Linking to external topics

[idexx]

Hi - I'm hoping someone can advise me on this:

I have three WebHelp projects. I would like the user to be able to open one project and then click a link to the starting topic of one of the other projects. That topic and project would then replace the original topic/project in the user's browser.

I tried an external link to the starting topic of the other project, but clicking the link generates the "Page cannot be displayed" error. (I did de-select the "mark of the Web option," in case that was the problem, but it didn't help).

I know another option is to merge the projects, but it would be so nice if the user could just click a link to get into the other project. Is this even possible?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Rebecca

[Guest]

Check out Peter's web site here. Select Robohelp then merged webhelp.

Hope this helps,

Brian

[Peter Grainge]

I'm not sure what is there will entirely answer the question so I hope Brian will not mind me adding this.

A line like this in your code will open another output.

<p><a href="../../../projectname/!SSL!/WebHelp/yourstartpage.htm" target=_blank>Link</a></p>

You will have to work out the relative path on the server between the topic and the project you want to call. If you want the target to open a specific topic, after yourstartpage.htm, you will need to add #targettopic.htm.

This will not close the initial project. I guess it's possible but you'll need someone else to help you on that.

[Captiv8r]

Hi all

I believe I've documented how to accomplish this type of a link in my Skinny on Skins file. If you have it, look at the following TOC path:

Main Toolbar > Buttons > Adding a Toolbar button to invoke a home page

Cheers... Rick

[idexx]

Thanks to all of you for your quick responses. I will explore all the options you've suggested. And I'm glad, at least, that it wasn't something really simple I had just overlooked. Thanks again and I'll let you know how it turns out.

Rebecca

[idexx]

Just a quick update on the issue I posted a few days ago: We decided to merge the help projects instead of trying to launch one project from another. It was easier to implement and, in the end, will make more sense for the user (who sees one comprehensive help file, rather than jumping from one to another). Thanks for your help - it increased my knowledge and I know will come in handy for some future project.

Just a note for others who might be trying merged help for the first time: After merging the projects, I struggled to get the links to work between child projects. Turned out I was linking to the wrong instances of the topics. So, for external links between child projects (or child/parent projects), the links need to be between the projects at the source location (not at the published location). And, they need to be made to topics located under the main folder for each project, NOT to the topics under the Webhelp output folders. Dumb mistakes on my part, but I did struggle to figure them out.

Thanks again for the knowledgeable, quick responses. It's so good to know help is available when you need it!

[Peter Grainge]

There's an article on my site about merging webhelp.

[hermi14]

Hello. I am using merged projects and I found that the instructions on PGs site are correct: in the hyperlink properties, select File and then select the external topic from the output files, not the source files.

However, what I'd like to do is modify the Related Topics control to be able to link to external topics (i.e. across child topics in a merged project). Is there any easy way to do this? It looks like more than one parameter needs to be modified. (I tried just modifying the CURRENTLOCATION parameter but RoboHelp changed it back.)

Thanks!

[Captiv8r]

Welcome to our community, hermi14

One fairly simple way to accomplish this is to use a redirect topic. This is a topic that has a single function. To redirect to a different topic. Because the topic is actually part of your project, you should have no issues linking to it in the Related Topics control. You then simply configure the redirect to point at the desired external topic.

Here is the code you add (using the HTML view or "TrueCode")
<meta HTTP-EQUIV=refresh CONTENT="0;URL=SomeFile.htm">

Change the code above to your specifics. CONTENT="0 represents the delay in seconds before the page is redirected to the page, URL or file name specified in URL=. We usually want the redirection process to happen immediately with no delay. If the desired destination is Boffo.htm, replace SomeFile.htm with Boffo.htm. If the desired destination is SomeFile.DOC, replace SomeFile.htm with SomeFile.DOC.

Hopefully this helps... Rick

[hermi14]

Wow, that was fast! Thanks!!