Handling broken cross-references in PDFs

[rogersm]

Hi there,

Typically, we generate our output in a HTML format and each topic contains cross-references to other topics. However, sometimes we get asked to provide a subset of our content in PDF format. So if Topic A has a cross-reference to Topic B, we might get asked to provide a PDF that only contains Topic A, meaning that the cross-reference to Topic B is broken in the PDF.
To handle this, we wrap our cross-references in a HTML-only condition so that they only display in the HTML output and this allows us to hide them in a PDF output. This works fine, but is there a better way to handle cross-references for PDFs?

Sorry if this question has already been answered in the forums or is in the help somewhere, but I could not find it.

thanks,
mark

[Nita Beck]

In the medium you use for your PDF output, you could set up the xref format so that the phrase “in the YourApp Help” will follow the link. You can further refine that xref format by associating it with a condition and setting the exclude action (as in, what will Flare do when you have excluded that condition in the PDF target) to “unbind” rather than “remove”. Flare will leave the text of the xref but will no longer treat it as a link.

I hope this makes sense. I realize I’m giving you the briefest of outlines. A client of mine had used this exact xref format and it works well.

P.S. Oh, I think also the link itself will end up within quotation marks so that it stands out, given that it will no longer be underlined. Sorry, rolling fast...

[rogersm]

Hi Nita,

Thanks very much for that. I was just looking at the help about how to "unbind" a hyperlink with a condition. I was not aware of it before so thanks.
Do you have to do this manually for each existing cross-reference or is there some way you can set the exclude action to unbind for a particular condition from the stylesheet?

thanks again,
mark

[Nita Beck]

Do you have to do this manually for each existing cross-reference or is there some way you can set the exclude action to unbind for a particular condition from the stylesheet?

You can do it via the stylesheet. (I'm not in Flare at the moment, so am going on memory.) Look for an attribute called something like "mc-exclude-action" and set it to "unbind". Use that attribute in the CSS definition of the xref format. Be sure that you've got a condition defined for the xref format, too.

[rogersm]

Great, thanks very much again Nita.