advance to next topic?

[davidfass]

Here's a basic question! If I am editing a topic and I want to advance to the next topic in the TOC, how do I do that? Thanks!

[wclass]

If you open up the TOC file, you can change the view to Grid rather than Tree view. It is then very easy to double-click to open the next file in the toc. And you can also float the toc to a separate screen so that you can always view it.
I tend to use the File List (View ribbon tab) instead as I can sort and filter it anyway I like.

[davidfass]

Thanks. But there is no "page forward" button or anything like that? I am coming to Flare from FrameMaker, and I think I would find it hard to work without a TOC. Just a flat listing of 1000 topics seems really hard to navigate. Maybe I just need to learn the Flare work style better.

[Nita Beck]

I also suggest that you use your TOC as a way to navigate as you're authoring (although I don't think it's necessary to open it in grid view). By default, if you double-click on a TOC item in tree view, Flare will open the TOC properties for the double-click TOC entry instead of opening its linked topic. (And I think that's why Margaret's suggesting grid view.) There is a button on the TOC Editor's toolbar with which you can toggle what double-click does. I have it set to open the linked topic, so I can very easily use my TOC to navigate around as I update topics. And when I do want to open a TOC entry's TOC properties, I select it and press F4 (I *think*; I"m going on memory. Maybe it's F3).

While you're exploring the TOC, right-click any TOC entry and get familiar with the commands that are on the shortcut menu. One you might use often is Locate in Explorer, which is a handy way to find a TOC entry's linked topic (without opening it), when you want to see where it resides in the Content Explorer.

HTH.

[davidfass]

Thanks very much! I will try that out! -- Dave

[doc_guy]

One of my colleagues detaches the TOC from the main panel in Flare, and moves it over to the left side. He mainly uses the TOC instead of the Content Explorer. It looks something like this:

[ChoccieMuffin]

I also suggest that you use your TOC as a way to navigate as you're authoring (although I don't think it's necessary to open it in grid view). By default, if you double-click on a TOC item in tree view, Flare will open the TOC properties for the double-click TOC entry instead of opening its linked topic. (And I think that's why Margaret's suggesting grid view.) There is a button on the TOC Editor's toolbar with which you can toggle what double-click does. I have it set to open the linked topic, so I can very easily use my TOC to navigate around as I update topics. And when I do want to open a TOC entry's TOC properties, I select it and press F4 (I *think*; I"m going on memory. Maybe it's F3).

While you're exploring the TOC, right-click any TOC entry and get familiar with the commands that are on the shortcut menu. One you might use often is Locate in Explorer, which is a handy way to find a TOC entry's linked topic (without opening it), when you want to see where it resides in the Content Explorer.

HTH.

I do the same as Nita.
When you are looking at a TOC, the button Nita is on about (in bold in her quote) is the last icon on the right, and looks like a book with a cursor pointer on it. (Took me AGES to find the thing!) If you want to look at the topic properties from the TOC, select the file and press F4.

If you want to see where the topic is, just hover over the topic to see the path. (I keep forgetting about the "Locate in Explorer" option!)

On a more general point, the reason there isn't a "Next Topic in TOC" button in Flare is that there is no way for Flare to know which TOC you're working with, as a topic could appear in any number of TOCs. Welcome to the Flare world, I hope you enjoy it.

[davidfass]

Ah, interesting. OK, will check all this out when I get to my work computer. But the issue of multiple TOCs raises another question in my mind. I have to build several "books" or "doc sets" for our several different product versions. Each product version shares some material with other product versions. The way I have been trying to do this is by using a single master TOC and putting condition tags on the different topics (or topic folders) in the TOC. Then I use different *targets* with conditions to build the different doc sets. Would it be better to create multiple TOCs instead of doing this using conditions, or would that not work? Thanks very much! So confused...

[Msquared]

I'd go for a single TOC for closely related content, which conditions to control which content ends up in which targets wherever possible. This is more maintainable, as it means that when you modify content, you only have to make changes in one place, rather than having to remember which TOCs the changes relate to, and modify them all.

However, if the content is only loosely related, and you find the conditions becoming very complex (and hence hard to maintain and understand in themselves) then it may be time to consider more than one TOC, ideally located in the same place, and with names that clearly indicate their close relationship, so when you find one, you immediately see the other similar ones, and remember to modify them all. Here speaks one who has learned the hard way!

The other thing you could do is use TOCs within TOCs and singles-source at that level. An entry in a TOC can itself be another TOC, so, depending on your content structure, you may find it easier to group collections of topics in a TOC, then use them to assemble bigger TOCs.

Your choice. Just remember someone has to maintain it in years to come . . . .

[ChoccieMuffin]

Ah, interesting. OK, will check all this out when I get to my work computer. But the issue of multiple TOCs raises another question in my mind. I have to build several "books" or "doc sets" for our several different product versions. Each product version shares some material with other product versions. The way I have been trying to do this is by using a single master TOC and putting condition tags on the different topics (or topic folders) in the TOC. Then I use different *targets* with conditions to build the different doc sets. Would it be better to create multiple TOCs instead of doing this using conditions, or would that not work? Thanks very much! So confused...

Either approach works, so it depends as much on how the inside of your head processes things! The good bit about doing what you do is that if, for example, you have to add some new topics to a chapter you don't have to update several TOCs with the new topic. (I've caught a cold on that a few times, so I do as you do, but my conditions at that level are a bit simpler.)

Another approach you could take is to "nest" tables of contents, which can make things a bit easier to find. We have a couple of fairly big projects which use an awful log of global project linking (which I love, makes single-sourcing very clear) and a table of contents that has lots and lots of chapters. What I have done is create separate TOCs for each chapter and then added them to a "Master" TOC which is linked to the target. I also make sure that the TOC gets imported when using GPL, and I can then plonk the imported TOC into my "Master" TOC when needed.

[davidfass]

OK, will stick with my current approach of conditions for now. Thanks!

[doc_guy]

Are you suggesting that you have a topic in two places in the SAME TOC and you are using conditions to control which content goes into which topic? Or are you saying that you have two different TOCs and you want to put the same topic in each TOC but have different content in one TOC as opposed to another TOC?

Remember that conditions are typically applied at the TARGET level, so using the first approach, your output will have the same topic, with the same conditions, twice in the same TOC. The way around that is to use snippet conditions, which would allow you to have different topics using the same source content, but with conditions applied.

[davidfass]

Basically, I have a set of doc packages which all share some common "chapters". So I created a single giant TOC that contains everything, and I'm toggling the chapters for each target using conditions. So imagine that Target 1 has chapters ABCDEF and Target 2 has chapters CDEFGHI. What I did is I made a TOC with all the chapters, ABCDEFGHI. I made a condition tag set such as {Target1,Target2} and I label each chapter with tag 'Target1' or 'Target2' or both. Then for the Target 1 condition, I set something like "Target 1 and not Target 2". And for Target 2 I set "Target 2 and not Target 1", and this hopefully builds me the correct chapters for each case. Please let me know if I am going about this the wrong way. I tried a few other approaches that did not work. thanks!

[doc_guy]

Thanks for the clarification. That is exactly how I would do it!

[davidfass]

thanks! great to hear! - Dave