TOC expansion problem

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dfagundes
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TOC expansion problem

Post by dfagundes »

Hi,

I have this problem with Flare that so far I'm unable to resolve.

In the TOC, when I click in a topic that have children topics, it expands to a child that it's not the one I wanted to.

For example, in the image below, when I click in "A" it expands to "B", but what I wanted is just focus the first child of "A".

Image


Anyone knows the reason for this? And how I can change this behavior?

I have found that Flare puts a complement (separated by "|") in the "tocPath" attribute in the .HTM file, that points to the problematic topic (see below).

<html xmlns:MadCap="http://www.madcapsoftware.com/Schemas/MadCap.xsd" MadCap:tocPath="Gerenciamento do Workflow|Workflow Subordinado">

This is automatically generated when compiling the project, so I thought that must be a flag or something that is causing me this problem.


Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Daniel Fagundes
Carpio Solutions

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Edited by: doc_guy who said: "I edited your entry so that your image is displayed in the forums without having to link to the external site."
Richard Ferrell
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Re: TOC expansion problem

Post by Richard Ferrell »

Are both TOC entries the Same Topic? It will show both if they are the same file.
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doc_guy
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Re: TOC expansion problem

Post by doc_guy »

So, I'm wondering how you have your TOC structured. Is the book icon linked to a topic? (If it isn't, in the TOC in the TOC editor, you'll see an icon overlaid on the book to show that it isn't linked to a topic.

If a book is linked to a topic, when you click to open the book, that is the topic that should be displayed.
Paul Pehrson
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doc_guy
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Re: TOC expansion problem

Post by doc_guy »

Oh, and bem vindo aos forums!! Gostamos de ajudar!

I mean, welcome to the forums!! We love to help.

-Paul
(who speaks Português when he can get away with it)
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dfagundes
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Re: TOC expansion problem

Post by dfagundes »

Richard,

If by "Topic" you mean the same .HTM file, so yes, both TOC entries are in the same topic. Actually all the Workflow TOC entries are in the same topic. We've done that to allow the user to see related issues just scrolling up or down the document, keeping him in the same context (in that case, the Workflow).

But it shouldn't be pointing to the beginning of the topic when I click on the "Gerenciamento do Workflow" TOC entry? (the book icon)

Below are two screenshots showing the configuration of the TOC entries "Gerenciamento do Workflow" and "Workflow Subordinado":

ImageImage ImageImage


Paul,

Yes, the book icon is linked to a topic, which can be seen in the first image above. The first Workflow TOC entry (book icon) "Gerenciamento do Workflow" is pointing to a .HTM topic file. The remaining children TOC entries are pointing to bookmarks inside the .HTM topic file, including the "Workflow Subordinado" TOC entry, wich is causing me this problem.

Any ideas?

Obrigado pela boas-vindas! :)
(thank you for your welcome message)
LTinker68
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Re: TOC expansion problem

Post by LTinker68 »

Create a snippet file that contains the content that will be used in multiple locations. Create two or more topic files and insert the snippet into each topic. Reference each topic once in the TOC. That way, if you click on the topic you have shown as B, then that's what the TOC highlights. If you click on the topic you have shown as A, then that's what the TOC highlights. To the reader, it looks like the same topic because the content is the same, but they're actually two different topic files.

You'll also probably only want one of the topics to be searchable -- you don't want two identical topic files to be found in a search.
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Lisa
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doc_guy
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Re: TOC expansion problem

Post by doc_guy »

Yeah. So I get what you are saying. When you click on the book, it ought to just open to the top of that document, and the TOC shouldn't jump down to the other TOC entry. However, Flare isn't really designed to work the way you're using it. I mean, yes, you can do what you are doing (by linking a TOC several times to a long topic), but it isn't really the way it was designed to work.

If I were developing your topics, I'd consider breaking up the TOC entries into individual topics. Individual topics are easier to read, especially in online output, and if you ever decide you want to create a printed version of your guide, you can use the existing TOC structure. You can then create a browse sequence, so users can proceed to the next topic (or go back to the previous topic in the sequence), so you still step your users through page by page, but you don't overwhelm them with a huge document on the first click.

If you really want to keep the content in a single topic, then to get the TOC working, you might need to do what Lisa suggested, and go with a snippet solution. (I.e. break up the content into snippets at each TOC break, and then insert them all into a separate documents. Then have the TOC entry point to the correct document with the right bookmark.)

Does that make sense?

Tenha um bom dia! (Have a good day!)

-Paul
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dfagundes
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Re: TOC expansion problem

Post by dfagundes »

Lisa and Paul,

In our case we don't have content that is used in multiple locations, but the snippet feature (which honestly I didn't know) might be very useful in the future.

By now I found a workaround to the problem: it only occurs when the last entry of a "parent entry" is a book, i.e., the last entry itself contains sub-entries. That was the case of the "Workflow Subordinado" TOC entry (which had children entries), inside the "Gerenciamento do Workflow" (first image in this topic).

I honestly don't know if it is a bug or, like Paul said, something that I'm doing that's not the way Flare it's supposed to work.

In any case, if I put a TOC entry that does not have children in the last position of the "Gerenciamento do Workflow" TOC entry, everything runs OK (the tree expands correctly, with their three children "books" closed).

I've tried the same in other entry with the same problem and it also worked.

Thanks Paul, Lisa and Richard for your help. I'll keep in mind your suggestions when working in future Flare projects.

Thank you!

Daniel Fagundes
Carpio Solutions
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