Capitalize TOC

[Guest]

Does anyone know any easy way to capitalize the table of contents entries?

I didn't capitalize the topic names. Since this is where the TOC pulls from...I end up with lower case TOC entries. RoboHelp makes it tough to change the case on topic titles. Is there any other way?

[Captiv8r]

Hi ConnectionsAcademy

Believe it or not, you can actually change the TOC entries separately from the topic names. However, this will depend on what you are using. Is it RoboHelp HTML or RoboHelp for Word? If it's RoboHelp HTML, you simply click the TOC tab and edit away. I'm unsure about RoboHelp for Word as it's been far too long since I last used it for anything.

Cheers... Rick

[Guest]

Thanks. I know you can edit the individual TOC entries. But I wondered if there was a way I could globally capitalize the entires without doing it to each individual entry (I have ALOT of entries).

[Peter Grainge]

Your call of course but be aware various studies show the use of all caps slows down the speed at which a reader can find what they are looking for. Takes away the shape of words being reviewed.

[CraigCC]

Hi,

Firstly, like Peter, I'm not sure why you would want to do this.
Secondly, you did not answer Rick's question. Are you using RH for word or Robohelp HTML?

If you really want to do this.
1. Close down your project.
2. Back it up.
3. Open up the .hhc (contents file).
4. Select all the text and copy.
5. Paste it into Word
6. Select Format | Font.
7. Check the All Caps checkbox under Effects.
8. Click OK.
9. Select all the text and copy.
10. Paste capitalised text into the .hhc file.
11. Close and save the .hhc file.
12. Open up your project .

Kind Regards
Craig

[Guest]

Sorry about that. I'm using RH HTML. And I only want to capitalize the first letter of each word. When I created the topics I just capitalized the first letter of the first word. I want to make the table of contents have capitals for the first letter of every word. Thanks!

[RoboColum_n_ · Accepted solution]

In that case you are between the devil and the deep blue sea. You've no option but to edit each TOC entry individually........oh and change your topic creation procedure to prevent having to repeat this! It might be easier to try Craig's suggestion to edit the TOC file rather than click each TOC entry in RH though.

[CraigCC]

Duplicate post, apologies.

[CraigCC]

Hi CA,

your best bet would be to open up the .hhc file as described above and edit the entries there; if you are happy going under the hood.

Other wise you'll need manually click on each TOC entry and update them in the TOC tab which has the makings of one very dull day.

No way to do this automatically.

Kind Regards
Craig

[Peter Grainge]

Sorry to disagree chaps but there is one possibility, good old Regular Expressions.

Whether or not that will speed things up depends on the length of the TOC. Unless it is very long, then it probably is quicker to do as Craig suggests. If however it is very long, then you better talk nicely to your developers (yeah I know it hurts) and see if one of them knows about Regular Expressions, it's not a standard part of the their toolkit so don't be surprised if you get a negative response.

[CraigCC]

Yep Peter is right and regular expressions will definitely brighten up your day
Just make sure you only run the regular expression on the .hhc file otherwise you'll be in big trouble.....

[Guest]

I'll check about the regular expressions. Thanks!

One question about altering the .hhc file. Can I globally change the case of all the words in the file? That would make things alot easier. But I know that XML and some other languages do not like caps in tags/functions/expressions.

Also, is there a file that keeps the topic names so that I could just change them all in that file. That would be easier than manually changing each topic name within RoboHelp. And sometimes case changes don't stick when you make them in RoboHelp. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[RoboColum_n_]

If you open the project's .HHP file you'll see a list of the topics in the [FILES] section. However you'll have the same problem as you have with the .HHC file and I don't recommend doing this for other reasons. Think about your index and links. By effectively "renaming" a topic title outside of RH you'll get broken links. Personally I've never known RH not saving the case used in topic titles so can't see this as being a problem.

[Guest]

It doesn't stick for me. Here's what I try:

1) Open topic list in RH.
2) Right-click on topic. Select Rename option.
3) Change case of first letter in each word. Click ENTER.
4) It goes back to the way it was.

Even if I do it through the Properties and change the file name AND the topic title to reflect a change of case, it still reverts to the old case.

[Roger_N]

Hey gang -

Here is another option - if you're willing to paste your .hhc contents into Word (again), you have Word's <SHIFT> <F3> command available; this will rotate through the three capitalization options available; ALL UPPER CASE, All First Letters Capitalized, or all lower case, on the highlighted text.

[RoboColum_n_]

I knew Word had to be good for something

[CraigCC]

Hi CA - I've edited this response as I got a little confused. One minute you were looking at changing the table of contents entries, now you are changing the topic title .... should have read you post more carefully first time around.

There is a little bug/feature that you need to be aware of. Changing a topic titles case alone does not stick :-(

You need to modify the name eg add something to the name to make the case changes stick.

1. Say you have 'Oranges and lemons' as a title.
2. Change it to 'Oranges and Lemons1'
3. Make sure you take the focus away from the title or save your changes (if you are making the change via the Properties window).
4. Now change the title to 'Oranges and Lemons' deleting the '1'
5. Your changes should stick.

This is a little bug you could really do without.

Kind Regards
Craig

[RoboColum_n_]

Craig. You're referring to changing the topic title in the topic's properties aren't you? I think CA is also although the "Rename" reference may have bowled you a googly. I seem to remember title changes in the TOC works OK.

[CraigCC]

Yes column, your are absolutely right, I misread CAs post and to be honest I'm a little confused as to what he / she is trying to achieve. The thread started with capitalising the TOC entries and now CA is capitalising the topic names instead of the TOC entries ......

CA you need to be aware (as rick mentioned earlier in the thread) that changing the topic titles will NOT automatically change the TOC entries. They are independent.

What exactly would you like to achieve?

Cheers
Craig

[Guest]

I just wanted the first letter in each word of the TOC entries to be capitalized. I'm adding topics en masse, however, so it doesn't make much sense to change the TOC entries each time I auto-generate the TOC. (I need to auto-generate it often because so many topics are being added. The organization is changing constantly as execs work out the kinks of what they want.) If I change the topic titles and then regenerate the TOC, those changes do in fact get transmitted to the new TOC. (i.e. If I capitalize the topic titles and regenerate the TOC, the TOC entries are now capitalized similarly.)

Basically, as I see it from what you've all said, my options are to change the old topic titles so they reflect the proper case when I regenerate the TOC. Or use regular expressions on the hhc file each time I regenerate and publish. Obviously, when creating new topics I'm careful to capitalize appropriately. But I only realized that after we created 200+ topics.

Thanks!

[CraigCC]

I see, thanks so much for clarifying that.

If you always autocreate the TOC, I can see why it makes sense to update the topic names rather than doubling up on work!

[HKabaker]

Um, (raising hand tentatively) . . .

I like "down style" for titles, headlines, subheads, and so on because:

This line scans pretty quickly,
while
This Line Takes More Time To (to?) Read.

With a long list of entries,

Lines like this are easier to scan downward and upward
Text in "sentence case" flows smoothly for a fast reader.
Scanning downward and upward is more comfortable this way.
Text in "title case" flows smoothly for a fast reader.
Lines like this are easier to scan downward and upward.
Scanning downward and upward is more comfortable this way

while

Lines Like This Are Harder to Scan Downward and Upward
Text in "Title Case" Doesn't Flow Well for a Fast Reader.
Scanning Downward and Upward is Less Comfortable This Way.
Text in "Title Case" Doesn't Flow Well for a Fast Reader.
Lines Like This Are Harder to Scan Downward and Upward
Scanning Downward and Upward is Less Comfortable This Way.

Question 1: Why do you want the TOC to have all those picket fences standing there?
Question 2. Isn't it best to have the TOC match the headline on the topic?
Question 3: If the TOC entry has different wording from the headline on the topic,
.... please see Q2.

One editor's opinion, of course, even though you didn't ask for it.

Harvey