Failure on using a variable on print current selected topic

[Rosenberg]

Hi together,
there is a failure on printpreview a selected topic.

A) Steps to reproduce:
1) I define a text-variable with a predefined value like "Hello" and assign it to a secific topic.
2) The topic contains several subtopics with the same variable assigned.
3) I set the value of this variable for each topic and subtopic to a specific one like "Hello Fred".
4) For printpreview I select this topic and select preview-button on project-register.
5) I set the option to print only as preview
6) I set the option to print only the current selected topic
7) I set the option to print as PDF
I start the printpreview

B) Result:
It opens a separate printpreview to show the PDF-result - so far all is ok.

c) Failure:
The page containing the TOC shows for the variable only the default-value and not the value assigned to the selected topic!
Have a look to appended screenshots.
Hope of a soon fix of it.
Kind regards
Klemens

[Rosenberg]

And now the printpreview-result as attachment

[Rosenberg]

Version is 8.1.0 current release.

[Alexander Halser]

This is correct in general, though I cannot see any difference between print preview and print/PDF.

The correct value of this variable in the print manual is "Hello". Especially on the table-of-contents page and on all other pages except that page where this particular topic with the variable-overlay is being printed.

Topic variables are basically just valid inside a topic. You can use them directly in the topic text, or to modify - for instance - meta tags in the HTML page. These variable overlays are like private variables, they are not valid outside the context of the topic they are defined in. This is very similar to predefined topic variables such as <%TOPICTITLE%>, <%TOPICSTATUS%> or <%TOPICDESCRIPTION%>. None of these variables can be used in the header of the table of contents.

When Help+Manual encounters a variable during export/printing, it does a couple of checks to retrieve a value for the variable:

1) If it is a predefined variable, such as <%TOPICTITLE%>, it returns the native value of this pseudo-variable.

2) If a global user-defined variable of the same name exists, it returns the value of this variable. For instance, if you create a user defined variable called "<%TOPICTITLE%>" and assign a static value to it, the variable <%TOPICTITLE%> will always return the static value, because this overwrites the native value.

3) In batch mode, variables can be overwritten with a different set of variables defined for this build.

4) A particular topic might overwrite the variable value, but that's true for this topic only (while the topic is being printed or exported). The variable will revert to (1)...(3) with the next topic, unless that topic overwrites the variable as well.


The table of contents in your user manual, the cover page, the intro pages, you name it, are printed before any topic gets printed. So it's absolutely correct that the value of <%QM_CODE%> is "Hello" and not "Hello Fred". You could place this variable in a text object of the TOPICS section and get a "Hello Fred" on that page where this topic occurs.

[Rosenberg]

Hello Alexander,
I think you probably misunderstood me.

This is correct in general, though I cannot see any difference between print preview and print/PDF.

It's not about the difference "between print preview and print/PDF".
It's about the difference of header output between TOC and topics in print preview anyway!

I expected, that the information inside a header or footer contains the same information of the current selected topic anyway.
Because I can set in template-desiner the option to "print out a certain part on ALL pages" for TOC as well as for a topic to the header- or footer-area, unless I use global variables!
That expect me, that the variable becomes the same value defined in the current topic.

4) A particular topic might overwrite the variable value, but that's true for this topic only (while the topic is being printed or exported). The variable will revert to (1)...(3) with the next topic, unless that topic overwrites the variable as well.

If I want to use global variables so I define global variables and do not overwrite them in any topic.

• Well nevertheless, so I don't know how do I can solve this issue:
  • Printout the same header / footer for TOC like it comes out for a topic.

[Alexander Halser]

That expect me, that the variable becomes the same value defined in the current topic.

For the TOC there is no "current" topic.