Use Topic in TOC more than once...

[LNT1]

We have just purchased RoboHelp 6 for our Help System generation as well as to begin developing online training courses.

I have a WebHelp File that contains 5 books - one book per procedure. I have a topic that is applicable to two procedures. Without having to make a copy of the topic, is it possible to set up the TOC to use the topic in question more than once?

The problem arises when I am setting up the Browse Sequence. I tried to set up the Browse Sequence using the Auto-create using TOC...option, but the sequence appears to be in alphabetically order. In fact, it is in no way, shape or form even close to the TOC (as indicated in the Help - Topics in each browse sequence will be in the same order as in the TOC)!!!

So, I tried to manually create the browse sequence. I used a browse sequence to contain all topics, then I set up another browse sequence to contain the duplicate topic. When I use the navigation arrows to move through the toc, it will not advance to the second browse sequnce.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Lisa

[RoboWizard]

Hi Lisa

Maybe you can accomplish it using my trick for conditional TOCs?

Click here to read the article

Might help... Rick

[LNT1]

Hi Rick,

Thanks for the advice. I did try your technique but I am still having some issues.

Here is my TOC..

Book 1
...Topic 1
...Topic 2
Book 2
...Topic 3
Book 3
...Topic 2 (Redirect Page)

I also added the Redirect Page to the Browse Sequence.

When the user clicks the Topic 2 from the Redirect Page, Topic 2 displays as required. However, in the TOC the highlighted topic is Topic 2 located under Book 1. If the user, who should be in Book 3, clicks the back navigation button, they are taken back to Topic 1 in Book 1.

So there is now an even bigger navigation issue.

What do you think?

Lisa

[RoboWizard]

Hi LNT1

The trick to all this is to never directly link from the TOC to the desired topic. Let's assume the TOC should have a topic appearing in two different places. In order to make this work, you link from two different redirect pages.

Now if you generate WebHelp, I see where there could be an issue, because the browse sequence can only link from one topic to another. In other words, a topic can only have a single link to and a single link from it. So in this case, the redirect trick would fail. However, another trick comes to mind that may work. Instead of a Redirect page, you could have two different pages that instead of redirecting, contained an Inline Frame (IFRAME) that simply displayed the contents of the desired page. Basically, the pages containing the IFRAME would link properly and provide the desired effect.

For more on IFRAMEs, download my Tips and Tricks file and scan it for how to create IFRAMES.

Cheers... Rick