How do I set up audiences with topics?

[Guest]

I want to create my help so that there is a drop-down choice for each job role, and when the person clicks on their role in the drop-down, just the help relevant to them displays.

I'm very confused by the terminology and options.  I created a conditional build tag for each role.  I have my TOC with books and topics within them.  I tried using right-click on the topic --> Apply Conditional Build Tag to try to restrict that topic to the audiences I specified.  When I did that, the topic displayed for all audiences.  I also tried going into the Topic List and using Properties --> Topic-Level Tags to select audiences that way.  It still displayed the topic for all audiences. 

I'm generating using WebHelp, and I see in the WebHelp menu there are Content Categories.  I have each of my roles set up there, and I see that there is a Conditional Build Expression field, and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be doing something with that.

I know there must be a simple way to do this, but I'm just not understanding the Help file.

Thanks so much!

[Peter Grainge]

Take a look at the sample projects, Employee Care and Salesbuilder. There is some guidance there along with examples already set up.

Click Open on the RoboHelp Starter page and then click Samples in the ribbon on the left.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Guest]

I don't see the samples anywhere on your page...

[Peter Grainge]

That is not where I said to look for them. They are part of RoboHelp,  not part of my site. 

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Not Peter’s page – your local RH install – it’s called the Starter page & usually appears when you launch RH from a shortcut (i.e. not when opening a project’s .xpj file)

[Guest]

Sorry, but I'm just not understanding.  I opened the EmployeeCare project, and that's the sample that's closest to what I need.  However, there are two WebHelps there - one location and another skinned.  They also don't seem to make use of the conditional build tag, which I thought you needed in order for the content to go to the right places.  The WebHelp has "and not" statements in it.  I have 13 different roles, so does that mean I have to have 12 "not/and not" statements for each role in the WebHelp setup?

I just need to know in plain English how to get my content to display in the correct roles.

Thanks!

[RoboColum_n_]

This sounds like you are using RH10. Is that correct? If you generate the WebHelp Location Based single source layout you will see what we are talking about. Content Categories are sometimes described as "Conditional Build Tags on steroids". As this suggests you tag your output as you would if you just wanted to exclude some output. In each of the Content Categories you specify a conditional build tag expression - again as you would inside the single source layout. So if you have 13 roles you would have 12 tags excluded.

If you go down this line make your tags as short as possible. There used to be an issue with the conditional build tag expression going over 255 characters in length. I am not sure if this is still an issue in RH10. Either way it makes sense to keep your tags short for ease of use.

[Guest]

I figured out the solution.  I have 13 audiences and 152 topics, and the content from the audiences is not confidential from one to another.  For example, it doesn't matter if an instructional designer sees the content for a design manager.  It's more a matter of convenience for the person to see just the content that applies to their role and what they are able to do in the system based on their permissions.  I had a master TOC with all my content, and what I ended up doing was creating a new TOC for each audience, all within the same project.  I just copied over the master TOC to each audience TOC, then right-clicked --> Cut whatever content that particular audience did not need.  When I went into the WebHelp setup, I had a Content Category for each audience, and I added one more that would contain all the content, regardless of audience.  I used the drop-down to select the correct TOC for each Content Category/Audience. I did NOT bother with Conditional Build Tags and Conditional Build Expressions (selected None for that).  I generated my one WebHelp file iteration, and there I had my drop-down in the Help with all the right content.  The Adobe tech support person on the phone told me specifically that I would have to generate 13 completely different help files in order to use the multiple TOC option (specifically and strongly advised me not to try that), and that turned out not to be true at all.  In fact, it was easier to do the multiple TOC than it would have been to try to use Conditional Build Tags with each topic the way I was trying to do it.

Whew!  Thanks to all of you who tried to help me!  1 help iteration with 13 audiences, 30 books, and 152 topics.  I can't wait for my boss to see how cool this looks with the content customized for all 13 of those audiences and way ahead of deadline!!!  

[Peter Grainge]

There are numerous ways of setting up the content and TOC for each role. You can do it from one TOC and use tagging or you can use multiple TOCs but most likely you will need both. The output will contain a webhelp for each role so be aware of the size implications. Also check the outputs for topics that you didn't intend to be in a particular one.

The fact that you have chosen to only allow topics in a TOC does not mean they are the only ones in that category. Say you did not want Topic 110 in an output but Topic 109 has a link to it, Topic 110 will be included and findable in a search. Look at what is in each category via Windows Explorer.

You will likely need a combination of TOCs and tagging to achieve your objective. The Location layout is the one to study, the skinned one is for use with a script that creates skinned CHMs from a webhelp output. I'm not sure how you are concluding tagging was not used when you go on to say the layout had AND NOT statements. That is the build expression that is using the tags.

There is another thread running on this area at the moment.

You can achieve what you want but you need to check it very carefully before you demo it.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge