Webhelp TOC does not expand when I click on links

[garygarygarygarygary]

I have developed a Webhelp system, and it has this weird problem which I don't know how to fix. Imagine the following scenario:

• I have a topic called "page1.htm", and in that topic is a link to "page2.htm". [/li]
  
• I also have a topic called "page3.htm" and in that topic is a link to "page4.htm"[/li]
  
• If I click the link to "page2.htm", it will load "page2.htm" properly, and expands the TOC and highlights the "page2.htm" item in the TOC.[/li]
  
• If I click the link to "page4.htm", it will load "page4.htm" properly, but the TOC does not change at all and "page4.htm" is not highlighted in the TOC.[/li]
  
• It doesn't seem to matter if the TOC entry for "page2.htm" is a book or a topic[/li]
  
• It doesn't seem to matter if there are two TOC entries for "page2.htm" - Robohelp will just expand to the first one.[/li]
  

Can anyone please help me? Thanks!

Gary

[Guest]

Hi Gary,

I'm curious about the last two points in your list. Why should the TOC entry for "page2.htm" have any effect on TOC synchronisation for "page3.htm" or "page4.htm"? From your scenario, pages 3 and 4 are not linked to page 2. Was it a typo, or is this a separate problem?

Following on from that, can you confirm that all four pages actually have entries in the TOC.

Anne

[garygarygarygarygary]

Hi Anne, thanks for your reply!

quote:

---

Why should the TOC entry for "page2.htm" have any effect on TOC synchronisation for "page3.htm" or "page4.htm"? From your scenario, pages 3 and 4 are not linked to page 2. Was it a typo, or is this a separate problem?

---

"Page2.htm" is totally independent of "page3.htm" and "page4.htm". What I was trying to do was use the example of "page1.htm" and "page2.htm" to show how the TOC synchronisation works in some cases but not others. I guess the help I need is for someone to explain to me why "page2.htm" is synchronised with the TOC, but "page4.htm" is not.

quote:

---

Following on from that, can you confirm that all four pages actually have entries in the TOC.

---

Yes. The TOC links work too (ie if I click the TOC link for "page4.htm", then "page4.htm" will open.

Thanks very much, I hope you can help me with this confusing issue!

Gary

[Guest]

Hi Gary,

We seem to be working in completely different time zones, so maybe somebody Stateside can come in with some suggestions.

Anyway, here are a few more questions for you.

What browser are you using, and what version of it?
Does the same problem occur in other browsers?
Do you have any books linked to specific topics?
In the second page of your WebHelp properties, under Single Source Layouts, do you have Synchronize TOC set to "Automatically"?

Maybe the answers will offer some clue, but at the moment I'm stumped.

Anne

[MergeThis]

Stateside chiming in...

Gary, I suspect that you might have multiple calls in the TOC to the same topic, as alluded to when you say:

"It doesn't seem to matter if there are two TOC entries for "page2.htm" - Robohelp will just expand to the first one.[/li]"). That's the default behavior for Webhelp.

I believe you can only fix this by pointing the extra TOC calls to blank redirect topics, after you've chosen where the one, default location for the topic should be in your TOC.

That is, create a topic with no content at all (call it mytopic_redirect.htm, for example), and with a line like this anywhere in the HEAD META tag section:

<meta http-equiv=refresh content="0;URL=mypath/mytopic.htm">

Then, create your additional TOC entries, but point them to the mytopic_redirect.htm topic. When "mytopic.htm" is displayed, the correct TOC location will be synced.


Good luck,
Leon

[garygarygarygarygary]

Hi Anne and Leon! Thanks for taking the time to help me sort this out.

quote:

---

Originally posted by: AuthorAnne

---

What browser are you using, and what version of it? Internet Explorer Version 6
Does the same problem occur in other browsers? Unfortunately I can't try it in other browsers because the computing environment here is very rigid :-(
Do you have any books linked to specific topics? Nearly every book in the TOC is linked to a topic. Some of them are synchronised, and others aren't, but I can't figure out what the difference between the topics is.
In the second page of your WebHelp properties, under Single Source Layouts, do you have Synchronize TOC set to "Automatically"? Yes.

quote:

---

Originally posted by: MergeThis
Gary, I suspect that you might have multiple calls in the TOC to the same topic, as alluded to when you say:

"It doesn't seem to matter if there are two TOC entries for "page2.htm" - Robohelp will just expand to the first one.[/li]"). That's the default behavior for Webhelp.

---

Thanks for your advice on handling multiple calls in the TOC to the same topic - I have some deliberately duplicated topic links so this will be useful. However, I don't think this is the cause of problem. I built the TOC myself and there are only 5 duplicated TOC entries, but the problem I am having is occurring with non-duplicated TOC entries.

Thanks again for your time and help!

Gary

PS, I live in Australia, which explains the time difference :-)

[HKabaker]

Does it make a difference when

the targeted topic is within the same book or
the targeted topic is under another book, or
the targeted topic is at the top level, or

the first topic is not in a book but the target topic is?

You say,

"Nearly every book in the TOC is linked to a topic. . . "
Does it matter whether one of the books has a topic link and the other does not?

Here's a long-shot question:

Is the TOC long enough to require scrolling, and is target page4.htm down below the visible (top) part of the TOC? If so, what do you see when you scroll the TOC after linking to page4.htm?

Harvey

[garygarygarygarygary]

Hi,
I'm sorry I haven't replied for a long time, I had to work on another project and haven't had time to look at the help for a while. I'll answer the easy question first: The TOC is not large enough to require scrolling. It seems to be related to specific high-level books. To try and clarify the problem, I have attached code showing a section of the TOC (limited to one level deep, and all the text is renamed for confidentialy purposes). Every book in this example is linked to a topic.

When I am on any of the "Product" pages in the system and click the help link, the Product book will not expand. It does not matter if I am on the "Allocation Summary" page, or the "Register Product" page, or any of the pages linked to "Register Product" sub-topics. This also applies to the "Returns" section. If I click the help on any of the "returns" pages in the system, the TOC will not expand. Please note that in all cases, the page in question does load correctly in the right-hand pane, it is just the TOC that does not expand.

When I am on any of the "Inventory Check" or "Reports" pages, the TOC will expand to the correct place, whether it is one level deep or three levels deep.

I hope this further information helps. I feel like I'm in an episode of House :-P

Gary