Master Pages with variable issue

[QuadraQ]

Hi all,

In our program there are numerical screen designations which are used as a navigation aid. In our help these designations are printed at the top of each page describing that part of the program. Here's an example:

Headings1.png

In Flare the "Screen 40.30" above is being created by first entering that text into the Topic Title field in the topic properties. Then in the Master Page above the body, the variable Title has been entered so it will print at the top of each topic. This works fine for the majority of topics, but there are a few that don't have this 'screen' designation. For those the Topic Title is left blank. Instead of the variable being skipped as I would like it appears to be pulling the H1 value instead so that it looks like this:

Headings2.png

Is there some way to define a null value to tell Flare to do nothing? I could enter a space for the Topic Title for each one of these topics, but I'm assuming that would still reserve the space for that text. What I really want is for the first heading to collapse into that space.

[LTinker68]

Maybe it would be better to have two masterpages -- one for when the screen number is applicable to the topic and one for when it's not. I do something similar with breadcrumbs -- I don't want breadcrumbs on the "welcome" topic, so I have a masterpage that's used just for that topic and that doesn't contain breadcrumbs, and a masterpage that's used for all other topics and that does contain the breadcrumbs.

[QuadraQ]

That sounds fine. However I thought there could only be one Master Page per target. I have it assigned in the Advanced tab of the editor and you can only select one there. How would I properly assign more than one?

[stephgl]

Hi Quadra,

Here's what I did: Under the WebHelp target's Advanced tab, I set the Master Page to Default.

Then, I made 4 different master pages:

• A general one with breadcrumbs and a footer for most pages,
  one without those for topics to be used only as topic-popups,
  one for topics with mini-tocs that introduced "chapters" of other topics, and
  a special one for the home page that used a specific background color and image.

Each of the 4 master pages were then used in the stylesheet.
First, for the html tag itself, I set the mc-master-page property to my general breadcrumb-and-footer master page. (I do this in the Advanced view, it is an Unclassified property. When you find the mc-master-page property, the blank field next to it will give a drop-down list of the master pages you have created.)

Then, I added three html tag classes, one for each alternative master page I would need sometimes. The stylesheet entries ended up looking like this:

html.TopicPopup
{
mc-master-page: url('../MasterPages/TopicPopMaster.flmsp');
}

Since my most-used master page was added to the html tag itself, it was automatically used by all of the topics. Then, for a topic where I knew I needed to use an alternative page, I selected the html block and selected the style class from there.

I hope this helped. Madcap Pro's, if there is a better way, please share!

[LTinker68]

Nope, you're right. That's basically what's described in the KB article at http://kb.madcapsoftware.com/default_CSH.htm#FMP1001F.

[stephgl]

Ooh, but you said it so much better! Nice article, great knowlege base!
-Steph

[QuadraQ]

Ooh, but you said it so much better! Nice article, great knowlege base!
-Steph

Agreed. Thanks so much both of you, I've got that issue resolved now using that technique.