Linking to topics vs. linking to bookmarks?

[kristil]

Is there any advantage to always linking to a bookmark rather than just to a topic? Say, for example, in print output or in translation?
I was trying out a process where I created multiple Word docs in my output, then inserted those files into a "shell" Word document. Hyperlink that were to topics were defined as file paths, and so opened the source files rather than taking me to a spot within the shell document.
I don't really need to create print output in this way. I was doing it because master pages won't really work for us until we redesign our print docs, and I was experimenting with ways of creating working footers (our docs have *lots* of section breaks.) But it occurred to me that there may be other reasons to only link to bookmarks.

[dwag]

Forgive me if I've misunderstood your question, but I use bookmarks only when I want to set up links to particular places within the same topic.

[Andrew]

The vast majority of our topics are so short, there is no reason to link on anything but the topic level. If a case arose where linking to a bookmark would be advantageous, I wouldn't have a problem doing so.

[kristil]

Yes, that's what I was doing, too. I usually don't reference material in the middle of a topic. Then I discovered that linking to a topic meant that my links were to file paths. So, I couldn't combine output files by inserting them into a 'shell' document. The file path of the link caused it to want to open the output file. Come to think of it, that might screw up a master document, too. Anyway, if I wanted to use my Insert>File method of combining output documents, I would need to edit all my hyperlinks to be links to bookmarks. My topics were imported from a Word doc, so I already had all the necessary bookmarks.

It got me thinking that there may be other reasons to only link to bookmarks, but nothing came immediately to mind. I wonder especially if it will cause me problems during translation.

[KevinDAmery]

I'm still not clear why you don't go with a master page, to be honest. It would be much simpler than mucking around with inserted word documents. You mentioned that you're redesigning your print documents, but I'm not clear what that has to do with it--presumably your print documents today have to look like something, so why not make a master page that looks like that then redesign it when you finish the print design?

Really, it sounds like dealing with the Word insertion method is way more work than designing an interim master page ever would be. My .02.

[kristil]

We have a master page, and it looks like I'll be using them . Running footers and page numbering aren't working well for us because of the way our docs are designed currently, and so we have to post-process our footers, so I was trying out this idea. It was designed to work around the limitations of RoboHelp, some of which don't apply to Flare. It would also be easier for someone having trouble with master pages and CSS to quickly produce print documents using this method, if they were proficient in Word. And, if you're having to do a lot of post-processing, it allows you to do some of it only once, then reuse that shell document.