Map ID question

[MM_Acton]

I found a few posts on Map IDs, but none of them exactly answer my question, at least not that I can tell. My apologies if this is a duplicate.

I'm using RoboHelp 9.

I am working on a HTMLHelp project with a .chm output.  I want to implement dialog-level help. That is, there will be a help button or icon on the window and the user will click that to get help on the window itself.

Let's ignore the question of whether the developers reuse a window, changing the output with variables, which is something I read about on a post I found. Let's assume for a second that the developer will be able to "hook up" the help button to a topic as long as I give her a map file.

As someone noted in a previous topic, auto-map works well the first time you use it, but the question is, how do I automatically get a map ID for a topic I've added?

For example, today I added 20 placeholder topics. The only way I know to get map IDs for a new topic is this:

1. Open Topic Properties (I'm right-clicking on the topic in the Topic List pane and selecting Properties).

2. Click the Advanced tab.

3. Click the Edit Map IDs button.

4. Select the Map File at the top.

5. Make sure that the correct topic is highlighted in the right pane (it's hard to see).

6. CLick the Auto-map button.

Isn't there any way to configure RH so that whenever I create a new topic, RH automatically gives it a map number without me doing anything?

(And am I imagining it, or did RH at one time used to do this? I've used it sporadically since 1995, and I don't remember having to re-open the Properties window. Maybe the window for creating a new topic had a checkbox?)

Colum, I read your article and comments on manually adding the new map IDs.  As you can probably tell by the fact that I'm creating placeholder topics, this help file isn't complete yet. Should I just delete the map file, wait until I've finished adding topics, and then auto-number as if I was just starting out?

[Guest]

Hi,

Currently, there is no way to assign a map number automatically to a topic when they are created but you can manually select multiple topics and auto-map them in one-go by doing the following steps:

1. Open the Edit Map IDs dialog by doing one of the following:

(a) Open the Project Set-up pod and navigate to the Context-Sensitive Help > Map files folder and double click on a map file to edit it.

(b) Open Topic Properties, click on Advanced tab and then click on Edit Map IDs button.

2. Select the Map File from the Map File drop-down in the Edit Map IDs dialog.

3. Now select all the required topics by pressing Ctrl button and clicking on the topics.

4. Click on Auto-map button.

Thanks,

Aditi