Problem with TOC showing

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Laurel Todd
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Jul 08, 2015 8:58 pm

Problem with TOC showing

Unread post by Laurel Todd »

Suddenly in one project, I'm getting a link "Click here to display Table of Contents". In every other project, the TOC always displayed. What can I do to always display the TOC?
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Tim Green
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Re: Problem with TOC showing

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Laurel,

You don't say, but I think you're referring to your WebHelp, correct? This is happening because the link to the WebHelp is using just topicname.htm instead of index.html?topicname.htm. Your links to your topics will work correctly if you use this syntax (which was actually always required):

index.html?topic_id.htm#anchor_id

where index.html is the main layout file, topic_id.htm is the ID of the topic you wish to display + ".htm" and anchor_id is an optional anchor on the page you want to scroll to.

It used to be the case that links to the topic on its own would automatically reload the main user interface page with the selected topic. Unfortunately, Googlebot now incorrectly interprets these redirects as "duplicate content" and does not index the pages that do this. As a result, users found that their WebHelp was no longer indexed by Google. So in the WebHelp skins provided with Help & Manual and the standard templates we have now turned off the automatic redirect to the main page. At the same time, a link is displayed above the topic title with which the user can redisplay the full user interface. This new behavior has become necessary to ensure that your WebHelp pages continue to be indexed properly by Google.

IMPORTANT: Any external links to your WebHelp and links to WebHelp from your applications should now *always* use the full "index.html?topic.htm" syntax to ensure that they open with the full user interface. This was actually always important, because the user's browser history does not work properly when you use the redirect links.

If having your WebHelp indexed by Google is important to you, you should not re-activate the automatic redirects. If you don't care whether Google indexes your site (for example if it is only used on an intranet, or only visited by users who know where it is), you can reactivate the redirects and return to the old behavior: Open your project (if you are not using a skin) or the .hmskin skin file (if you are using a skin) in Help & Manual. Then in the Project Explorer on the left go to Configuration > Publishing Options > WebHelp > Navigation. Locate the option "When a topic is loaded outside the navigation frame, force it to reload the navigation frame" and turn it ON.

If you use the new V3 Responsive skins from Premium Pack 3 you will not have this problem. They no longer use frames for the topic, so the URL is always just topicname.html. These skins have many other advantages. You can learn more here:

https://www.helpandmanual.com/products_hm_pluspack.html
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
Laurel Todd
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Jul 08, 2015 8:58 pm

Re: Problem with TOC showing

Unread post by Laurel Todd »

Tim,
Yes, we are using WebHelp. I looked at the skins in the V3 folder, but they are too colorful. We have been using the Webhelp Mango skin for all our projects. I'll have the programmer fix their code. Thank you for your prompt response.
Laurel
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