Topics Window Panel (Doc-To-Help)

To make your Word source document more useful for online output, it is broken up into smaller elements called "topics," which are based on the heading styles in the document. After you create a Doc-To-Help project and build some output from it, Doc-To-Help automatically creates multiple topics as a result, structuring the content for online documentation. Heading 1 styles in your Word document automatically become parent topics, and all of the Heading 2 styles under a Heading 1 style become subtopics. Just keep in mind that these topics are not created until you build at least one target in your project.

The Topics window pane displays all of the topics that were created as a result of the most recent build. There are several tasks you can perform in this window.

From this window, you can select topics that can be dragged and dropped into the Contents, Index and Groups, or Related Topics panes. You can also drag topics into source documents to create links. See Drag-and-Drop Linking.

Note You can also drag and drop topics from the Contents panel in the Doc-To-Help Project panel to create links in your source documents.

You can right-click in the Topics panel and select several options, including the following:

  • Open Topic Open the source document and highlight the heading where the topic starts.
  • Show Filter Row Show/hide the filter row.
  • Clear Filter Clear the filter.
  • Show Deleted Topics Show/hide deleted topics.
  • Purge Deleted Topics Purge deleted topics.
  • Default Topic Specify a topic as the default for the project (the first displayed in the online output).
  • Remove Sort This will remove the option to sort the contents of a selected column alphabetically.
  • Reset Column Layout Return to the default column display.
  • Columns Specify the columns to display.
  • Copy Copy the selected row(s) in the Topics window.
  • Paste Paste the copied rows to the selected location in the Topics window.
  • Properties Open the Topic Properties dialog, which lets you choose various settings for the topic. This includes the ability to apply platform, target, or attribute conditions to topics. See About Conditions.

Columns may be rearranged by selecting the column header and dragging to the desired position. Click on a column header to sort by that column.

If a particular topic has been deleted as a result of the latest build (e.g., it was conditioned out of the target), it will be listed with a red X icon. Furthermore, in the Link dialog, you can create links to such a deleted topic without first rebuilding a target that is conditioned to include it.

Example  

Let's say you place a condition on a topic called "References" so that it is included only in a Manual target. When you build a NetHelp target, that topic is excluded from the output, and a red X is shown next to it in the Topics window.

Then let's say you are working in a source document and you begin to insert a link. In the Link dialog, you can see that the References topic has been removed as a result of the most recent build. But you are still able to select this topic when linking to it, in anticipation of building the Manual target in the near future (where that topic will be included).

A URL column is available in the Topics Panel. This column shows the URL used for each topic in the grid. You can change the URL for a particular topic if you want.

  1. Double-click in the cell showing the topic URL.

  2. Type the new URL, but keep .htm at the end.

Note You can also manually change the generated URL for a topic in the Topic Properties dialog. See Setting D2HML Topic Properties.