Clicking one TOC entry expands another book

This forum is for all Flare issues related to the Microsoft HTML Help target.
This target produces "CHM" files in the output.
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ashb
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Clicking one TOC entry expands another book

Post by ashb »

Hi,

I have a merged help system that consists of 20-some CHM files. I created the merged TOC by both selecting the Display Merged Navigation in HTML Help check box in the Target Editor and adding a merge.txt file with a list of merged CHMs to the root folder for each project. (The check box doesn't seem to really do anything.)

There are a few topics in one CHM file that appear in multiple places in other CHMs' TOCs. The problem is that clicking on one of these (deliberately) duplicated TOC entries causes the book containing the next instance of the TOC entry to expand and the focus jumps to the entry withing that book.

For example, A.chm has a topic called Print a Report.

The TOC for B.chm, C.chm, and D.chm all have links to the Print a Report topic -- they are all within the Reports book for each TOC.

When I expand the Reports book for B.chm and click the Print a Report entry, the Reports book for the C.chm TOC is automatically expanded and the focus moves to the Print a Report topic in the C.chm TOC.

Any idea what might cause this or how to fix it?

Thanks.

Ashley
doc_guy
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Re: Clicking one TOC entry expands another book

Post by doc_guy »

Open the skin file, and go to the General tag. IN the "TOC Options" section, uncheck "Automatically Synchronize TOC"

When that setting is checked, and a topic is opened, Flare looks for that topic in the TOC. However, it gets confused when the same topic is in the TOC in multiple places, because it doesn't keep track of where you were when you clicked. The script just looks for the first instance of the topic in the TOC.

Unchecking this box should give you what you want.

-Paul
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ashb
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Re: Clicking one TOC entry expands another book

Post by ashb »

Thanks, Paul! That resolved the issue. :D
ChoccieMuffin
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Re: Clicking one TOC entry expands another book

Post by ChoccieMuffin »

So what does the file "merge.txt" actually DO, and why is it needed? I only ask because I have inherited a project that happens to have one of these files in the root. I didn't delete it because I didn't know what it was for (can't find anything in the Help, but that's not surprise!). Thing is, I have another project that I added a few .chm files to, so do I need to create a merge.txt file for the second project?

signed,
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NorthEast
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Re: Clicking one TOC entry expands another book

Post by NorthEast »

ChoccieMuffin wrote:(can't find anything in the Help, but that's not surprise!)
Try searching the online help, the search in Flare's DotNetHelp couldn't find its own elbow.
webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/flare11/Default.htm#?SearchQuery=merge.txt
ChoccieMuffin
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Re: Clicking one TOC entry expands another book

Post by ChoccieMuffin »

Dave Lee wrote:
ChoccieMuffin wrote:(can't find anything in the Help, but that's not surprise!)
Try searching the online help, the search in Flare's DotNetHelp couldn't find its own elbow.
webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/flare11/Default.htm#?SearchQuery=merge.txt
That was a real laugh-out-loud moment, thanks for the smile Dave. :lol:

Thanks Dave, very helpful as always.
After reading that topic I'm not altogether sure that I even need the merge.txt file, as the end user only gets the child CHMs installed if they have installed the application that it is for. I'll scratch my head and think about it when I have a bit more time rather than just skim-reading (which sadly is all I can fit in for the forums).
Started as a newbie with Flare 6.1, now using Flare 2023.
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barbs
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Re: Clicking one TOC entry expands another book

Post by barbs »

doc_guy wrote:Open the skin file, and go to the General tag. IN the "TOC Options" section, uncheck "Automatically Synchronize TOC"

When that setting is checked, and a topic is opened, Flare looks for that topic in the TOC. However, it gets confused when the same topic is in the TOC in multiple places, because it doesn't keep track of where you were when you clicked. The script just looks for the first instance of the topic in the TOC.

Unchecking this box should give you what you want.

-Paul
Does anyone know if this fix still works? I'm in Flare 12, and having this problem in a merged child project. I have "Automatically Synchronize TOC" unchecked in the skin for both the parent project and the merged child project. But I have TOC entries listed in several places in the TOC in the child project, and in our chm output, the TOC is definitely still confused.

Any other ideas on how to fix this?

Thanks!
Barb
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