Placeholders (breadcrumbs, Mini-TOCs) not showing in Printed Documentation

[MM_Acton]

I've included Placeholders (breadcrumbs and Mini-TOCs) in Master Pages. They work as expected for the HTMLHelp output, but when I generate Printed Documentation (.doc), they aren't there.

I checked to make sure that I didn't accidentally assign them an online-only condition (I didn't).

I'm using RoboHelp 9 (RH9). Do I need to do something special?  I just tried specifically applying the Print condition to the breadcrumbs in the footer and using that condition in the build, but that didn't help.

[Peter Grainge · Accepted solution]

You don't get breadcrumbs or mini tocs in printed documentation.

I haven't viewed the lack of breadcrumbs as a problem as they are merely a means of navigating on screen and would be of no value in hard copy. Mini Tocs however describe what is in that "chapter" and should be included.

The more people who report a bug or request a feature, the more likely it is to be actioned. Please follow this link.

http://www.Adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform&product=38

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[MM_Acton]

Thanks, Peter. That link is very useful.

The audience for this project prefers printed topics to online help. We're hoping that they will eventually stop printing things out and rely on the electronic version only.

We would be encouraging them to refer to the electronic version to make sure they're viewing the most recent information. Having breadcrumbs would make it easier, and maybe after a while they'd get used to online navigation and stop printing things out. We're thinking that if they don't have an exact trail, they might not bother to check the electronic version and might use out-of-date printouts.

[MM_Acton]

There *is* a workaround: If they have a help topic on the screen and print the individual topic, it will have the breadcrumbs.

One workaround would be to not deliver a printed (.doc or .pdf) copy of the entire help project. That way, they'd have to print individual topics.

I don't like that idea particularly, but it would give them breadcrumbs.

[Peter Grainge]

Well yes but that is not printed documentation in the same sense.

In a complete document that did have breadcrumbs they could perhaps click them and go somewhere in the document. Here they get only one topic rather than a complete manual so they will have the breadcrumbs in something where the target does not exist. It feels like one step forward and one step back.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Amebr]

Hi all,

Does anyone know if the problem of the Topic TOC not appearing in Word output is fixed in RH2015 ?

Thanks,

Amber

[Peter Grainge]

Regrettably it has not. I ended up not using the feature and implementing

my own manual TOC with links just because Topic TOCs did not survive the

trip to printed documentation. Shame as it could have been a great feature.

Please submit a feature request and one day perhaps it will get added.