Creating Hotspots

Adding Functional Elements to Online Content : Creating Hotspots

Creating Hotspots

Hotspots links that expand and collapse applicable content are commonly referred to as drop-down hotspots. You may create these drop-down hotspots for output based on the Dynamic HTML, Microsoft HTML Help 1.x, and WebWorks Help 5.0 formats. The initial state of a drop-down hotspot is defined to be one of two states:

1.	The drop-down content is initially collapsed and will expand beneath the drop-down hotspot when the user clicks the drop-down hotspot. Clicking the drop-down hotspot a second time causes the drop-down content to return to its original collapsed state.

2.	The drop-down content is initially expanded and will collapse or disappear from beneath the drop-down hotspot when the user clicks the drop-down hotspot.

Begin the process by placing the appropriate elements in your source document.

To insert the necessary elements for drop-down hotspots in a FrameMaker document:

1.	Create a unique paragraph style and apply it to the text that will become the link.

2.	Identify the text that will become the drop-down content. The paragraph style for this content can be any paragraph style except the paragraph style you have applied to the link in step 1.

3.	Place your insertion point at the end of the text you were working with in step 2.

4.	Go to Special > Marker.

5.	Select Edit... from the Marker Type drop-down menu.

6.	Create a custom marker named DropDownEnd.

7.	Insert the new DropDownEnd marker.

To insert the necessary elements for drop-down hotspots in a Word document:

1.	Create a unique paragraph style and apply it to the text that will become the link.

2.	Identify the text that will become the drop-down content. The paragraph style for this content can be any paragraph style except the paragraph style you have applied to the link in step 1.

3.	Place your insertion point at the end of the text you were working with in step 2.

4.	Choose WebWorks > Markers.

5.	Select DropDownEnd from the list of markers. Leave the value of the marker blank.

6.	Click OK to insert a DropDownEnd marker at your insertion point. This marker identifies where the contents of your drop-down will end.

After you have placed the necessary elements for drop-down hotspots in your source document you must configure your ePublisher Pro project as follows:

1.	Open the Style Designer or the Document Designer and select the paragraph style you would like to modify.

2.	Click on the Options tab.

3.	Find the Dropdown option.

4.	Click on the drop-down button to display the list of available values.

Choose Start open if you want your drop-down content to display initially and only close when the user clicks on the drop-down hotspot.

Choose Start closed if you want your drop-down content to be hidden initially and only open when the user clicks on the drop-down hotspot.

Oftentimes, you will have drop-down content that is composed of multiple paragraph styles or you will not have DropDownEnd markers in your content. If you know that specific paragraph styles will always serve as the ending point for your drop-down content or specific paragraph styles will never be included in your drop-down content, you need to assign these paragraph styles a specific drop-down value.

Continue is the default value for paragraph styles. If the content in the paragraph is not a part of drop-down content then the output will not be affected. If the content in the paragraph is a part of a drop-down then the Continue value will signify that this content should be included as part of the drop-down content.

Choose Break if you know that the paragraph style will never be included in drop-down content. If a drop-down paragraph precedes the paragraph style with the Break option chosen, the drop-down will “break” at this paragraph style, signifying the end of the drop-down content.

XHTML 1.0 CSS WAI-A