Applies to
- GhostDoc Enterprise Edition
GhostDoc is shipped with several help documentation themes right out of the box. The Enterprise edition of GhostDoc enables users to create their custom themes and layouts. This tutorial is an introduction to customizing help documentation themes in GhostDoc Enterprise.
GhostDoc help documentation theme files are located in the <Documents>\GhostDoc Enterprise for VSxxxx\Help Template\Theme\ folder - there are several *.theme files in there. The *.Frame.theme files are obsolete themes for compatibility with the older version of GhostDoc, and these are to be retired eventually.
└───HelpTemplate
├───Colorizer
├───html
├───icons
├───Images
├───Scripts
├───Shared
├───Styles
├───Templates
├───Theme
│ │ Classic.Frame.theme
│ │ Classic.theme
│ │ FlatGray.Frame.theme
│ │ FlatGray.theme
│ │ FlatMain.Frame.theme
│ │ FlatMain.theme
│ ├───Content
│ └───transforms
└───UserImagesThe three supported themes are this point are
The themes are zip files with extension .theme. Make a copy of the .theme file of your choice and rename it to .zip - this will allow to unzip it using the File Explorer. When you are done making your custom theme changes and ready to try it, zip the folders up, rename the file to {name}.theme and copy it into the <Documents>\GhostDoc Enterprise for VSxxxx\Help Template\Theme\ folder.
Important: Choose a unique name for your custom theme for your theme to avoid it getting overridden when you update to new version of GhostDoc.
For simple style changes, edit the styles\lightweight.css file.
├───FlatCustom.theme
│ ├───icons
│ ├───images
│ ├───scripts
│ ├───styles
│ │ highlight.css
│ │ lightweight.css
│ │ lw-code.css
│ └───web
To make changes to the web help images, replace them in the theme's web folder.
Content layout changes require editing theme's XSLT files. We will provide examples in a separate tutorial. In the meantime, please contact us for advice which transformation you modify for the specific layout you require.
When a theme selected in the Build Help Documentation dialog, the content of the selected .theme is deployed to corresponding folders within the <Documents>\GhostDoc Enterprise for VSxxxx\Help Template\.
If you want a custom version of any of the files in Help Template\icons, Help Template\Images, or tweak a layout, you want to place your custom file in the corresponding theme file folder with the same filename you wish to replace.
When you are done making your custom theme changes and ready to try it, zip the folders up, rename the file to {name}.theme and copy it into the <Documents>\GhostDoc Enterprise for VSxxxx\Help Template\Theme\ folder.