Printed Documentation for Frameset?

[Guest]

Is there a way to get all the topics that are referenced by a frameset to be included in the Printed Documentation?  I have TOC'd a frameset, but do not TOC each of the topics that are pulled into the frameset via hyperlilnks. They only reside in the Project Manager.

It looks as though framesets just don't appear in the TOC that is presented when you request Printed Documentation.  Is this correct?

[Peter Grainge]

The default print layout the first time you go into it is the TOC at that time. Thereafter the print layout is not linked, as described in my Printed Documentation topic. You can add other topics to the print layout without affecting your online TOC, also as described. There is no way to tell RH to add other topics that are referenced.

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[Guest]

Framesets are not "topics" that can be manually added, correct?

[Peter Grainge]

What are you calling a frameset?

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[Guest]

From the Project Manager: File | New | Frameset

I created a 2 pane frameset.  The top pane is populatd by a topic that list our software methods. The bottom pane is used to display each method. Each method listed in the top pane is a hyperlink that is designed to populate the bottom frame is a topic I have created for each method.

I would like to just specify the frameset in my printed documentation and have the "list" topic and all software method topics print.

[Peter Grainge]

With you now. I haven't tried that. Within RH the contents are just two topics, one with a frame for the second? If you want to create a project with just a few topics to illustrate this, you can send it to me via http://www.cutesendit.com and I will take a look. Not tonight though as it is late here.

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[Willam_van_Weelden · Accepted solution]

Hi,

When you create your printed documentation, on the third screen of the wizard, you can add extra topics to your output. Check Show all topics to see all topics and add them to your documentation. The printed documentation will use the html headings for the TOC, so if all Topics start with a Heading 1, every page will be a new chapter in your word document. You might want to edit that a bit. You do not have to add your frameset to the printed documentation.

A framset is not a topic, it is an empty HTML file, which only sets a frame so you can use multiple pages on one screen. What it does is taking the screen space of an html file and slice it up in smaller pieces. Every piece calls another HTML file (which also can be a frameset). You can manipulate the other frames by using hyperlinks that target a specific frame in the frameset. See the W3C for in-depth information.

I would recommend using as little frames as possible, for it may also cause issues when a user prints your topic (and when viewed on a mobile device, but that's probably hardly an issue).

Greets,

Willam

[Guest]

Thanks for the repy.  Yes, I know that they can be added manually, but my top frame consists of a long list of hyperlinks, each of which loads an individual topic into the bottom frame.  Manually pulling in each of these individual topics that load into the bottom frame is a task.  The entire help system where this frame resides is quite large. I'm trying to automate the generation of a PDF with as little manual intervention as possible.  Maybe you are right.  A frameset may not be the way to go. But, it is a nice display feature.

[Willam_van_Weelden]

Hi,

I see, adding them manually will not work for you. The fastest way I can think of, is to create an extra TOC, with the topics you want. This may be some work the first time, but when you're not constantly adding topics, you won't have to much work keeping it up to date.

Greet,

Willam

[Guest]

Thanks, everyone, for your replies.  I am going to create a "Refernce" book with the referenced topics in it and use that for printing/PDF.