Responsive Design In Your HAT

Who Am I? Neil Perlin - Hyper/Word Services.

– Internationally recognized content consultant.– Helps clients create effective, efficient, flexible

content in anything from hard-copy to mobile.– MadCap-certified Flare trainer/consultant since

pre-alpha in 2005.– Using/training/consulting on RoboHelp since

1991, eHelp/Macromedia/Adobe-certified since 1997.

The Issues

What is responsive design? Why is it important? How does it work? How to create it in a HAT if you’re not a coder.

– Using two major HATs, Flare and RoboHelp

Responsive Design Overview

What Is Responsive Design? Creating one web site/help output that can detect

a display device’s properties and automatically reformat itself accordingly.– Vs creating one site/output for each device.

Developed by Ethan Marcotte in 2010.– See http://alistapart.com/article/responsive-

web-design/ For example…

Gatwick Airport Site

And Online Help? Flare…

RoboHelp…

Why It’s Important In general – Makes it easier for web pages to

address the growing universe of display devices. In tech comm – Lets us create content to run on

any display device (within reason) readers may have.– IMO, the biggest thing to hit the output side of

tech comm since HTML in 1997.

Why It’s Important Why not just

develop a separate site/output for each device out there?

» 99designs.com

Why It’s Important And if you’re not dizzy yet…

» quartsoft.com

How It Works – Uses… Relative formatting for text, images, and tables.

– Use % or ems (or the newer but less supported rem) rather than points.

– Lets the browser dynamically resize elements.

How It Works – Uses… “Fluid grids” to reformat blocks of content as

device size (or another property) changes. From this – To this –

Controlled through the CSS “float” style – no more table-based layouts.

How It Works – Uses… “Media queries” – formulas that test whether a

device meets certain property values and reformats the content if it does, such as:– @media screen and (min: width) 320px– Tests whether the device is a screen and is at

least 320px wide – “320px” is a “breakpoint”.

Conceptual Summary So doing this calls for some knowledge of CSS,

HTML, and good coding practice. What if you’re not a coder? HATs let you create responsive design now with

no coding but with some early limitations and oddities.– Should be fixed in future releases.– Should be okay now for typical, simple help

systems.

Responsive Design via HAT

The Tasks Use relative size units via the CSS. Create a fluid grid using “float” styles from the

CSS, depending on your content layout complexity.

Invoke your HAT’s responsive design feature. Specify the breakpoints. Design the layouts for each breakpoint. Generate, view, and test the output.

Flare

Use Relative Size Units All formatting via the Stylesheet Editor using

relative size units.

“Float” Your Graphics In the img tag via the Stylesheet Editor using the

float style in the Box functional group.

Invoke Responsive Design Set the breakpoints

on the Skin Editor’s Setup tab.– Note that there’s

just one tablet breakpoint.

Set the Breakpoints Don’t try to set the

breakpoint values for specific devices.– You’ll go crazy trying to decide which devices

to base the decision on and only have two options anyway.

Instead, test your output to find sizes where the design gets iffy and set your breakpoints there.

Set the Breakpoints To find generic breakpoints, simply resize the

browser window containing the output. Demo…

Define the Mediums (Layouts) Define the properties for each medium on the

Skin Editor Styles tab. Note the three output type mediums on the Skin

Editor toolbar.

– Use the UI Text tab to change the wording of any UI element.

Define the Mediums (Layouts) Click the Highlight option on the Skin Editor

toolbar to highlight the setting for a selected item on the preview or vice versa.

Demo…

Watch Out For… Local formatting in legacy projects. Can only define one tablet breakpoint in v. 10.

– May be important if you need to distinguish between 10” and 7” tablets.

– Hopefully multiple tablet breakpoints in v. 11. Some skin editor settings are hard-coded – e.g.

logo always left-justified for Web but centered for Tablet and Mobile.

Watch Out For… Settings hierarchies – ex. Background priority

hierarchy is Image > Gradient > Color.– Must set image field to None and Gradient to

Transparent for a Color setting to work.

RoboHelp

Use Relative Size Units All formatting

via the Styles pod using relative size units.

RH doesn’t offer % and em options but supports them if you type them.

“Float” Your Graphics In the img tag via the Styles pod.

Set the Breakpoints Can’t change the default breakpoints through

the GUI. Must do so through a schema file and the CSS.

– Not difficult but you should be comfortable working in code.

– If you are and want the instructions, email me.– Hope to see this changed in RH12.

You Can Now Either… Design the layout, then invoke responsive

design and call the layout, or Invoke responsive design, then call the/a layout

(and modify it if necessary).– I’ll show option 1 because I think its workflow

is simpler but the choice is yours.

Design the Layout Add your new layout under Screen Layouts on

the Project Set-Up pod.

Then right-click on your layout and select Edit – opens the Layout Editor.

Design the Layouts Select a layout component. Then modify

it using the preview to identify it on the Properties list.

Demo…

Invoke Responsive Design Select Responsive HTML5 in the SSL folder,

click the Select button to pick a layout.– Or the

Customize… button to open and customize an existing layout in the Layout Editor.

Watch Out For… Local formatting in legacy projects. Need to edit a schema file and a CSS file to

change the breakpoints. Some skin editor settings are hard-coded, such

as placement of navigation options strip. Can’t modify TOC, index, glossary, or general

navigation differently for mobile and tablet – settings are “mobile/tablet”.

What’s MultiScreen HTML5? Responsive design creates one output that

adapts itself automatically based on the device.– With only one set of content, variables, etc.,

since there’s only one output. Multiscreen supports different output settings

and different content, etc. for each device.– More device-granular content and design but

takes more work since you must define the multiple devices individually.

Summary – Best Practices Design your content for “undesktop-first” via

fluid layout grids, relative sizes, etc. Eliminate local formatting, period. Images:

– Insert sequential images using the CSS “float” style – no more table-based insertion.

– Size images dynamically using % or em units.» But are images legible at smaller sizes. Can you

conditionalize them out? Effect on content?

Summary – Best Practices Use “autofit to window” option for tables. Define “device class” or “category” breakpoints

rather than device-specific ones. Consider effects of using

low-res pointers on the interface and interactivity.

Summary Lots of new technical, design, and output

challenges.– Define your terms and platforms.

It sounds daunting, but so did the move by tech comm to online help and the web in the ‘90s and still today.

We met those challenges – time to do so again.

Hyper/Word Services Offers…

Training • Consulting • DevelopmentFlare • Flare CSS • Flare Single SourcingRoboHelp • RoboHelp CSS • RoboHelp

HTML5ViziAppsSingle sourcing • Structured authoring

Thank you... Questions?

978-657-5464nperlin@nperlin.cnc.net

www.hyperword.comTwitter: NeilEric