Trouble displaying Mini-TOC in PDF output

[KT_Mtjoy]

Hi there,
I'm new to Flare and am having trouble getting the mini-TOC at the beginning of each chapter of my PDF target to display. When I build my output nothing appears where the mini-TOC should be in the PDF output. I inserted each mini-TOC into a topic that is linked to a top level of my outline TOC, so that shouldn't be the problem. I could see the mini-TOCs in the PDF output before I specified that the first page in each group of topics should be a new chapter when I was setting up the auto-numbering. Could this have caused the problem?
Thanks so much,
Katie

[LTinker68]

Just to clarify, your TOC is set up something like...

Book A (linked to Topic A that contains mini-TOC proxy)
....Topic B
....Topic C
....Topic D

The above should result in Topic A containing a mini-TOC pointing to topics B, C, and D.

Also, your "start a new chapter" was set up on Book A, not on Topic B, correct? If you set the new chapter to start on Topic B, then yes, that's causing a break between the mini-TOC proxy and the topics beneath it. I ran into the same problem and ended up having to create a mini-TOC looking effect by manually added xrefs to Topic A instead of using the mini-TOC proxy.

[KT_Mtjoy]

Hi Lisa,
Yes, my document is set up the way you describe, with a second book and an index at the end:

Topic 1 (that contains full book TOC proxy - this one works fine)
Book A (linked to Topic A that contains mini-TOC proxy)
....Topic B
....Topic C
....Topic D
Book E (linked to Topic E that contains mini-TOC proxy)
....Topic F
....Topic G
....Topic H
Index

I've created a new chapter for Book A, Book E and Index as I have different page layouts for the three chapters, and I've linked my mini-TOC topics to the start of each of the first two chapters.

Thanks so much for any help,
Katie

[LTinker68]

That should work. Are you using standard h1, h2, etc. heading tags in your topics, or classes of those tags? Or are you using a paragraph with auto-numbering for the headings? If it's the latter, try using the standard heading tags but set them to use the same auto-numbering you had set up on the paragraph tag. I think the mini-TOC is designed to use the heading tags.

And make sure you set the mini-TOC to show enough levels. If your "book" topic is h1, for instance, and topics B, C, and D use h2, then you need to set the mini-TOC to go 2 levels deep. If you use h1 for all the topics then 1 level deep is fine.

[KT_Mtjoy]

Yep, I'm using h1, h2, h3 and h4 classes and I set up the autonumbering in those styles. Also, my mini-TOC is set up to display 3 heading levels...

[LTinker68]

Hmmm. Now I'm just throwing out ideas.

Did you put the mini-TOC proxy in a special masterpage or in a snippet? The masterpage wouldn't work for PDF output and I'm not sure if a snippet containing a mini-TOC proxy would work or not. Theoretically it should, but I've never tried it.

Did you populate the <title> tag in the topics being called by the mini-TOC? That is, did you populate that field in the topic's Properties screen, or did you set it up to use the first heading in the topic (the default option when you create a new topic)? I don't populate the <title> tag in my topics, so I'm not sure if having it populated would cause a problem with the mini-TOC.

If you create a test project and copy one of the mini-TOC topics and "child" topics into the test project and set up the TOC, does it work then or is it still blank?

And of course, you checked the stylesheet to make sure you didn't inadvertently set the mini-TOC styles to be hidden or a white font or something else that won't show up in the print output, correct?

[ChrisBradley]

I have the same problem in one of my PDF targets. Let's see if we're having the same problem KT. Here is how my chapters start:

Heading 1: My Chapter Title

p: This chapter contains the following topics:

<mini toc Proxy> <---set for level 2 headings

For this target, the line for the mini TOC prints, but none of the headings will.

If I change my Heading 1 back to a paragraph tag, the TOC will display. For some reason, the TOC will not display if there is any other headings above it in the same topic. Like I said before, it only occurs on this one target. The 'broke' target uses the same syle sheet as the working one, but a different page layout.

Kt, would you mind changing your heading 1 on the topics that contain your mini TOC back to a regular paragraph tag and see if that fixes the PDF? I'm curious...

[KT_Mtjoy]

Hi Lisa and Chris,

To answer your questions:

-I put the mini-toc in a new topic with the same page layout as the rest of the chapter, not in a master page or snippet.
-The <title> tags are empty in the topic properties dialog.
-I created a blank project with PDF target, created an outline TOC topic, created a mini-TOC topic and one topic with h1 text associated with it. I can see the horizontal line assocated with the top border of the mini-TOC, but there are no TOC entries.
-In the brand new project I used the default stylesheet so no changes were made to any fonts in the Mini-TOC style.

Chris, I tried your suggestion of removing the heading class at the top of the page before the Mini-TOC but there was no change in my built target, all I can see is the horizontal line that would be at the top of the Mini-TOC.

I used the same project to build a WebHelp target, and the Mini-TOC and associated links are visible in the WebHelp format. It seems as though the mini-TOC does exist, but the problem exists with viewing it in PDF targets. I am using Adobe Reader 9 with Microsoft Vista on my laptop. Would there be any way to create a mini-TOC at the start of a chapter (i.e. can the output TOC proxy be modified to only show certain items?) other than manually creating a new topic with links and page numbers for all of the topics in a particular chapter? Perhaps there is a patch that I'm missing for Flare? I purchased the software about a month ago and am using version 5.

[KT_Mtjoy]

Hi again,
I managed to be able to see the mini-TOC proxy in the new project that was started from scratch by selecting the "Use TOC depth for heading levels" under the properties for the PDF target, although this setting was checked in my original project, so I don't know what the difference between the two projects is. Thanks for the help and for answering my questions!
Thanks,
Katie

[emeklund]

Hi All. I'm running into the same problem that is described in this thread. I cannot get the Mini-TOC to display even if I do check the Use TOC depth for heading levels box. My project is set up in the TOC as:

Session 1 (linked to topic containing Mini-TOC)
...Topic A (which contains H2-H4 tags)
...Topic B (which contains H2-H4 tags)
...Topic C (which contains H2-H4 tags)

The only thing that displays where the MIni-TOC should be when I build and view the pdf is a line, signifying the bottom of the Mini-TOC. Any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong?

[KT_Mtjoy]

Hi there,
I'm not sure what the secret is for this problem, the only thing that I could get to work was to re-create the project and copy all my files and styles into a new blank flare project with PDF output. Sorry if its not much help, good luck!!
Katie

[RiverMonster]

This problem can happen if you have a style used above the mini-TOC proxy in the same topic where it is inserted and that style has a heading level that would be shown in the mini TOC.

For example, suppose the following:
i. Your mini-TOC is set to show a TOC depth of 1
ii. Your H1 style is set with a mc-heading-level of 1
iii. In the topic where your mini-TOC proxy is located there is a H1 style in use above the mini-TOC proxy

In this case you will just see a line for the mini-TOC in the output. If you remove the H1 from the topic or put it below the mini-TOC then the mini-TOC will show up fine.

Adrian

[ddiemetric]

I'm soooooo happy I found this post.

I was going loony trying to figure out why my mini-TOC wasn't printing.

Thanks!

[todd.richardson]

I apologize if I'm missing something obvious, but how would you configure the top heading in a topic so that it appears as a Level-1 entry in the main TOC, but doesn't appear in the Mini-TOC proxy placed in that topic?

Thanks.

[LTinker68]

Mini-TOCs only work if the topic containing the proxy is a physical level above the topics in the main TOC. So generally the mini-TOC proxy is in a topic that's associated to a book, and the topics inside that book are what appear in the mini-TOC. The mini-TOC by default won't pull headings for topics that are at the same levels as the proxy. And it doesn't matter what headings you used in the topics in the book -- its the position of the topic relative to the mini-TOC proxy that determines how deep the mini-TOC will go. So say all your topics use the h1 heading, and your TOC is set up similar to the following:

Code: Select all

Book A (associated to Topic A with a mini-TOC proxy)
   Topic B
   Topic C
   Book B (associated to Topic D)
      Topic E
      Topic F
Book C (associated to Topic G)

The mini-TOC in Topic A will resolve to a two-level deep list (assuming you don't force it to be only one-level deep), similar to the following. Notice how Topic G isn't included, because it's at the same level in the TOC as Topic A, but Book B (Topic D) and its topics are included because they're "children" of Topic A.

Code: Select all

Topic B
Topic C
Topic D
    Topic E
    Topic F

[todd.richardson]

Thanks Lisa. As far as I understand it, I've set this up correctly. Yet Mini-TOC entries are not being displayed in the PDF output.



The image above shows the (partial) structure of our outline TOC. The entries Overview and Technical Requirements (enclosed in red boxes) are linked to topics containing a H1 heading and a Mini-TOC Proxy, as shown below (Technical Requirements, in this example):



In the output, only the Mini-TOC border appears (under the heading, as indicated). The entries are not displayed:



Any idea why the Mini-TOC entries are not appearing? Reminder: we need the H1 (TOC Level-1) headings (Overview and Technical Requirements, for example) in the Mini-TOC topics to appear in the main TOC of our book (which is what inspired my initial question above). Thanks again.

[LTinker68]

Two things come to mind off the top of my head. First, the children topics use a class of h1 that has mc-heading-level set to 0, which prevents those titles from appearing in the TOC, but also affects a few other effects (e.g., cross-linking, heading variables). It's possible that it also effects the mini-TOC if the headings have mc-heading-level set to 0, although I've never tested it myself. The easiest way to see if that is what's causing the problem is to changing that h1 class to the main h1 tag, which presumably doesn't have mc-heading-level set to 0.

The other possible cause is the styles for the mini-TOC itself. Perhaps you have something set to hidden or have the font color set to white. Check the p.MiniTOC1, p.MiniTOC2, etc. styles, as well as MadCap|miniTocProxy. Also, the mini-TOC is inside a div, so if your base div tag has something like that set, then it'll cascade down to the mini-TOC. If you generate WebHelp output and look at the topic's source code using the browser's built-in feature, then you'll see exactly what tags and classes are used to build the mini-TOC. And as with a lot of the Flare-specific effects, not all of the classes are exposed in the topic stylesheet, so you might have to manually create a class in the main topic stylesheet so you can explicitly set its properties, especially if a style you set on the base tag is cascading down to the Flare effect.

[todd.richardson]

I checked the stylesheet for any settings that might prohibit the Mini-TOC styles from appearing but didn't find anything. I did, however, notice that headings in child topics (under each book, and under each topic that contains a Mini-TOC proxy) have a mc-heading-level of 2:



Would this heading level need to be set to 1 for the headings to appear in the Mini-TOC? Note that the TOC Depth for the proxy is set to 2 - shouldn't that still grab all mc-heading-level 2 headings?

Thanks again for your help.

[LTinker68]

I think the mini-TOC depth is based on how deep the topics are in the TOC, not the headings of those topics. You could try setting the mini-TOC depth to 3 to see if that makes a difference.

Does the mini-TOC appear when you generate the WebHelp output?

[todd.richardson]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Increasing the TOC Depth didn't change the result in PDF output (the Mini-TOC entries still do not appear). When I output the project to WebHelp, however, the Mini-TOCs do appear. I'm lost as to why they would appear in one format but not another (no condition tags are applied that would influence that).

[LTinker68]

I'd open the stylesheet in the Internal Text Editor and scroll down to the @media print section. If it works for online but not print, then it means you changed the style for something in the print medium but didn't change it in the default medium. Sometimes it's easier to look at the styles in code view instead of through the Stylesheet Editor, so see if you specified something in the print medium that's causing the problem.

[todd.richardson]

I looked closely at our style sheet but didn't see any differences that would affect the Mini-TOC. I'll play around some more and will probably contact MadCap support with this. Thanks for your continued help. It is greatly appreciated.

[LTinker68]

Maybe try deleting all mini-TOC styles in both mediums (via the Internal Text Editor) and see if that gets you back to a good starting point. If all else fails, try creating a project from scratch, throw in some sample topics, and see if you can get a mini-TOC to appear in PDF output. That'll narrow down whether it's Flare or something in the specific project.