About Dynamic HTML

Dynamic HTML (DHTML) is an HTML feature that gives Help authors more control and flexibility in designing Help topics. With Dynamic HTML, you can create dynamic elements within each topic, design eye-catching layouts, and make your Help projects truly interactive. This results in more compelling Help, and for users, the experience becomes more interesting and responsive.

In the WYSIWYG Editor, you can easily format text and other topic elements to perform a variety of special effects, depending on how the effects are assigned. For example, if you want an effect to appear during mouse rollover, there are fewer options available than for a page-click event.

During mouse rollover, available effects include the following:

On page-load, page-click, or trigger activation, available effects include the following:

Effects can be combined in various ways for each of the events, although some effects are mutually exclusive. It's important to keep in mind that the idea is to create pleasing effects for users, not overwhelm them with too many effects.

 

Notes:

  • Dynamic HTML effects require Internet Explorer 4.0 or later (if they are used as part of a style, they require Internet Explorer 5.0 or later). Dynamic HTML effects are not supported by Netscape Navigator.

  • If you're using Internet Explorer 4, you can successfully apply any Dynamic HTML effect to a paragraph by placing the paragraph in a text box or a positioned text box.