I was experiencing a major lapse of sanity over the start
page/default topic issue. The RoboHelp help text is not very clear
on this subject. Finally, it came to me. DUH! I tested this
inspiration, and this is my take....
Select Output folder and Start Page: The top field on the
first dialog of the publishing wizard (Layout=>Properties). This
should be an existing folder on your local drive. Robohelp puts the
output here when you generate your system. Add the Start page name
to the path. I suggest "index.htm" because it is easy to find, and
you are unlikely to have a topic file with this name. When it
generates your output. RoboHelp creates this file, and builds the
frameset, according to your skin configuration.
Default Topic: Still on the same dialog box, but a few fields
lower. This, of course, must exist in your help system. It is the
topic that displays when users load your help system -- by opening
the Start page in their web browser.
I tested this, and discovered that, if you specify an
existing topic for your start page, RoboHelp adds a 1 to the
existing, and builds the frameset in the file you specified.
This is really quite simple, but not very intuitive. If you
open any .htm file besides the start page in your browser, Robohelp
displays the topic with the "Show" link in the upper left. When you
click this link, the skin loads, with the controls, navigation
pane, and all.
Hope this simplifies your life. It has removed a big mean
monkey frommy back.
Charles Arnold
MetLife DI
Tampa, Florida