Merged Webhelp shows *nothing*

[DiMost]

I've been through the instructions for Merged Webhelp, and my generated file (based on the almost-empty parent with 1 topic with no text, like Peter said) shows.....nothing. I added each project as listed in the instructions. I generate the merged project, and the skin comes up with the complete toolbar, both panels (toc and topic) and everything is completely...empty.

I am obviously missing something...there are instructions to build the "structure" but it does not say where (in my computer directory? In the main Robohelp project file?). I've done this before in X3 (several years ago) and it worked the first time. I am sure the problem is between the keyboard and the chair 🙂

Very very confused...help!

Diana

[Peter Grainge]

When you say everything is empty, do you mean just the topic pane or the TOC as well?

The structure is off any folder you care to create on your hard disk. Did you download the demo so that you can expand that and see the structure and how it all works.

Late here so I'll look back in the morning.

[DiMost]

Hi Peter:

When I said "nothing," I meant that there is no TOC and nothing in the topic pane. The toolbar appears with all the buttons, but no content and no table of contents.

After reading Harvey's response, I can see right off that I have missed some steps, so that is where I will start, and then will post back with results.

Thank you!

[DiMost]

The structure was the problem, and I have that part all worked out. Everything was fine until today....now I have a different problem.

But thanks to all of you, I do have the structure part all fixed!

Di

[DiMost]

The structure was the problem, and I have that part all worked out. Everything was fine until today....now I have a different problem.

But thanks to all of you, I do have the structure part all fixed!

Di

[HKabaker · Accepted solution]

Diana,

Sounds like you're halfway there.

When you built the master project's TOC, you inserted a marker for each of the sub-projects, right?

When you generated the master project, it created an output folder with a "mergedProjects" sub-folder containing a separate directory for each sub-project. These directories are nearly empty, but make sure you do not change or remove anything manually, and don't change the name of the mergedProjects folder.

After generating the master ouput, open a sub-project in RH. Create a single-source layout that generates WebHelp as usual to the !SSL! folder and publishes to the appropriate directory in the master project's "mergedProjects" output folder.

Do this with each sub-project.

Now the master WebHelp page will show the combined TOC and Index, if you made indexes for sub-projects, and a Search input field that will look for matches in all sub-projects, provided you generated search databases for them.

A key point: The master project must have at least one Index entry of its own, or it will fail to pick up the sub-project indexes.

If you used different skins, the one you attached to the master project will override the others.

Have I correctly interpreted the situation?

Harvey

[DiMost]

Yes, Harvey, you have, and I can see where I missed several important steps. I will try that and post back.

Thanks!
Di