So... I'm rewriting our help top-to-bottom anyway (it's a disaster). But I get a few topics that come up during compile that say Warning: Too many topic links... Truncated.
I can't find out what the limits are anywhere? The problem will probably go away by the time I'm done. But I'd like to know the rules.
Note: Do not create help in an ancient WYSIWYG editor, then have someone import into AuthorIT, not complete it, then export a total disaster into H&M and then have to clean it all up.
Hmm... I've never seen this message, you must really have an unusually large number of links in the topic. There is a limit on the length of topics that is known, but that is also very large -- your topics must be way too long to be practical for it to cut in, and even then you only get the excessive portion of the topic shaded until you shorten it, there is no data loss.
I'll check this with our developers and get back to you here with the information when I have it.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)
Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
These are messages from the Microsoft CHM compiler, not from Help+Manual. Obviously, it's about keywords, not about "links" in general. You have assigned the same keyword to dozens of topics. Which, in turn, will offer a very long list of topics to choose from if the user clicks on that keyword in the help file keyword index.
If this is correct (many topics using the same keyword) and these keywords are single keywords (not master-detail), we recommend to strongly reduce the keyword list. It does not make sense to offer an index keyword for navigation, if it leads to dozens of different topics. A keyword index like that is practically unusable. Or you might just leave it as it is, ignore the message and let the CHM compiler cut off the excess lists automatically.
I am not sure about the limit of topics-per-keyword in CHM files - I've never seen this message myself in 25 years. But as a rule of thumb: if 1 keyword links to more than 3 different topics, the keyword index is due for a redesign. Either with two-level keywords which are more specific or a reduction of keywords in general.
If you are already using plenty of two-level keywords, that might explain the messages. In this case, the problem affects the master keyword only, which is not meant to be clicked on, anyway. If that's the case, ignore the compiler messages.
Alexander Halser
Senior Software Architect, EC Software GmbH
I inherited this disaster and it is being rewritten top to bottom. Essentially, whoever did the original (and then ran through AuthorIT - don't EVERY do that) essentially took every instance of a keyword such as Ribbon Bar and pointed it to the Ribbon Bar master topic. So tons of bottom up links. I am clearing TONS of that out.
