How best to manage multiple books in a single project

[lporrel]

Hi Tim,

I hope that this message finds you well.

I have a question about TOC management for multiple books. As far as I can tell, the only way that I could have multiple, collapsable books (TOCs for different products) in the Project Explorer is to create a top-level headers for each book and then nest all of the topics for the book beneath it. In contrast to this approach, I've been working with Flare, which enables me to create discrete TOCs that I can open and work on individually. I like that approach, and I wonder if there isn't a better way to manage multiple TOCs in H&M. Along the same lines, if I were to have a project for each book, would I be able to share topic files between projects?

Thanks!

LP

[Tim Green]

Hi Leonard,

Help & Manual does support multiple TOCs, it just does it in a different way. Instead of having completely separate alternative TOCs, you can have them all in the same TOC and switch between them with filters, also for displaying them in the editor.

The key to this is the Project > Explore > Filter control, combined with table of contents filtering setting in View > Program Options > General. If you turn this OFF, then filtered (excluded) TOC items are completely hidden in the editor.

The third component of this is the ability to create as many TOC items for your topic files as you like -- this is possible because the TOC is really just a list of links to topic files. See this topic in the help for instructions on setting this up.

To make an alternative TOC you set build options for the topics and chapters you want to optionally include or exclude, creating additional TOC entries for topics and chapters if necessary to have a different structure. Then you apply your build options to them. After this, you can display the target structure as required with the Filter tool.

[lporrel]

Thanks, Tim. I have a related question. I'll have comprehensive help, but I'll also need discrete topics to load into a CMS (Jive). Is it possible to build a TOC so that it produces only individual HTML pages, in a single folder, that do not feature JS to call in navigation?

If so, is it then possible to build these same topics so that the CSS is embedded in each topic, in effect making each topic a stand-alone HTML page?

[Tim Green]

Hi Leonard,

Is it possible to build a TOC so that it produces only individual HTML pages, in a single folder, that do not feature JS to call in navigation?

Yes, that is what the "No Frames" option in Configuration > Publishing Options > WebHelp > Layout is for. When you select this the index.html file normally generated by the Layout template is not generated at all. Instead, the TOC file is generated as index.html and all the topic files are generated as stand-alone pages without any automatic integration.

Important: Note that you can't "switch" existing skins to this mode! They are designed for normal layout and eliminating the normal index.html page there will give you hundreds of errors. You need to start from scratch.

If so, is it then possible to build these same topics so that the CSS is embedded in each topic, in effect making each topic a stand-alone HTML page?

Yes, that is what this mode is for. The CSS is all in the topic page template. The reference for the topic content CSS file is already included automatically (you need that for the formatting of your topics). You can add additional CSS yourself -- either inline in the page template directly, or with additional CSS files of your own, referenced in the template. To export your CSS files, just add them to the baggage files for your project (if you are using the templates directly in the project) or in your skin file (if you have saved the project as a skin for reuse).

[lporrel]

Hi Tim,

I'm getting some results that I don't understand. In Publishing Options > Layout, I' removed <link type="text/css" href="<%STYLESHEET%>" rel="stylesheet" /> and replaced it with in-line definitions taken from the CSS. I've put these beneath <style type="text/css">.

In Publishing Options > Table of Contents, I've removed <link type="text/css" href="<%STYLESHEET%>" rel="stylesheet" />.

However, when I Quick publish my Webhelp (with Delete all files... enabled), the HTML files do not feature my inline styles but instead have <link type="text/css" href="<%STYLESHEET%>" rel="stylesheet" />. No skin is selected.

Help?

[Tim Green]

Hi Tim,

I'm getting some results that I don't understand. In Publishing Options > Layout, I' removed <link type="text/css" href="<%STYLESHEET%>" rel="stylesheet" /> and replaced it

Hi Leonard,

If you are able to edit that you are not using the "No Frames" option. This option completely switches off the Layout template. It is then no longer used -- that is the whole point of it. To activate it, you need to select the Simple Options tab and then select the "No Frames" mode. When you do that the Source Code tab is removed, because there is no longer a Layout template. In the output, the TOC page then becomes the index.html page.

Warning: If you have any code in the Layout template it will be deleted when you do this!

[lporrel]

Thanks, Tim.

I did try the No Frames option, but then I don't see how I can suppress the the CSS call (<link type="text/css" href="styles.css" rel="stylesheet" />) and replace it with the full CSS before I build. As far as I can tell, I'd have to "manually" make this change to each topic using an HTML editor after I build.

What am I missing?

[Tim Green]

I did try the No Frames option, but then I don't see how I can suppress the the CSS call (<link type="text/css" href="styles.css" rel="stylesheet" />) and replace it with the full CSS before I build. As far as I can tell, I'd have to "manually" make this change to each topic using an HTML editor after I build.

That's easy. The reference is in the topic page template, in Configuration > HTML Page Templates > Default. It's this line in the code:

Code: Select all

<link type="text/css" href="<%STYLESHEET%>" rel="stylesheet" />

The <%STYLESHEET%> variable inserts the name of the stylesheet for the topic page content based on the styles defined in your project. The actual name is specified in Configuration > Publishing Options > WebHelp > HTML Export Options. This section is only in your project, not in the skin.