TOC Link Master

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Dale Aceron
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Joined: Tue May 22, 2018 8:58 pm

TOC Link Master

Unread post by Dale Aceron »

When using the 'TOC Link' option to create a new Topic and using the 'Link to Topic in this Project' option, how do I find out what the Master Topic is?
If I created a new Topic using this option, but then deleted one of the Topics, does it delete them all? I want to avoid deleting the Master Topic.
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Tim Green
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Re: TOC Link Master

Unread post by Tim Green »

HI Dale,

There isn't really a "master" topic. All the TOC entries link to the same topic file indiscriminately. The only key point is that the FIRST one in the TOC is the one that gets highlighted when the corresponding topic is accessed via a link. This is also because there is no real difference between the TOC entries: The highlighting script just reads the TOC from top to bottom and highlights the first entry it finds that links to the corresponding topic file. This also happens when you click on Next and Previous in the topic header, which can make navigation of such topics confusing for users (except in the Premium Pack V3 skins, where it is possible to avoid these issues, although it is not really simple).
I want to avoid deleting the Master Topic.
That would really just be the last TOC entry that links to that topic. Unfortunately HM doesn't keep track of how many entries there are for this. If you delete a single entry and there is still another entry pointing to the same topic then the topic file won't be deleted, but there's no way of knowing that from the Delete dialog or with the Find Referrers function.

On the whole, it is generally better to use snippets for duplicate topics rather than multiple entries pointing to the same topic. Instead of creating a second entry you create a completely new, empty topic that has its own unique topic ID. Then you insert the topic you want to duplicate into it as a linked snippet. This avoids both the TOC highlighting issue (because the topic has its own unique ID and only one TOC entry it is always highlighted correctly in the TOC) and the deletion conundrum (deleting the topic file containing the snippet doesn't delete the source file used for the snippet). 8)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Dale Aceron
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Joined: Tue May 22, 2018 8:58 pm

Re: TOC Link Master

Unread post by Dale Aceron »

Thanks Tim,

That clarifies the use TOC Link. Much appreciated!
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