (i.e., the paragraph where the drop-down link is located).
      • MadCap|dropDownHotSpot This style affects the text in the first paragraph of a drop-down effect that serves as the link for opening the drop-down body.

    4. In the local toolbar of the editor, click Display properties for the selected item.. The Properties dialog opens.

    5. Use the tabs and fields in the Properties dialog to change values for any of the style's properties.

      For more information see Styles and Stylesheets, as well as Editing Styles in a Regular Stylesheet.

    6. In the Properties dialog, click OK.

    If Using Advanced View

    1. In the local toolbar, make sure the first button displays The button to change the stylesheet to the advanced view.. If the button displays The button to change the stylesheet to the simplified view. instead, then click it.
    2. In the upper-left corner of the editor, click in the drop-down field and select .
    3. On the left side of the editor, find and select the appropriate style, depending on what you want to change.
      • MadCap|dropDown This style affects the entire container holding a drop-down effect, including the image that is shown when a drop-down effect is open or closed.
      • MadCap|dropDownBody This style affects the content that is shown when users open the drop-down effect.
      • MadCap|dropDownHead This style affects the entire container holding a drop-down hotspot (i.e., the paragraph where the drop-down link is located).
      • MadCap|dropDownHotSpot This style affects the text in the first paragraph of a drop-down effect that serves as the link for opening the drop-down body.
    4. From the Show drop-down list on the upper-right side of the editor, select Filter using the drop-down to show assorted relevant properties in the stylesheet.. The most relevant properties for that style are shown on the right side of the editor.
    5. (Optional) You can use the toggle button in the local toolbar to show properties below in a group view Stylesheet local toolbar button to show properties in a group view. or an alphabetical view Stylesheet local toolbar button to show properties in an alphabetical view..

    6. Locate the property you want to change.

    7. The area to the right of the property is used for selecting and entering values. If you know how to enter the information correctly, you can click in the value field and type it directly. Otherwise, click the ellipsis button Display more options. to the right of the property. Depending on the type of property, the appropriate controls and options display, allowing you to choose or enter values (e.g., select from a drop-down list, click a button, complete fields in a dialog or popup). If you completed values in a popup, click OK at the bottom of the box.

      Following are some of the more common properties that you might change:

      Drop-Down Image Styles

      Use the following style properties to change the image(s) associated with a drop-down effect.

      • mc-closed-image This style, located in the Unclassified property group, lets you select an image to be shown next to the drop-down effect when it is in a closed state. To use this property, first select the MadCap|dropDown style.
      • mc-closed-image-alt-text This style, located in the Unclassified property group, lets you set alternate text for the drop-down effect when it is in a closed state. See Accessibility.
      • mc-open-image This style, located in the Unclassified property group, lets you select an image to be shown next to the drop-down effect when it is in an open state. To use this property, first select the MadCap|dropDown style.
      • mc-open-image-alt-text This style, located in the Unclassified property group, lets you set alternate text for the drop-down effect when it is in an open state. See Accessibility.
      • mc-image-spacing This style, located in the Unclassified property group, lets you set the spacing around the image next to the drop-down.

      For more information see Styles and Stylesheets, as well as Editing Styles in a Regular Stylesheet.

  3. Click Save the active file. to save your work.

How to Unbind or Remove the Drop-Down Effect

The third way to edit drop-down text is to unbind (or remove) the drop-down effect. If you decide that you no longer want the content to display in a drop-down effect, you can use the steps below to remove the effect, converting the content to regular text.

  1. Open the content file.
  2. In the XML Editor, right-click the blue down arrow at the beginning of the drop-down text.
  3. In context menu, select Unbind Drop-Down Text. The drop-down effect is removed.
  4. Click Save the active file. to save your work.

What’s Noteworthy?

Note If you have created nested drop-down effects in your topic (i.e., a drop-down within a drop-down), you need to unbind the outer drop-down effect before unbinding the one inside.

Note To edit alternate text for this feature in a specific language, you can modify the language skin. In the Language Skin Editor, select the desired language skin target, then adjust the values for the related AltText property. See Applying Alt Text.