Auto create vs manual TOC

[writerrh]

Is there an easy way to change an auto generated TOC to a manually created one. I'm coming into a project that has the TOC in alpha order, but I want to change it to be more functional.

[MergeThis]

Just click and drag them wherever you want them, create new "books" for functional grouping, rename the TOC entries (from the default topic title), etc., etc., etc. Read through the "Tables of contents" topic in the RH help for more.


Good luck,
Leon

[Captiv8r]

Hi writerrh and welcome to our community

As Leon correctly pointed out, you are free to rearrange your TOC as you like. But I'll also offer the following points that many seem to be confused about.

* Just because you created a TOC automatically doesn't mean it's forever an automatically maintained TOC. Many folks have this mistaken belief. Think of it as a one time shot that instructs RoboHelp to gather together all the different topics and folders and create a TOC out of them. Once it's done, that's it. Adding topics later does not automatically include them in the TOC.

* Some folks believe the TOC absolutely MUST have every topic referenced. This is seldom the case. You may have tons of topics that never see the light of day from the TOC.

* Some folks believe deleting a topic from the TOC also deletes it from the project or causes it not to be included in the output. This is also a fallacy.

Hopefully this helps a smidge... Rick

[writerrh]

Thanks! So to change the order of the TOC you just drag the books and topics around? I'm sorry if this seems so simple. I've used RH in the past, but it's has been awhile and I always manually created the TOC. I'm writing online help without having access to RH so I'm trying to tell the RH developer how to rearrange the TOC. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't a checkbox or setting that needs to be disabled for auto-creating the TOC.

[Captiv8r]

Hi again

Yes, you may click and drag, or.... the TOC Composer area should have some arrows perched majestically in its own little toolbar that allow you to click and select a TOC Book or Page, then click the arrows to reposition the selected object.

Cheers... Rick

[writerrh]

Oh that's right! I forgot about the arrows. Like I said, it's been awhile. Thanks!

By the way, I just wanted to let you know that you have been helping me for years with RH. Your Skinny on Skins came in handy quite a few times. Thanks for sharing all your experience.