Can I have text or a topic show when I click a folder

[Salisbury]

I get this icon when I link to a Word document. when I generate the TOC it shows as a folder and in my project when I click it I do not get text to the right, only a drop down of what's attached or in the icon. Is there a way to have folders or this icon to show text when you click them. I'm not sure if I'm stating this properly but I don't want a bunch of items in the TOC that do nothing other than be an organizer. I have tried to search the help documentation to see if I'm missing something and do not find any topics about this. I believe I have seen on other sites where I can click an item that will expand (I call this a folder) but when I do I not only get a list of other items or topics in that area but also text to the right in the body of the project.

Any suggestions?

[Salisbury]

Found that I can create the TOC manually by dragging the document from the project manager to the TOC and I can get my desired affect but it seems strange that I would not be able to do this automatically. I tried without mid-topic links but this did not help.

[Guest]

Try this:

1. Right-click a book/folder in the TOC pod.

2. Click Properties.

3. Click the "Book with Link" checkbox and then pick a topic.

This makes the selected topic appear in the right pane when the user clicks the book. I can't comment specifically on whether you can link a book to a Word file.

[Salisbury]

Thanks for the input, this helps with an item that I was trying to figure out.

[johndaigle · Accepted solution]

While I was drafting this, both you and Ben posted some good comments. I'll go ahead and complete my post in hopes of shedding some light for others who may be wondering.

The Word linking icon is new to RoboHelp with version 8 and many folks are still getting the hang of it, so I'm glad you asked the question. As you have discovered, that green icon means that the Word document is linked and is up to date at this point.

One thing that will not be obvious unless you "look under the hood" in the Windows Explorer is that the icon actually represents a "real" subfolder that has been created automatically on your hard drive within the project folder structure.

That new folder is automatically created bearing the same name as the Word document. When you right-click to "generate" the .htm content, this is the folder that will contain that content (along with any graphics or .css files as a result of the Word conversion).

So moving along, if you use the "Automatically create TOC" feature to create your table of contents, the Word-created folder will be treated as a "Book" with whatever topics shown inside. (As you have discovered, you can workaround this manually with drag and drop.)

Within the Project Manager pod, the reason you don't have any text showing (or a topic displaying in the Design Editor), is that the Word-folder is not a topic and thus has no text. It is simply a container for the topics inside.

Now, if you don't like the idea of the Folder showing up as a Book in your TOC (or as an organizer as you put it,) you can simply move the Topic(s) inside the book to where you like and delete the "Book" icon in the TOC editor.

Or, as Ben aptly suggests, you can also edit the properties of a book to have it link to a topic of your choice by the method he describes in his post.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

john

[Salisbury]

I appreciate the detailed explanation. It seems that since this is newer functionality that what I'm wanting to achieve through the click of a button is going to take manual intervention - guess I should quit being so lazy. No matter the method I choose I'll either have to drag and drop all items that I desire in the TOC or I will auto generate and then move and delete what I don't want.

I'm curious, is there a way to mark a topic so it does not get auto generated in the TOC? Or should I post this as a new question? I'm kinda new to forums and proper form.

[RoboColum_n_]

Don't worry. You only need to create a new forum entry if the additional question is unrelated to the original one. As yours is, you're OK . Unfortunately there is no way to exclude a topic from the automatic TOC generation. Now I know you were just asking but you (or indeed anyone else) wanted to add this as a wish list item you (or they) can do so via this link.

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