About Conditions

A condition is a single-sourcing feature that you can apply to files or to different areas of your content, so that some information displays in some outputs but not in others, or it displays only when viewed on a certain device or screen size.

With Doc-To-Help, you can condition the following:

You can use three types of conditions: platforms, targets, and attributes.

Platforms are default output types, and targets will vary by project, but attributes are created by you to meet your specific needs.

You can base conditions on an entire platform, or output type. This includes the following:

  • Eclipse Help Conditioned text, topic, or document will be included in all Eclipse targets.
  • EPUB Conditioned text, topic, or document will be included in all EPUB targets.
  • HTML (Any) Conditioned text, topic, or document will be included in all HTML targets (includes JavaHelp).
  • HTML Help 1.x Conditioned text, topic, or document will be included in compiled HTML Help targets.
  • JavaHelp Conditioned text, topic, or document will be included in all JavaHelp targets.
  • Microsoft Help 2.0 Conditioned text, topic, or document will be included in MS Help 2.0 targets.
  • Microsoft Help Viewer Conditioned text, topic, or document will be included in Microsoft Help Viewer targets.
  • NetHelp Conditioned text, topic, or document will be included in NetHelp (browser-based uncompiled HTML Help) targets.
  • Online Help Conditioned text, topic, or document will be included in all online targets (i.e., all targets except Printed Manual).
  • Printed Manual Conditioned text, topic, or document will be included in Printed Manual targets (Word and PDF).

You can base conditions on a particular topic. This includes the following new project defaults. You can add additional targets and delete those you don’t need.

  • <Your Project Name> Eclipse Help Conditioned text, topic, or document will be included in this Eclipse Help target.
  • <Your Project Name> EPUB Conditioned text, topic, or document will be included in this EPUB target.
  • <Your Project Name> HTML Help 1.x Conditioned text, topic, or document will be included in this compiled HTML Help target.
  • <Your Project Name> JavaHelp Conditioned text, topic, or document will be included in this JavaHelp target.
  • <Your Project Name> Microsoft Help 2.0 Conditioned text, topic, or document will be included in this MS Help 2.0 target.
  • <Your Project Name> Microsoft Help Viewer Conditioned text, topic, or document will be included in this Microsoft Help Viewer target.
  • <Your Project Name> NetHelp Conditioned text, topic, or document will be included in this NetHelp (browser-based uncompiled HTML Help) target.
  • <Your Project Name> Manual Conditioned text, topic, or document will be included in this Printed Manual target (Word and PDF).

Any custom targets you create will also be included.See Creating and Deleting Targets.

Example  

If you’d like specific images to appear only in your printed output, you can mark those graphics with the Platform condition named "Printed Manual."

Let's say you’d like links to related topics to be included only in your NetHelp output (and excluded from your Manual targets). In that case, mark that text with the target condition named "NetHelp."

Reminder notes to you and your team can be included in your project for reference, but can be marked with the "Internal" attribute so that they are not included with the targets delivered to customers.

Suppose you’d like to output two different manuals: one for "Pharmacists" and one for "Nurses." The nurses do not need certain administrative information. Therefore, create an attribute condition for each audience. Mark the administrative information with the "Pharmacist" attribute.

If you have applied platform or target conditions to your text, topics, and/or documents, you don’t need to do anything else but build your target(s). The appropriate information will automatically be included in or excluded from your output.

If you have created and applied custom attributes in your project, you need to choose the attributes for each target in the Help Targets dialog. See Creating and Using Attributes.