Topic as link

[SamDavidson]

I'm using RoboHelp 7 and my output is Webhelp. I want to make my topic a link from the TOC without having an actual topic. I know im probably not phrasing my question very well. I want the user to be able to click on a topic from the TOC and it direct them to an external website or program or whatever. Am I able to do this?

[Captiv8r]

Hi Sam

Just add a page to your TOC. In the properties you have an option of linking to a URL.

Cheers... Rick

[Erluk9]

damn you beat me to it.

you troll much faster than i do.

[SamDavidson]

Thanks guys! So simple and yet I could never figure out how to do this. I guess I should have asked a while ago.

[LaKisha1]

It's not easy to get the URL to display as the last item in your TOC though. If you already have a TOC with several pages and books, it seems that when you create a page or a book with a link (URL), then it automatically gets added to the first book ( ? - at least that's what happened to me just now). So using the arrows to get it to the right place was a bit annoying because if you press the left arrow to get it to be 1st level, then use the down arrow (thinking that since you've already made it a 1st level TOC item, then when you press the down arrow, it will just jump down between the 1st level items), the URL page jumps back into books, through 2nd and 3rd level items (and deeper levels if there are any). Quite annoying and time-consuming.

[Peter Grainge]

LaKisha

Like in this TOC?

http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/rh_tour/index.htm

Not sure why you had trouble. I don't recall having to fiddle around.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[LaKisha1]

Yep. So after my URL was automatically placed in my first book, I clicked the left arrow to put it on the same level as the book. Then when I was clicking the down arrow to get my URL to the bottom of the list, using your example, my URL was automatically going down into the RH8 New Features book, and with each click, it would go down one page within this book, then go into the RH8 Changed Features book, and I had to keep clicking to get the URL to the bottom of the last book, then click the left arrow again to make it go back to the first level.

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

For what it's worth, I will normally create the TOC element as the last item near the bottom. Once I do that, I can easily nudge it left so it is exactly where I want it. That way you don't end up fighting RoboHelp (and being frustrated).

Cheers... Rick

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[Peter Grainge]

I just opened a TOC and clicked the new page icon without clicking anything else in the TOC. Set it up as a URL and it went to the bottom, left aligned.

If I first clicked the last item displayed, it took on the left alignment of that but one click left fixed that.

Are you doing something different LaKisha, like clicking the first book before you start?

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[LaKisha1]

Ah yes, you and Captiv8r are correct. If I open a TOC, I notice now that a new item gets placed whereever the focus is. So first, since my URL page is now at the bottom, when I opened that TOC, the focus was on the last item. I added a new one and it went directly below the last item. Then I placed the focus on a book in the TOC and added a new URL page - it was placed directly into the book as the last page, then i used the left arrow to bump it up to the same level as the book, then used the down arrow to place it withe the other URL pages.

Thanks for the tips guys! It will make my life easier in the future, when I work on the TOC.