Omni Systems, Inc. Mif2Go User's Guide, Version 55

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> 7 Producing on-line Help > 7.9 Including expandable sections in Help topics > 7.9.1 Understanding Mif2Go expandable drop-down sections

### 7.9.1 Understanding Mif2Go expandable drop-down sections

An expandable drop-down section allows a user to click a link to optionally display additional material; then click the link again (or click the displayed material) to collapse the section and hide the material.

For Mif2Go output, the link can be based on any of the following:

• a special paragraph format dedicated to drop-down links

• an existing paragraph format in your document, such as a figure title or table title

• a graphic icon, with or without accompanying text

• a button, instead of text

• a fixed text string.

A drop-down section has four main parts: link start, link end, block start, and block end. Each new drop-down link gets a new value for predefined macro variable <$$_DropID>, which is used in all following blocks until the next link, or until the end of the HTML file. This means that a single link can optionally control multiple blocks; the blocks do not have to be contiguous.

Each link/block set is independent of other sets. Opening one block does not close other blocks that might have been opened from other links.

Mif2Go provides built-in macros to use for drop-down sections, and settings to enable and deploy the macros. To use the built-in Mif2Go macros as is for drop-down sections, you do not have to include their definitions in your configuration file. Include a drop-down macro definition only to edit or replace the macro.

In its simplest form, a Mif2Go drop-down section needs only one [HTMLParaStyles] format property assigned in the configuration file, and rarely more than two; but has enough configurable options to do almost anything you might want.