Associating Content to a Folder

[Guest]

RoboHelp 9.0.0.228/Server 9

WebHelp Pro

Single Project (upgraded from RH x5 to RH9)

Is it possible to attach content at the folder level?  I would like content (or a topic) to display when an end-user clicks on a folder from the Table of Contents.  The idea is to provide an introduction/explaination of the topics contained in that folder in greater detail than what is revealed by the folder's title.

Eva

[Captiv8r · Accepted solution]

Hi Eva

Based on what you have stated it would seem you are maybe using Folders instead of Books and Pages in your Table of Contents? If so, you just right-click the Book in the TOC editor and choose to associate a topic to the book by clicking the check box.

Cheers... Rick

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[RoboAsh]

HI Eva,

     Yes it is definitely possible to associate topics to Folder in the project manager after it comes as a book in TOC (by Auto create TOC or dragging the folders in the TOC pane).

The process will be to keep such explaining topics out of the TOC and later in the books generated for Folders in TOC should be converted to "book with Link" as shown by RIck and then the links these books with the topics that explain them.

Hope this will help
Ashish

[namedujour]

If you have a parent/child project, and your folder needs to link to a topic in a different child project, you need to hard code it to the published file. In other words, you have to right click that topic on the TOC in the published project to obtain and copy the url. Then paste it into your "Book with Link > Link To" field. At the present time there is no way to link to other projects within Robohelp.

[Captiv8r]

Hi Mareen

I hate to be disagreeable here, but I have to disagree.

I've accomplished a great many things with RoboHelp that others have claimed or though was impossible for the tool to achieve. You just have to have a good working knowledge of the technolgy and be willing to think creatively.

There are a couple of different ways I can think of to achieve that behavior.

First, as long as you know the ultimate relative pathing to the desired topic, it should accept it, no?

Second, one could easily create a topic in the source project that has been configured to redirect to the appropriate topic in the child. Then link to that topic from the master TOC.

Cheers... Rick

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[namedujour]

I haven't attempted it since RH6, but relative paths didn't work then. As I recall, they worked on the test server but not on the published server.

What do you mean by creating a topic in the source project that redirects to the appropriate child? Isn't that just a link?

[Captiv8r]

Hello again

You said:

What do you mean by creating a topic in the source project that redirects to the appropriate child? Isn't that just a link?

I suppose in a sense it is. But where these come in handy are where for whatever reason the link keeps "falling out" of the Table of Contents. By that, I mean you configure the TOC with the link, it works for a while and for some reason stops working. RoboHelp used to have that issue. Haven't noticed it for a few versions now but the technique I developed to work past it is useful for a host of situations.

Any given topic may be configured to redirect to any other by configuring it with a meta tag that points to the destination topic. You can also accomplish a redirect using JavaScript.

Cheers... Rick

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[namedujour]

This works between two child projects? The parent project is really just a shell. What is the specific META tag you use? Could you please provide an example of the code?

[Captiv8r]

Hello again

Sure, I'd be happy to.

<meta HTTP-EQUIV=refresh CONTENT="0;URL=First_Topic.htm">

0 represents the delay in seconds before the page is redirected to the page  specified in URL=. For topic redirection, we usually want it to happen  immediately with no delay. If the desired page is Boffo.htm, replace  First_Topic.htm with Boffo.htm.

Cheers... Rick

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[namedujour]

But let's say every child project has a "First_Topic.htm". Where is the code that redirects to the specific mergedProjects/child1 folder that I need under the parent project? If I'm working in child2 and want to create a hyperlink within a child2 topic to mergedProjects/child1/First_Topic.htm, how do I do this without hard coding the link with the published URL? The issue is the same whether we're linking from a book on the TOC or a hyperlink within a topic.

Thanks!

[Captiv8r]

Hello again

In that case the meta tag would likely look like this:

<meta HTTP-EQUIV=refresh CONTENT="0;URL=mergedProjects/child1/First_Topic.htm">

Cheers... Rick

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[namedujour]

So you create a topic with the meta tag and then no longer need a book "Link to" url, correct? How do you code hyperlinks within a topic between two child projects? It's really not that big of a deal to copy/paste the hard coded URL, but it requires you to publish first and then go back, if you're linking to a new topic you haven't published yet.

[namedujour]

I tested that - I also wanted to see if I could link to a launch file that might display an entire child project in the window. (There is no way of filtering searches by specified child project - the search goes through everything - so I always have to create a TOC link to the child project launch file for departments that just want to search through their own stuff - but that's beside the point.)

Here's what happened:/mergedProjects/Trailing_Docs/mergedProjects/Shipping/_START_Shipping.htm

So it placed the path for the second child project at the end of the project I was working in, and didn't work. Thoughts? Thanks!

[MergeThis]

"How do you code hyperlinks within a topic between two child projects?"

1. Ensure that the other project is on your machine in an equal position to the active project (both under the "projects" folder, for instance). Select the string and Insert Hyperlink.
2. In the Hyperlink window, click the Link to dropdown arrow, and select File.
3. Go to the folder and file you want, and click OK. Note that RH will not show a relative path (file://C:/projects/other_project/other_topic.htm).
4. However, just accept what's there, and RH will magically change it once you've left the window (I guess it's just too shy to do it while you watch). You'll then have links like this: "../other_project/other-topic.htm".

Good luck,
Leon

[namedujour]

Thanks! I began to test it, then noticed it was copying the .htm file into the project. That means that the link will display a "frozen" topic from within the project. Any changes to the link-to topic won't display unless I repeat the process each time I make any changes to the target.

It's really easy to right click and copy a url from the Properties dialog - and if the link doesn't change, the topic you view will always be current. Thank you though!