You’ve added a Walkthrough. Now you’re probably wondering how you can launch it for your users. There are multiple ways to launch a Topic (any content created in Inline Manual, e.g. a Walkthrough). By default, users can start a Walkthrough by selecting it from the list of Topics in the Widget. However, you can give your users more options to start a guide.



With Inline Manual, you can:

  • Launch a Topic by selecting it from the Widget list.
  • Launch a Topic with a direct URL link (permalink.)
  • Place a Topic launcher (e.g. small tooltip icon) and assign it to the specific element of your application.
  • Automatically launch a Topic for a specific segment of users or visitors.
  • Launch Topic via JavaScript API.


In this article, we’ll briefly describe each of these options.


Launching a Topic by selecting it from the Widget list


With the Inline Manual Widget, you can offer in-context help to your users, so they don’t have to leave your application to see advice. The Widget is enabled on your site by default and as you add new content, such as a Walkthrough or Tooltips, these will be listed in the Widget. Your users can then launch a guide by selecting it from a list of Topics.


You’ll notice the Widget appears in the lower right-hand corner, it’s blue, and it says “Inline Manual.” You can customize every last bit of the Widget to suit your needs; you can change the appearance or change the title. You can also reorder the list of Topics and even hide them if you’re launching them another way, such as through an email campaign, or using an Autolauncher for targeted users.


If you don’t need the Widget, you can hide it entirely.


Launching a Topic with a direct URL link

In Inline Manual, you can launch a Topic with a direct link. It is especially useful when you want to send a specific tutorial, e.g. in a support ticket or an email campaign. Use the URL of your website with the parameter imTopic to launch a specific tutorial - no coding is needed.


Example:

http://example.com/?imTopic=123


123 is the Topic ID you can find in the Topics list next to the title.


You can even launch a specific tutorial on a specific step with an additional parameter: imStep=[stepId]


Note that the first step index is 0, therefore if you want to jump to step 6, you will have to enter 5.


Example:

http://example.com/home?imTopic=123&imStep=5


This will launch tutorial id 123 on the 6th step.


Additional parameters that you can use:


  • ?imDeactivate=1 will deactivate the Inline Manual Player at any Topic or step.
  • ?imDeactivate=1&imTopic=topicId will deactivate the Inline Manual Player only when Topic topicid is active at any step.
  • ?imDeactivate=1&imTopic=topicId&imStep=1 will deactivate the Inline Manual Player only when Topic topicId is active at step 1.


The hash (#) in the URL

If your site has a fragment identifier (hash) in the URL, the parameter must appear before it.


Here are a few examples of URLs with a fragment identifier (hash) and the "imTopic" parameter added:

https://example.com/#home >> https://example.com/?imTopic=12345#home
https://example.com/site/#1234 >> https://example.com/site/?imTopic=12345#1234
https://example.com/sites#page/another/#article >> https://example.com/sites?imTopic=12345#page/another/#article



This example won't work:

https://example.com/#home?imTopic=12345


Launching a Topic with Topic launchers

Topic launchers will let you add a launcher icon, such as a Tooltip or pulsing Hotspot, to your application. It is a great way to grab users’ attention and help them with known troublespots of your website. By default, the launcher is a red circle with a question mark. You can fully customize it. You can read more about Topic launchers in our guide How to: Topic launcher.



Launching a Topic automatically

If you want to, you can launch your Topics automatically after a specific set of rules is met. This is ideal for on-boarding tutorials, where you can target new users that logged in for the very first time. You can also use this if you have new announcements or updates.


To automatically launch a Topic, follow these three steps: 


Take a look at the article How to: automatically launch Topics for new users for further instructions.


Launching a Topic via Javascript

You can use the Javascript API to trigger a launch from within the application.


You can leverage the player API and launch the tutorial with this Javascript command:


inline_manual_player.activateTopic(topic_id); this will activate any Topic you like, that is part of your player.
inline_manual_player.activateStep(topic_id, step_id); activates a specific step within specific Topic.


TIP: When you are using links within a popover and want to deactivate the currently running Topic, add the parameter "?imDeactivate=1" to the URL you are linking to or use onclick=”inline_manual_player.deactivate()”


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