Breadcrumbs not linking to book

[KSUWildcat]

My TOC and MasterPage are associated with my WebHelp target. All but one of my books are linked to a topic. When I'm in a topic in the book that is NOT linked, the breadcrumbs look like this: "You are here: Book 1 > Topic 1"

When I'm in a topic that is in book that is linked, the breadcrumbs look like this: "You are hear: > Topic 1"

Should I not be linking the book to a topic, but something else? Some parts of my TOC are multi-level (Book, sub-book, sub-sub-book).

[LTinker68]

Anywhere you have a book that has topics inside of it, you need to have the book linked to something so that every step in the breadcrumb has a hyperlink. I always link the book to the first topic inside of the book.

[KSUWildcat]

All my books are linked to the first topic, yet the breadcrumbs still look like "You are here: > Topic 1". Where they should look like "You are here: Book 5 > Topic 1"

I tried unlinking a book, just to test what would happen, and the breadcrumbs in a topic of the unlinked book look like "You are here: Book 1 > Topic 1". That's what throwing me off.

[KSUWildcat]

Nevermind. Turns out my CSS is to blame. My developer and I did some fancy hacks to the CSS and we basically told everything to go away and disappear except for a few cases. Fixed.

[LTinker68]

Careful. Hacking the CSS will void the warranty.

Glad you figured it out.

[tworks]

Hello,
In order to get the breadcrumbs to work on my topic pages, I created a topic page for the Book that is in the TOC.

When you do that, Flare automatically puts the topic page links that are under the Book onto that book topic page for you; however, you only see that information when you view the output. So, how is there a why to edit that Book topic page?

[LTinker68]

When you do that, Flare automatically puts the topic page links that are under the Book onto that book topic page for you; however, you only see that information when you view the output. So, how is there a why to edit that Book topic page?

Not quite sure I understand what you're saying. Is the book linked to a topic that contains a mini-TOC proxy and that's what you want to edit? Or is the book not linked to anything? If it's the latter, then I tend to link it to an intro topic or the first topic that appears under the book. If it's an intro topic, then I might have a mini-TOC proxy or just an introductory paragraph that's not necessary for the user's understanding of the rest of the book's contents (topics). In other words, it's pretty much throw-away text.

[tworks]

Hi Lisa,

The book is linked to a newly created topic page, and when you access the book from the left menu, that book topic page automatically lists all of the links to all of the topic pages that are under that book in the TOC, which is fine; however, when you view the book topic page in Edit mode, you do not see the links, so you cannot format how those links are displayed. Is there a way to edit the automatic links that appear on a topic page that is associated with a Book.

[LTinker68]

In the stylesheet, go to MadCap|miniTocProxy to control the DIV elements of the proxy, like the border at the top of the mini-TOC in the output, and the distance before and after the mini-TOC proxy block.

To go control the positioning of the items (e.g., spacing between list items) and appearance (e.g., font size), modify the p.MiniTOC1, p.MiniTOC2, etc.

To modify the appearance of the links, you first have to add the appropriate class to the <a> tag (why MadCap didn't do that themselves, I have no idea). To modify the hyperlink styles, in the stylesheet in Advanced view, click on the <a> tag to select it, then click Add Class. Type MiniTOC1 as the class name. Expand that newly created group to see its pseudo classes. Modify those pseudo classes in the order of link, visited, focus, then hover. If you want a second level link to be styled differently from a top-level link, then you'd have to repeat the step to create a MiniTOC2 class and style its pseudo classes.

EDIT: I don't know why, but for some reason I thought you were talking about the mini-TOC, but the subject line is breadcrumbs. So for breadcrumbs, modify MadCap|breadcrumbsProxy to control the border and spacing above and below, and modify the pseudo classes under MCBreadcrumbsLink under the <a> tag for the hyperlinks.

[tworks]

Hi Lisa,

Thank you for this information. Sorry--- I should have started a new subject, but it all started with the breadcrumb issue, so I just kept it going. My bad. Thanks again.