repeat topic display issue in Webhelp output

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amb
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repeat topic display issue in Webhelp output

Post by amb »

Hello! I am new to Flare, and this is not my first problem or...growing pain, but I thought I'd give the forum a try.. so here goes!

I have topics in my project that appear more than once in the table of contents. For example, the same topic is contained within two books in the TOC.

After generating the WebHelp output, when I click the first instance of the topic, the TOC auto-expands and also brings into view the second instance of the topic in the left menu bar.

How can I stop this from happening?
RamonS
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Re: repeat topic display issue in Webhelp output

Post by RamonS »

One solution is to craft a snippet that contains the entire topic content. Then create two separate topics and place the snippet into each of them. Now Flare thinks it is two different topics and will autosync the TOC correctly, but you still only need to make changes in one place, which is inside the snippet.

And welcome to the forums! :D
Bill Stevens
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Re: repeat topic display issue in Webhelp output

Post by Bill Stevens »

Hello and welcome to the forums.

I have had the same problem. In fact, if you view MadCap's Knowledge Base http://kb.madcapsoftware.com/, you can see the same thing happening here; if you select a link from, for example, Flare => Most Recent Articles, the TOC then jumps to another TOC book!

I resorted to switching off "Automatically Synchronize TOC" (you can find this in your Skin and within the Basic tab).

I have submitted this as a bug to https://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx.

Hope that this helps
Bill
KevinDAmery
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Re: repeat topic display issue in Webhelp output

Post by KevinDAmery »

I wouldn't really call it a bug. What you're telling the help system to do is open the TOC to show the current topic--if the topic appears in two locations, how is it supposed to determine which one to open?

I'd do what RamonS suggested and make each topic a unique HTM file and use snippets for any duplicated content.
Until next time....
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Kevin Amery
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Bill Stevens
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Re: repeat topic display issue in Webhelp output

Post by Bill Stevens »

Kevin,

Unfortuately, it's my end-users that are calling it a "bug". My WebHelp project is an installation and service manual covering three similar products with many common topics. Maybe I will try using snippets - but it is going to be long exercise!

Although my knowledge of software is zero, I am sure that the MadCap team could solve this. For example, if the WebHelp compiler could reference the TOC, when it came to identical topics, it could "duplicate" them and give them unique pseudo names?
RamonS
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Re: repeat topic display issue in Webhelp output

Post by RamonS »

But then it would need to check against all topics in the project to make sure that the name is really unique. That means even longer compile times, which grow exponentially with the size of the project and the amount of duplicate ToC links. Nevertheless, it is a possible solution.
LTinker68
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Re: repeat topic display issue in Webhelp output

Post by LTinker68 »

Bill Stevens wrote:Maybe I will try using snippets - but it is going to be long exercise!
Once you get the first snippet set up, then it's easy enough to copy that snippet file and modify it for the second snippet and so on. I do the same thing now. A project I have has two main departments using the help -- Purchasing and Manufacturing. There are some tasks that are only for the Purchasing Dept., some that are only for the Manufacturing Dept., and some that are for both. But if someone in the Manufacturing Dept. is looking up a process in their area ("book") in the help, then I don't want them to suddenly get moved over to the Purchasing Dept's area or vice versa. So those topics that could be used by either department, I create a snippet. I then create two topics in each department's "area", and the content of each topic is just the snippet (as a snippet block, not snippet text).

I suggest you give the topics in the two departments (for example) different titles, or disable one of the topics from being searchable; otherwise, if someone searches on a word/phrase, then they'll get two results where the topics have the exact same title, and that looks bad, too.
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Lisa
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NorthEast
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Re: repeat topic display issue in Webhelp output

Post by NorthEast »

This post is about the same thing and might be of some help...

http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... =13&t=5737
RamonS
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Re: repeat topic display issue in Webhelp output

Post by RamonS »

Thanks for posting anyway. 8)
LTinker68
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Re: repeat topic display issue in Webhelp output

Post by LTinker68 »

And welcome to the forums! :P
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Lisa
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Warning! Loose nut behind the keyboard.
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