There are several rules that determine if a frame can be hidden or skipped.
All frames hidden: If all of the frames in a topic are hidden for a specified play mode, publishing for that play mode reports an error in the activity log.
Exceptions: Not all frames can be hidden. You cannot hide Introduction or End frames. You can hide Explanation, Decision, No Context, and Action frames.
Note: Although you cannot hide Introduction and End frames using the Show In option, you can skip them by hiding the bubble. See Skipped Frames below.
Alternative Actions: In Try It!, Do It!, and Know It? modes, hiding the primary action in a frame also hides the alternative action, and conversely, hiding the alternative action also hides the primary action.
Note: Alternative Actions are not available in See It! mode.
Alternative Paths: In Try It!, Do It!, and Know It? modes, hiding the frame for any alternative path disables the frame for all alternative paths. If the Alternative Path frame is hidden for a play mode, the Player skips that frame and continues to use the primary path.
Note: Alternative Paths are not available in See It! mode.
Decision frames: If the Decision frame is hidden for a play mode, the Decision frame is skipped and the Player continues to use the default path.
Jump-in points: Jump-in points that point to a frame that is hidden for a play mode do not appear in the Jump-in point list.
Scoring: In Know It? mode, hidden frames are not part of the calculated score.
In-application Support (Exact Match only): Hidden frames are not returned in a search; instead, the search returns the next frame with the same context ID (if one exists) or the topic and section are ignored if the hidden frame is the only one with context.
Skipped Frames
There are other situations where frames are hidden by being skipped. Hiding the bubble for certain frames also skips them. See the Hide the Bubbletopic in the Edit Bubble Properties section of the Use the Topic Editor chapter for more information about hiding the bubble.
The following frames are skipped when you hide the bubble:
Start and End frames in See It! and Try It! modes
Explanation frames in See It! and Try It! modes
Action frames with the Delay Time set to Infinite in See It! mode only
These frames are also skipped in the following situations:
Explanation frames with the Delay Time set to "Skip" and no custom bubble text marked for See It/Try It! modes: The frame is skipped when played in See It! and Try It! modes.
Explanation frames with the Delay Time set to "Skip" and custom text marked for See It/Try It! modes: The frame is skipped in See It! mode, but appears in Try It! mode.
Explanation frames in Do It! and Know It? modes if the bubble has no text marked for display in those play modes: These are skipped even if the frames contain sound.