Merged Projects and TOC

[DavidBeletz]

Hi

I ran into a problem with the table of contents that Robohelp sets up after merging in a different project. Specifically the TOC of the project that was brought in has the first TOB book in the correct spot but has made all of the other TOC books from the imported/merged project (which were are the same level) a sub TOC book of the first TOC book. The remainder generally is okay

Is there anything that I can do for Robohelp to use apply the same order and level setting of the TOC books.

Thanks

Dave

[MergeThis]

That's all controlled in the master TOC. Select a book (or project for a child project) and click the green left arrow.


Good luck,
Leon

[hanilsson]

Hi Dave,

I'm having this same issue and it's definitely not just a lack of fussing with arrows on the TOC toolbar. I've narrowed it down to RoboHelp not liking it when you put merged projects at anything other than that topmost level in the TOC. Did you ever sort out a fix for the problem? If you have, I would love to know what it is.

Hope

[MergeThis]

Hope:

Go to Peter Grainge's excellent tutorial on merging. . It absolutely works!

If my previous reply about the arrows worked for Dave, he should have marked it as the Answer. Oh, well...


Good luck,
Leon

[Phil_Wells]

I had a consultant in recently to give me some help with aspects of RoboHelp I didn't fully understand. (Matthew Ellison).

He looked at this problem for me and established that the parent project in Robohelp was making a mess of merging child TOC's into the master project [for .chm output at least]. I quote from his explanation:

"It is in fact a problem within the master TOC. RoboHelp is incorrectly enclosing the list of inserted Sub CHMs within a <UL>... </UL> element."

Matthew's solution was:

"1. Generate your master CHM from RoboHelp as usual.

2. Decompile it using KeyTools

3. Make the required change to the .hhc file (Remove the unwanted <UL> tags).

4. Recompile the master CHM with the revised .hhc file using HTML Help Workshop.

You'll have to repeat this sequence every time you need to recompile the Master CHM (which hopefully shouldn't be too often -- you don't need to recompile it every time you recompile a sub CHM)."

There's no easy solution to this. I've decided against using Matthews' solution because no one else at the company I work for would have a clue how to do it in my absence.

All you can do is set all the child TOC's at level 1 in the master TOC - if you try to make them child TOC's of books in the master TOC it all goes pear shaped as described.

[hanilsson]

Thanks, guys. I'll look at both of your suggestions and hopefully wind my way back out of this one. I've already spent 5 days on various failed workarounds...sheesh...

I'll let you know how it goes...

Hope

[hanilsson]

Phil, you are my new favorite person! Your method worked on my test project incredibly well. I'm about to try it with the full master project and I'm cautiously optimistic, given the test results.

I can't thank you enough for replying...it's been a hellish few days...

Hope

P.S. to Leon...I love Peter Grainge's site, too, and should have thought of it before. Unfortunately, his directions are for WebHelp projects and my client wants to stick with .chm files (I know, I know...living in the dark ages). Anyway, thanks very much to you, too, for taking the time to reply to my question and for reminding me what an excellent resource Peter Grainge is!

[Phil_Wells]

Don't thank me - thank Matthew Ellison. He's the guy that worked it out. (www.ellisonconsulting.com)

Me, I'm just basking in reflected glory.

[Peter Grainge]

You only need a small modfication for CHMs. Don't use the redirect.

The parent can have content but I suggest you nevertheless keep that minimal.