Adobe RoboHelp: iFrames

by Kevin Siegel  

If you have a need to include PDFs in your Help system, you have a few options. You can create a link to the PDF (which will open the PDF once the user clicks the link) or you can import the PDF into the project (which will create a topic out of the PDF).

There is another, less known technique for including content in your Help System, and this technique actually embeds the content within a topic: iFrames. You can use iFrames (inline frames) to insert PDF files or HTML files within an HTML topic. 

Inserting an iFrame is simple:

1. Choose Insert > HTML > IFrame to open the iFrame dialog box.
2. Give the iFrame a name.
3. Click the browse button and select a URL, HTML file, or PDF file to link.
     
4. (Optional) Click the Border tab to set the iFrame's border options.
5. Click the OK button.

The iFrame won't look like much when viewed in RoboHelp's Design window. However, the results are awesome when you preview the topic. In the image below, the PDF is displayed within the iFrame. Unlike an image, the PDF within the iFrame is scrollable, you can zoom in and out for a closer look, jump between pages, and (coolest of all) use the Show Acrobat toolbar button to display the PDF in Adobe Reader so it can be printed, etc. 

 

To edit an iFrame, double-click it to change the name, the linked item, or the border. While in the Design window, you can also drag the frame handles to resize the frame.

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Comments

[Mike]

Pls. clarify which target(s) this works for. I suspect htmp help (CHM) only; my quick test with merged webhelp put the PDF where I'd hoped, but failed on IE8 download security and display errors. Sigh!

[Kevin Siegel]

If you are testing this locally, have you enabled Mark of the Web (via the Properties of the SSL)? Give that a shot.

[Kathrin Campbell]

Thanks for sharing a useful tutorial about iFrames. I was looking around for such demonstration and glad to discover it right here. Keep up sharing.