Is there a workaround for this cross-reference bug?

[tomjohnson1492]

I sure would appreciate some recommended workarounds to this cross-reference bug in Flare. I described it in an earlier post, but it was tangential from the original post title.

Here are the steps to reproduce the bug:

1. Create a drop-down hotspot.
2. Put a bookmark in the drop-down head.
3. In another topic, create a cross-reference that links to the bookmark.
4. Generate your printed output. Ugghhhh. The cross-reference text that appears is the entire text of the drop-down.

Am I to assume that not many people out there are using drop-down hotspots and generating printed documentation that has cross references? I can't believe this thread hasn't surfaced before in this forum.

I sure would appreciate a recommendation for a workaround. Here is what I'm contemplating:

* Stop using the cross-references feature and instead resort to the cross-references Word macro I used with Robohelp. The macro actually works quite well, but geez, the cross-reference feature was one of my favorites in Flare.

* Break out all drop-down hotspots into their own topics. I really don't want to do this -- it makes the TOC bloated and intimidating.

* Request a code fix from Madcap. (I already did this, but haven't heard back yet.)

Any other ideas out there?

[KevinDAmery]

You could make the dropdown hotspot the cross reference site. The only drawback is the dropdown won't open automatically when users jump to it (which as I recall is what you were after originally) but it would let you use Flare to create cross references and the reference wouldn't contain the entire text of the dropdown.

[tomjohnson1492]

Kevin, I don't understand what you're saying. I'm trying to create cross references to drop-down hotspots. How would reversing that solve my problem? Can you provide more detail? thanks,

Tom

[KevinDAmery]

Sorry, I thought you were putting the cross reference in the dropdown body, not the dropdown head or hotspot.

[doc_guy]

Sorry Tom. I've not found a solution. I've started just placing cross references to topics, which isn't ideal, but is better than no cross reference at all. If I have a cross reference somewhere, I usually have an index entry there as well, so I hope users of the printed guide will refer to the Index for specific page numbers if they can't find it because my topic is too long.

[tomjohnson1492]

Thanks for your responses. I think I found an acceptable workaround -- just testing it right now.

[tomjohnson1492]

I've settled on a workaround that I think will be acceptable. Here's how to make cross references to bookmarks in drop-down hotspots work without getting an avalanche of text:

1. Go to the print medium of your stylesheet and change the xref style command to on page {page}.
2. In the non-print medium, change the xref style command to show nothing at all. (Unfortunately, you have to still have a space in there -- I can't figure out how to remove it all).
3. In the default medium, type on page X for a visual reminder that there's a cross reference.
4. Insert the bookmark in your drop-down head/hotspot as needed.
5. When you need to make a cross-reference to that bookmark, do the following:

• Insert a regular hyperlink to the bookmark. This will be for the online help.
• Just after the hyperlink, insert a cross-reference to the bookmark.

That's it. Now when you generate the printed and webhelp targets, it will give you exactly what you need without an avalanche of crazy drop-down text. What I was doing wrong was using the {para} command instead of the {page} command. The {para} command will generate the first paragraph of the bookmarked text, whereas the {page} command generates only the page number.

To an example of how to implement this, see below.

Suppose this is my task where I insert the bookmark:

[bookmark]Building Ships:

1. Find a lot of timber ...
2. Nail it together real smooth ...

In another topic I want to insert a reference to the topic that would look like this online:

For more information, see Building Ships.

And in print would look like this:

For more information, see "Building Ships" on page 47.

Highlight Building Ships and make a standard hyperlink back to the bookmark.

Then directly after the ending quotation mark, insert a cross reference to the same bookmark. Because of the stylesheet settings, you'll see this in your topic

For more information, see "Building Ships" on page X.

Now one last little detail. If you want to hide the quotation marks in the online target, select the quotation marks and conditionally tag them for exclusion from your online target. To hide the period in the printed target, select it and conditionally tag it for exclusion in the print target.

That's it. While this is not ideal, at least it works.

[SteveS]

There is a simple approach.

Use Conditional Tags - your "original" source can be tagged screen only.

The sort of thing you are assigning in the style sheet to print medium can be tagged print only.

The advantage of this approach is you can see clearly in the XML editor both types of output. The disadvantage is "double handling", although you could try a snippet. That might open a whole new tin of worms, though....

[tomjohnson1492]

Yeah, conditional tags would probably be easier. The important thing is to use {page} instead of {para}.

[Jörg Ertelt]

Hi folks,

here comes the german solution The only what you have to do is to insert a <p> / </p> manually into the source before / after the madcap:dropdownhead. After this it should looks like this:

<MadCap:dropDown>
<p><MadCap:dropDownHead><a name="dd01"></a>
<MadCap:dropDownHotspot>This is a dropdown</MadCap:dropDownHotspot>
</MadCap:dropDownHead></p>
<MadCap:dropDownBody>
<p>(This is the Drop-down text)</p>
</MadCap:dropDownBody>
</MadCap:dropDown>

Take a look on the <p> / </p>. These elements seperates the dropwdown head from the paragraph of the dropdown body. You can use see "{para}" on {page}. xref points to the bookmark <a name="dd01"></a>. It works fine. That´s all. It´s not necessary to use build tags or two hyperlinks, one for online and the other for print. You can use xref as usual.

Hope it helps.

[doc_guy]

Yeah. Not only is that EXTREMELY helpful, it should be fixed in Flare by default.

Thank you! Your solution is perfect. It would only be more perfect if I didn't have to put in the <p> pair manually.

[forfear]

Bug post anyone?

[ThomasH]

Sorry for digging up such an outdated thread, but I'd like to ask if someone came across the same problem I did:

The workaround presented by Jörg unfortunately doesn't work with the HTML5 output. Does anyone know another workaround to make sure I only get the text from the DropDownHead displayed in my cross-references?
I'd really appreciate any help here!