TOC syncing to the wrong topic for duplicated TOC entries

[3lliot]

I have a webhelp project with a TOC that is broken down into 3 sections.

A few of the topics in the project are included in all 3 toc sections (because they're identical).

However, with TOC synchronisation on, when I navigate to the first instance of the shared topic (in the first section of the toc) the toc synchronises to the instance of the topic in the last section of the toc.

Also the breadcrumbs show the wrong location.

It seems the toc & breadcrumbs aren't smart enough to know how I navigated to the topic, and synchronise to the last instance of the topic instead.

Is there any way to prevent this?

I don't want to duplicate the topics, and I don't want to switch off toc synchronisation.

Screenie attached

[NorthEast]

I don't want to duplicate the topics, and I don't want to switch off toc synchronisation.

The bad news is that the only answer is to duplicate the topics.

The good (or less bad) news is that this isn't too difficult if you use snippets. You need to first add the content of the topic into a snippet, and then create the 3 topics and paste the snippet in each one. You then need to add the 3 topics in your TOC.


If you place a topic in the TOC more than once, then you'll see unpredictable results in the TOC synchronisation, breadcrumbs, and mini-TOC. You'll find that the generated topic will be fixed to one of the TOC positions; i.e. it'll sync to the same TOC entry, and show one fixed breadcumb path.
Not ideal, but it sort of makes sense; e.g. if you click a link to a topic which is located in 3 separate places, then how would it know which TOC entry or breadcrumb path to display?

[LTinker68]

To add to what Dave wrote, you can set two of the topics to not be searchable, so if your users search for something, they'll get one result instead of three results pointing to the same content. And the advantage of the snippet method is that there's still only once place to go to modify the content (snippet file instead of the topic file you have now).

[3lliot]

Thanks - unfortunately when they navigate to a search result that appears in more than 1 place, they'll more than likely find themselves in the wrong section, which would throw off their context & would be confusing. No way around that though I guess...

[LindaW]

I am trying to create a snippet so that I can use it to duplicate topics in my TOC. Is there a way that I can copy all of a topic's content and formatting into a snippet? When I "select all" from the Edit menu, then click the Format menu Create Snippet is greyed out, so I can't select it. I looked in the documentation, and I don't see any limitations for creating snippets from content.

[whunter]

Sometimes the Create Snippet command is unavailable for unknown reasons. In these cases you can create a blank snippet, and then copy in the desired contents. The annoying part of this approach is that the copied contents are not automatically replaced by the snippet, as they would be if you used Create Snippet (and selected that option) -- you'll have to manually put the snippet in the topic.

[LindaW]

Thanks! - I also discovered that I can do a "Save As" and save a duplicate of my topic in my Snippets folder with a filetype of flsnp.

[crdmerge]

You could, instead, use the meta refresh function to create a redirect page that you would add to the TOC. Very simply, you add this to the HEAD section of a blank page:

<meta http-equiv="REFRESH" content="0;url=target_topic.htm">

You can keep content="0; to make the redirect jump invisible to the user (0 seconds), or increase the time and add some descriptive text. The following is the content of our template_redirect.htm, with 10 seconds for users to decide whether to let the redirect happen, make it happen right away, or return to the previous page. To get a similar "loading" graphic (our ajax-loader.gif), Google "loading animated gif" for a free web site that lets you create and download a gif with your own color, style, etc.

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<html xmlns:MadCap="http://www.madcapsoftware.com/Schemas/MadCap.xsd" MadCap:lastBlockDepth="2" MadCap:lastHeight="261" MadCap:lastWidth="641" MadCap:searchable="False">
    <head>
        <!--COMMENT: In the following <meta> tag line, add the target topic to the URL=[topic.htm or ../project/topic.htm]", and verify the <title>TOC Title</title> that will display for this redirect page in the TOC (could be slightly different from the actual target topic's title?).-->
		<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="10;URL=[../target_folder/]target_topic.htm" /><title>Target Topic</title>
        <link href="crd.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    </head>
    <body>
<!--COMMENT: Delete the following paragraph.-->        
		<p>See the COMMENT instructions in the text (code) editor; first, however, delete this line.</p>
        <p> </p>
        <p> </p>
        <p style="text-align: center;">
            <img src="ajax-loader.gif" />
        </p>
        <p> </p>
		<!--COMMENT: In the following paragraph, insert the correct target topic title and the target help module and/or section. For example, "...redirected to: Target Topic in the Target section of the Target help module." Use the <br /> tag for line breaks, as needed.-->
		<p style="text-align: center; margin-left: 100px; margin-right: 100px;"><b>You are being redirected to:</b>
		</p>
		<p style="text-align: center; margin-left: 100px; margin-right: 100px;">Target folder/topic <br />in the Target help module</p>
		<p> </p>
		<!--COMMENT: Add a regular hyperlink here, pointing to the same topic as in the meta tag above.-->
		<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="[../target_folder/]target_topic.htm">Skip this delay and redirect me now</a>
		</p>
		<!--COMMENT: The following paragraph is standard, and requires no change.-->
		<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="#" onClick="history.go(-1)">Return to previous topic instead</a>
		</p>
		<p> </p>
        <p> </p>
    </body>
</html>

Good luck,
Leon

[RamonS]

Making these types of redirects most likely collides with Section 508 requirements. Not sure if that is a concern.
I recommend using the snippet approach instead.

[3lliot]

I did go with snippets in the end. It's made the search results & the indexing a bit confusing, but I guess there's no way around that. Thanks for the tips guys

-E

[RamonS]

As far as indexing goes, you can place the index keywords outside of the snippet in each topic. That should then link to the desired topic.

[crdmerge]

For now, please ignore my recommendation (on 9/21) to use a delayed redirect page. Madcap support is still working (Case 29453) on why Flare disables the redirect entirely by turning the source "http-equiv" (dash) into the output "http_equiv" (underscore) if there is a delay in the content value (anything more than zero). However, the instant redirect (content="0; and a blank page) still works OK.

This is similar to what Flare did to the instant redirect pages when converting them from RoboHelp projects (Flare 7.0, Case 26234, Bug 44510). The hope of Support at that time (6/2/11) was that "Hopefully, the next version of Flare will address this issue." However, it seems that neither 7.1 nor 7.2 have provided a solution, yet.


Sigh...