SOLVED: Setting HTML fallback fonts using HelpNDoc and it's not pretty

We've recently come across a problem with setting a failback font for the HTML output of HelpNDoc.

By default HelpNDocs styles are configured to use Default Font this is built into the application as Arial and cannot be changed.


Screenshot of HelpNDoc's default style
HelpNDoc's default style


By default HelpNDoc's Normal style is set to Default Font as seen above. You can change this font but only to a single font. 

Setting the font to something like 'Segoe UI', 'Calibri' will appear to work but fail silently on output.

Screenshot of HelpNDoc's normal style
HelpNDoc's style editor

If you set the font on the content to - for example Calibri this will set the font correctly in Word, CHM, etc however for the HTML content the following will occur.

The main-content class will remain as the system default of Arial with some fallbacks automatically added. The Calibri font will then be set over and over again on all paragraphs that use the Normal style.

This makes it impossible to override the font on main-content without overriding main-content * which will then override all of your custom styles.

Realistically HelpNDoc should be updating the main-content style with your specific Calibri font and not setting the font on the span tags.

Interestingly enough if you do not set the font for Normal then the main-content style remains the same and the font is not set for all of the spans that use Normal.

<div class="main-content">

    <p class="rvps2">
        <span class="rvts6">Some normal content.</span>
    </p>
    <p class="rvps4">
        <span class="rvts11"># Create the new item.</span>
    </p>
</div>


.main-content, .main-content table span.rvts0 /* Normal text */
{
 font-size: 10pt;
 font-family: 'Arial', 'Helvetica', sans-serif;
 font-style: normal;
 font-weight: normal;
 color: #000000;
 text-decoration: none;
}

span.rvts6
{
 font-family: 'Calibri';
}


span.rvts11
{
 font-size: 9pt;
 font-family: 'Lucida Console', 'Monaco', monospace;
 color: #006400;
}


Workaround 1 - Don't Set the Font in Styles
You can workaround the issue by removing the font from Normal and leaving the defaults.

It's then possible to set a style override of the Normal font in each template.

Screenshot of setting a specific font
Setting a specific font

You can then use your template to overwrite the font in the main-content style.



Workaround 2
It's possible to run a PowerShell script to correct the CSS file with fallback fonts.

# Update the HelpNDoc hnd.content.css with fallback fonts.
$cssPath = "C:\temp\someproject\html\css\hnd.content.css"
$cssContent = Get-Content $cssPath -Raw
$cssContent = $cssContent -replace "font-family:\s*'Calibri';", "font-family: 'Calibri', 'Segoe UI', 'Arial', sans-serif;"
Set-Content -Path $cssPath -Value $cssContent 


It is possible to run this as part of the build using HelpNDoc's build actions.

However these are only available on Ultimate edition - so without this edition you'll need to run the commands manually after build.









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SOLVED: Exchange Online Management PowerShell Connect-ExchangeOnline bug "A window handle must be configured. See https://aka.ms/msal-net-wam#parent-window-handles"

Image
While you're here why not check out our  Exchange audit and documentation tool ? If you're using the Exchange Online Management PowerShell cmdlets you may notice that the following error: A window handle must be configured. See https://aka.ms/msal-net-wam#parent-window-handles This error appears in version 3.7.0 (and persists in version 3.7.1) when the following change was made. Integrated WAM (Web Account Manager) in Authentication flows to enhance security. You notice that this error occurs in PowerShell ISE but not in a PowerShell, the issue also appears in any Windows based applications - for example a WinForms application that tries to execute Connect-ExchangeOnline PowerShell ISE A .NET console application does work correctly. .NET console application While you're here why not check out our  Exchange audit and documentation tool ? The error occurs because Microsoft has made the (correct) decision that when an interactive login prompt it must have a parent window so t...
Read more

Windows Server 2016, 2019, 2022, Windows 10 and Windows 11: Date and time "Some settings are managed by your organization".

Image
When you're using the new "Modern" date and time settings in Windows Server 2016, 2019, 2022, Windows 10 and Windows 11 you may find that you can't set the correct date and time and the value "Some settings are managed by your organization". - While you're here - Why not check out our Windows Server Documentation and Audit Tool? The simplest way around this is to go back to the proper control panel using Start, Run, "Control.exe" and searching for "Set the date".  Within here you can set the date and time manually as required If you try and click the Change time zone button you may again get access denied... To resolve this open an elevated command prompt by right clicking the command prompt and selecting Run as Administrator  From there run the command rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL timedate.cpl This will open the Data and Time control panel app elevated as an Administrator.
Read more

get-windowsfeature : The given key was not present in the dictionary

Image
When you run the get-windowsfeature cmdlet in PowerShell on Windows Server 2012 you may see the following error get-windowsfeature : The given key was not present in the dictionary. At line:1 char:1 + get-windowsfeature + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~     + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Get-WindowsFeature], KeyNotFoundException     + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.Collections.Generic.KeyNotFoundException,Microsoft.Windows.ServerManager.Commands    .GetWindowsFeatureCommand This seems to occur if there is a problem in the following registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ServerManager\ServicingStorage\ServerComponentCache As this is just a cache registry key you can try renaming the key to ServerComponentCache.old and then re-running the PowerShell command or refreshing the view in server manager. This recreates the key and rebuilds the server feature information. - While yo...
Read more