TOC Layout- ok to duplicate entries?

[claud2134]

Hi,

How have you handled a TOC where duplicate entries seemed useful? This Webhelp project includes many reports in multiple projects as shown below.

Thanks for your thoughts.

TOC

Report Types (book) (this complete list of reports is required by our company)

   Bird Project Reports (book)

• Report 1 (page)
• Report 2 (page)

  Fish Project Reports (book)

• Report 1 (page)
• Report 2 (page)
• Report  (page)

Tree Project Reports (book)

• Report 1 (page)
• Report 2 (page)

(much further down the TOC)

Bird Projects (book)

• Finding Birds (page)
• Keeping Notes (page)
• Bird Project Reports (book) (you can see that duplicating the report lists would be useful in these project sections)
  • Report 1 (page)
  • Report 2 (page)

  Fish Projects (book)

etc.

[Willam_van_Weelden · Accepted solution]

I've used two techniques, depending on the requirements:

• Create snippets with the entire contents and use that on different topics. This is useful in situations where topic title and topic file name must differ, but contents is the same. I use this for pages in different modules with different names but with the same functions.
• Create a new TOC and merge that in several locations in the main TOC. I use this to repeat several books with pages in multiple locations. This allows me to only administer the menu once. I also use this to split up the main menu in sizable chuncks.

Kind regards,

Willam

[claud2134]

Thanks, William!

On Mon, Sep 8, 2014 at 4:29 AM, Willam van Weelden <forums_noreply@adobe.com

[Captiv8r]

I'm confident you have solved your issue using Willam's advice.

However, it never hurts to have multiple tricks in your bag. So in that spirit...

In addition to what Willam offered here, there are another two techniques I've used with varying degrees of success.

1. IFRAME (Inline Frames)

This technique is very similar to Willam's Snippet technique. You create one single topic that houses the content to be displayed. Then you create individual topics that contain nothing more than an IFRAME that has been configured to present the desired topic.

2. Redirects

This technique involves creating individual topics that simply perform a redirect that causes the desired topic to load and be presented.

With either of these approaches, the topic to be presented is never directly linked in the TOC. Only the topics that present or redirect are placed there.

Cheers... Rick

[claud2134]

Thank you, Rick! You're right, nothing beats a good set of tools (and

experienced people who take time to share their fixes!)