Web Page Behavior in Publishing

The behavior of web pages in publishing depends on the type of published output, the level at which the web page is linked, and the content of the web page, as described in this section.

Player Outputs

Web pages linked at all levels are included in all Player outputs in Try It! and Do It! modes, and all hyperlinks within the web pages are active. When linked at the concept level, the web page appears directly in the Concept pane when the user selects its parent document. When linked at the frame or bubble text level, users access the web page by clicking on the link icon or hyperlinked text, respectively. In these cases, the web page opens in a new browser window. Similarly, for hyperlinks within web pages, the link target always opens in a new window.

Warning! If the target of a web page hyperlink is a package file or URL, you must ensure that your users have the appropriate setup and access to view the target of the link. Otherwise, the browser displays an error when the user attempts to access the linked attachment through the web page hyperlink.

Note: Web pages linked to frames or bubble text are not available in See It! or Know It? playback modes in the Player.

Document Outputs

Only three types of document outputs ever include linked attachments such as web pages: the Business Process Document, Training Guide, and Instructor Manual. For these three documents, the outcome depends on the level at which the web page is linked and its contents. Specifically, web pages linked at the concept and frame levels are included in document outputs. Web pages linked to bubble text are excluded from all document outputs.

When linked at the concept level, the web page appears immediately after the name of the parent document to which it is linked. When linked at the topic level, the web page immediately follows the screen shot and steps for the frame to which it is linked. It appears in a lightly shaded box that is indented slightly to set it off from the surrounding content, with the link icon to its left. When the same frame links to multiple web pages or other attachments that are included in document outputs, each attachment is displayed as a separate item, in the order in which it is linked.

Further details on the appearance of a web page depend on the combination of text, images, and/or hyperlinks it contains.

• Web page background color is not preserved.
• If a web page contains formatted text, the bold, italic, underline, text color, and numbered and bulleted list formatting is preserved, but the font style and font size are not. The default font style and size, as specified in the publishing styles, are used instead.
• All images inserted in web pages (as embedded images, linked package graphics, and linked URLs) are also included in document outputs. Although the images appear within the borders of the shaded box, the images themselves do not have a shaded background. The maximum image size is 1/2 page; graphics larger than this are scaled accordingly and those smaller appear at full size. If the image is also hyperlinked, the image is included in the document, but the hyperlink is ignored.

  If desired, you can use the publishing format options to exclude web page images from all document outputs.

• Web page hyperlinks are included in document outputs only when the target is a URL (not another web page or a package file) and the hyperlink is from text, not an image. In this case, the hyperlink tooltip appears in place of the linked text, followed by the target URL in parentheses. The target URL functions as an active link in the document output.

  Consider the following example:

  A web page linked as a topic concept contains the text "You can find more information at the Microsoft web site." with a hyperlink from the words "Microsoft web site" to the target URL "www.microsoft.com". Further, the tooltip of the hyperlink is "Microsoft Corporation web site". Upon publication to the Business Process Document, for example, the result for this URL hyperlink is "You can find more information at the Microsoft Corporation web site (www.microsoft.com)."

Note: The Job Aid, Test, and HP Quality Center document outputs do not include linked attachments.