Publishing multiple documents

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Kenny Tillet
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Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2012 6:24 pm

Publishing multiple documents

Unread post by Kenny Tillet »

hi,

n00b question:

I want to automate the production of two versions of my project:

1 The full project to a CHM file
2 One particular topic to an HTML file

what's the easiest way to do this?

TIA

K
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Tim Green
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Re: Publishing multiple documents

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Kenny,

You can automate different builds with the Publishing Task Manager. See this chapter in the help for details:

http://www.helpandmanual.com/help/index ... _tasks.htm

What exactly do you want to do with the single HTML file? When you generate WebHelp it includes the WebHelp interface, with a table of contents and a topics pane, and the topics files are integrated in this. You would need to use conditional output tags to exclude everything except the single topic you want to have in your project, but that would still be integrated in the interface. To "uncouple" it from the WebHelp interface you would also need to create a bare-bones skin to do that. I can provide/point to instructions for this, but first it would be good to know what you are trying to achieve here.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Kenny Tillet
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2012 6:24 pm

Re: Publishing multiple documents

Unread post by Kenny Tillet »

hi, Tim,

one topic in our project contains a list of recent updates/bug fixes which i would like to put on our website so users can preview what's new before downloading and installing it. The full CHM gets included in the installer...

Does that make sense?

K
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Tim Green
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Re: Publishing multiple documents

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Kenny,
Kenny Tillet wrote:one topic in our project contains a list of recent updates/bug fixes which i would like to put on our website so users can preview what's new before downloading and installing it. The full CHM gets included in the installer...
Then just post the list directly on your website. Trying to get a single simple HTML list like that out of Help & Manual, which is really designed for creating entire websites, would be overkill and much more work -- a bit like going after a mosquito with a shotgun. 8)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Kenny Tillet
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Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2012 6:24 pm

Re: Publishing multiple documents

Unread post by Kenny Tillet »

hi,

Sorry, i must be being dense! Where do i find the native HTML? The XML version doesn't format correctly when viewed in a browser (is there supposed to be a "CSS" available somewhere?)

K
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Tim Green
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Re: Publishing multiple documents

Unread post by Tim Green »

Kenny Tillet wrote:Sorry, i must be being dense! Where do i find the native HTML? The XML version doesn't format correctly when viewed in a browser (is there supposed to be a "CSS" available somewhere?)
Sorry, I wasn't clear: I meant, create it in your website the way you would create any other web page, rather than creating it in Help & Manual. The pages generated by HM are optimized for WebHelp, and you can't use the XML directly.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Kenny Tillet
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Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2012 6:24 pm

Re: Publishing multiple documents

Unread post by Kenny Tillet »

Aah, OK, i was hoping to use the H&M project as the central repository for everything to save editing two separate source files, but I guess that's not possible...

K
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Darren Rose
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Re: Publishing multiple documents

Unread post by Darren Rose »

@Tim

For Kenny's query wouldn't this be a good use for the new Field-level WebHelp popups perhaps?
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