Multiple References to Topics

[Mike Scott]

I am using the Advanced Full BlueGold WebHelp skin with my project in 8.0.0 build 5452 and it won't compile.

multipleTOC.png

I cannot see the item(s) causing the problem, only a bullet point.
The Compiler messages say 520 files were indexed, 1482 skipped, unique words 6800, varant words 1338, total words 152519 and 5.5Mb scanned.

Is this an error in my H&M help system which has grown for many years, possibly 15 or 20 years? Or just a feature of certain skins? Grateful for your advice.

If it's an error, how do you suggest I go about debugging? If using the Index tool, how?

Cheers -- MIke

[Tim Green]

Hi Mike,

Do you also have any "Chapters Without Text" in that project? Those are also a no-go for those skins and might be incorrectly triggering that error message. Looking at your compiler report, the two "advanced" skins may not be a good choice for that project. They are really designed for compact projects with a relatively limited number of topics. If you continue to have problems send me a download link for a demo project that reproduces the problem at support AT ec-software.com (replace the AT with @) and I'll check it out.

[Mike Scott]

Yes, I do have Chapters without text in there. And changing to Modern Flex Navy Blue Webhelp skin worked.

Perhaps you could rename the Advanced Full ones if they are not so Full? I avoided Compact and assumed Full would handle anything...

But I would still like to know how to clean up my long-standing help file.
It has a few key word entries which are duplicates, where the same key term is listed identically on more than one page. How could I identify which these are?

Cheers -- Mike

[Tim Green]

But I would still like to know how to clean up my long-standing help file.
It has a few key word entries which are duplicates, where the same key term is listed identically on more than one page. How could I identify which these are?

Having the same keywords on multiple pages isn't a problem at all. The issue is with multiple TOC entries pointing to the same topic file. That messes with the browse sequence and navigation in the TOC, particularly if they are not so close together. The best way to have multiple references to the "same" topic is to create multiple topics with their own IDs and then insert the first one into the others as a linked snippet. Then you still edit them all in the same place but you eliminate all the TOC and navigation issues.