How to create chapters without text?

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Robert McConnell
Posts: 27
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2007 4:23 pm

How to create chapters without text?

Unread post by Robert McConnell »

Some time in the very distant past I deliberately created a document containing several chapters without text. Each of these had several normal child chapters with text. The result was that the title of the chapter without text appeared in the TOC but one could only select the child items for viewing.

Problem is I can't remember how I created the chapters without text and can't seem to find the answer in the documentation.


Can anyone point me in the right direction?
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Tim Green
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Re: How to create chapters without text?

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Robert,

This function is deprecated because we're trying to wean users away from using it, so it's not as easy to find as it used to be. You can still do it if you absolutely need to: You need to have a topic with content to start with; an empty topic is fine. Then right-click on it in the TOC and the context menu will show you an option to convert it to a chapter without text.

There are a couple of reasons we feel that it's advisable to avoid these chapters:
  • Navigation is a little confusing for the user. When they select a chapter without text in the TOC there are only two things that can happen: Either nothing, and they tend to think that it's an error, or the selection must automatically jump to the first topic with content (the V3 Premium Pack skins do this), which is a little strange.
  • In standard skins, the Next and Previous buttons/links don't work correctly with chapters without text, because there is no topic containing the information needed to tell the button where to go. This is also solved in the V3 skins, but it's still a problem.
  • They are also starting to be deprecated in output formats. For example, you can't create an ePub or Kindle eBook from a project that contains chapters without text, because they are not allowed by those formats.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Robert McConnell
Posts: 27
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2007 4:23 pm

Re: How to create chapters without text?

Unread post by Robert McConnell »

Many thanks for the help. I hope you don't eliminate the feature entirely. It does have its uses.
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