About Source Documents

Following is a list of elements and objects that you can add to your source documents. We're not listing the many elements and objects that are built in to Word (e.g., images, lists, tables). For information about adding those kinds of features, see the Help provided with Word. Instead, we are focusing on the elements and objects that are specific to Doc-To-Help.

• Documents You can add new or existing Word documents to your project. See Adding, Renaming, and Removing Documents.
• ActiveX Controls These controls can be used to provide features in compiled HTML Help systems (CHM files). See Inserting an HTML Help ActiveX Control.
• 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. It is a key feature when it comes to single-sourcing in Doc-To-Help. See About Conditions.
• Glossaries A glossary is a list of specialized words with their definitions, accessed in online output or placed at the end of a PDF. When you create a new Doc-To-Help project, a glossary document is added automatically. However, you can delete this file or flag a different document as your glossary. Whenever you like, you can add glossary terms to the file. See Adding Terms to the Glossary.
• Image Maps You can insert images into your source documents, using the standard options available in Word. (We recommend using the "Insert and Link" option, and placing images in your Media folder.) For online outputs, you can create hotspots from an image that link to topics, keywords, or groups. See About Images and Creating Image Maps.
• Indexes Index entries are also called "keywords" (or K-links). They will display in your output in an index. See About Indexes.
• Margin Notes Margin notes are used to place text or images in the left margin of a manual, next to the main body of the text. Margin notes do not appear in online outputs unless you explicitly link them to the text, where they will appear as popups. See Creating Margin Notes.
• Multimedia In the Doc-To-Help ribbon in Word, there is an option named "Multimedia" that lets you insert video files and embed online videos. See About Multimedia .
• Navigation Links A navigation link is a feature that points to additional information from a specific area in a topic or document. This can include basic links, cross-references, inline text effects (expanded, drop-down, popup), expanding/collapsing sections, groups, and related topics. See About Navigation Links.
• Tables You can quickly insert a table into a Word document using the Doc-To-Help Special Formatting toolbar or ribbon. The table will be pre-formatted with the correct Doc-To-Help styles, and you can specify borders, indentation, and shading of the heading row. See Inserting a Standard Doc-To-Help Table.
• Tables of Contents Doc-To-Help automatically creates a table of contents (TOC) for you based on the structure of your documents. But you can create a custom TOC (you can even have different TOCs for different targets) if you wish. See Creating a Table of Contents.
• Variables Variables allow you to write content once, and manage it in one place for reuse across your project. When adding a new text variable (not a rich content variable), you can now select one of three types: Text, Version, or Date/Time. See About Variables.

In addition to adding certain elements and objects, you can perform the following tasks when it comes to Word source documents:

• Convert DOC Files to DOCX You can upgrade older Word documents (DOC files) in your project to the newer DOCX format. The DOC format is from Word 2003 and older versions of Word. The DOCX format—an open standard format based on XML—was introduced in Microsoft Office 2007.. See Converting DOC Files to DOCX.
• Convert to HTML5 You can convert a Word document that is already part of your project to HTML5. The file extension of the converted document will be .xml. The primary reason for converting Word documents to HTML5 is to then import your Doc-To-Help project to MadCap Flare. See Converting Documents to HTML5.
• Set Document Properties The Document Properties dialog is used to view or change the properties of a document. See Setting Document Properties.
• Find Projects Containing a Source Document Source documents sometimes belong to multiple Doc-To-Help projects. When you open a source document in Word, you can switch between these projects so you can easily make changes to each project. See Finding Projects Containing a Source Document.

Note Doc-To-Help styles reside in individual Doc-To-Help templates (such as D2H_NORM.dotx), so you should create your files using a predefined Doc-To-Help template and edit it to your specifications. See About Templates and Styles.

Note Doc-To-Help supports DOC, DOCX, DOCM, and RTF files.