In the previous example, we considered a topic separately. If you preview a folder, for example the entire encyclopedia folder, the folder page style will be active. If you then select a topic from the contents table, the selected topic will appear on the secondary pane of the folder-page style. HelpServer’s scheme mechanism adds attributes from the topic-page style of the selected topic to the active folder-page style.

A topic page style and the secondary pane in a folder-page style contain a number of similar components: a navigation bar, a title bar, an action bar, and a body pane. How do these components relate to each other?

The navigation bars

If you preview a folder then the navigation bar of the folder-page style will be active and the navigation bar of the topic page style is ignored since you can’t have two navigation bars. The navigation bar of a topic-page style is only applicable when topics are displayed in a separate web browser window.

The title bars, the action bars, and the body panes

To demonstrate the relationship of these components we will experiment a little bit with background colors.

First, let’s change the attributes of the ‘Bird’ topic-page style.

Changing the title bar of a topic-page style

Expand the topic pane, select the title bar and change the background color to green.

Changing the action bar of a topic-page style

Select the action bar and change the background to pink.

Changing the body of a topic-page style

Select the body pane, select ‘Color’ and set the color to yellow.

Changing the topic-type attributes

Select the topic type objects one by one and make sure the ‘Use background of the parent pane’ is selected.

Click ‘Save’ and close the window.

Next, we will change some attributes of the ‘Bird’ folder-page style.

Opening the Bird folder-page style

To do this, select an ‘Bird’ folder, for example ‘The falcon’ in the Workbench, click the ‘Properties’ tab, expand the Look & feel section and click the ‘Open page style’ button.

Changing the secondary pane of a folder-page style

Select the secondary pane object and change the background to cyan. For now, we don’t change the background of the secondary pane’s default components.

Click ‘Save’ and close the window.

If you preview ‘The falcon’ folder it will look like this.

A Bird folder previewed

The cyan-colored area on the right is the secondary pane’s background.

If you select the topic in the left pane it looks like this.

A selected topic in a folder page

Note the green title bar, the pink action bar, and the yellow background on the right. These are all topic-page style attributes. The topic-page style is entirely put upon the secondary pane.

So, if required you can give each kind of topic (each topic class) its own specific look and feel when it appears in a folder page.

Using the defaults of the secondary pane

Instead of having to set up look and feel attributes for each of your individual topic-page styles you can choose to use the default settings of the secondary pane in the folder-page style. To demonstrate this, we will change again the ‘Bird’ folder-page style and the ‘Bird’ topic-page style.

Changing the body pane of a folder-page style

Let’s make the default body pane’s background orange. The default title bar and the default action bar still have their original background color.

Click ‘Save’ and close the window.

Next, open the ‘Bird’ topic-page style.

Using the default settings of a folder’s secondary pane

On the ‘Bird’ topic-page style, select the topic pane in the left and click ‘Use default settings of the folder’s secondary pane’.

Click ‘Save’ and close the window.

If you now preview ‘The falcon’ folder and select the topic it will look like this.

A folder previewed

Note the background of the title bar, the action bar, and the red background of the topic on the right. These are all settings from the secondary pane and it’s dependants in the folder page style.

So, when all your topic classes need the same look and feel, it is better to use the default look and feel attributes in the secondary pane of the folder-page style(s).

However, if you preview a ‘Bird’ topic individually it will look like this.

A topic previewed

Now the topic’s own title bar, action bar and background are applicable.