Select "Project | HtmlHelp Compiler Options" and click on the "Popups" tab to get to this feature.

Flyover Popups are small windows that appear as your mouse passes over a link. They disappear once your mouse leaves the link. Because they are temporary windows, you cannot click within them, i.e. to click on a link. Trying to click within a Flyover Popup will simply close it. However, they are very useful when you want to display a small amount of information about a link or a Hotspot. You can create Hotspots on images and create popup links to them. Then your users can simply pass their mouse over an area of the image to display the Flyover Popup. Flyover Popups will work in HtmlHelp and Website Help, but none of the other formats.

To configure the settings for Flyovers by clicking on the [Configure the current Flyover Theme] button on the Popups screen and you will see the screen below.

Themes Folder

Fast-Help comes with several prepared Themes, which are settings files that determine the visual appearance of your popups. These Themes are stored in the Themes folder below your Templates folder, but you can choose another folder if you wish, for example a shared location on your server.

List of Themes

When you choose a Themes folder, all the Theme files are read into this list. When you click a Theme in the list you will see the settings change on the right and the preview show the effects of that Theme. Clicking OK will select that Theme.

Show Arrow Image

A Flyover Popup is a rectangular window, but you can optionally choose to have an arrow image pointing to the link. Although it is not necessary, it creates a pleasant visual effect. Fast-Help comes with two basic sizes of arrow, a long or a short arrow. You can choose a new Up or Down image using the ellipsis button for each field. Normally, when you pass your mouse over a link the Up image will be shown, but if your link is at the bottom of the help window and there is not enough room to display the popup below the link, then the Down image will be used. The Preview above shows an example of the Down image.

Height of arrow to reveal

This is usually the height of the Up or Down image, minus one pixel. This setting is useful to control where the rectangle of the popup appears in relation to the arrow image.

Background

Choose the background color for your Flyover Popup Theme.

Distance from Link

The default is zero, but you can use this to push both the arrow image and the popup rectangle further away from the link. This value is in pixels.

Padding

This is similar to padding in tables. It is the amount of space between the border of the popup and the text. Setting a higher value will give more space around the edge of the popup rectangle.

Border

You can set the style of the border, the color and the width. These settings will not appear in the preview, but they will appear correctly when you compile.

Shadow Effect

This will add a shadow effect when you compile, which will work correctly in HtmlHelp and in Internet Explorer, but will be ignored in Netscape and other browsers.

Add / Delete

You can add and delete Themes and change the properties to match your own preferences.