table of contents order

[Lem13]

I'm experiencing a frustrating problem with Robohelp 8.  When I auto-create the TOC, the books are in alphabetical order, but  the pages within each book are in what seems to be utterly random order.  In the project manager, the topics are in ABC order in each folder.  It is my understanding that the auto-create TOC function is supposed to preserve the order of the topics.  What am I missing here?  If this makes any difference, most of my topics names begin with number (i.e., 10020 - Topic One).  Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[RoboColum_n_]

This sounds like you need to click on the "Sort by Name" icon in the Project Manager pod toolbar.

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[Lem13]

As I mentioned before, I already have my project sorted by name, but they still are sorted randomly in the TOC.  It doesn't matter whether I use auto-create or drag folders over, it still scrambles all my topics.

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

Perhaps try configuring the sort order of the TOC to the opposite view and try creating the TOC again. See what happens with the opposite setting?

Cheers... Rick

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[Lem13]

How do you configure the sort order of the TOC?  The only way I know to order pages and books within the TOC is manually, dragging them or using the up and down arrows.

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

Earlier in the thread Colum showed you how to change the sort order of the Project Manager.

I was suggesting you try a different Project Manager sort order, then using RoboHelp HTML's ability to create a TOC and see if that gets you closer to what you wanted.

Cheers... Rick

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[Lem13]

Yeah, I know how to sort stuff in the Project Manager.  But what I don't get is why my order doesn't carry over to the TOC.  My understanding from everything I read is that the that order in which the topics are in the Project Manager is the order in which they will appear in the TOC.  I've tried both sorting the project manager by name, and not sorting it by name.  If I don't sort by name in the project manager, my TOC pages are in the same order as the topics in the project manager.  If I do sort the topics in the project manager by name, the TOC pages stay in the same order as if I didn't (random, instead of alphabetically).  Am I misunderstanding how the TOC works?  Or am I doing something wrong here?  This situation is extremely frustrating, as I have a large number of topics and I need them sorted by name in the TOC.  Right now, I can't figure out any way to do that other than moving them around manually after creating the TOC, which takes forever.

[Peter Grainge]

See Snippet 123 on my site. It links to another useful thread on this subject and explains a bit about the sort order for auto create. Hope it helps.

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[Lem13]

Thanks, Peter.  That thread was quite helpful.  My apologies for asking a question that had already been answered.  Somehow I didn't stumble across it in my initial search.  I think it could definitely be clearer that A-Z is only for view, and that it isn't really changing the order of the topics.  It would indeed be great if there was a way to sort the TOC with an A-Z button like that.  Thanks again for the assistance!