Setting Project Properties

The Project Settings dialog is used to set the universal properties for the entire project, regardless of target.

  1. Select the Project ribbon.
  2. Click the Project Settings button. The Project Settings dialog opens.

  3. Set any of the following:

    • Location The location where this project is stored (read-only).
    • Title The name of the Doc-To-Help project without the .d2h extension. This name is used as the default value for several  target and window properties. For the HTML Help window, Help 2.0, JavaHelp, and NetHelp, it is the default caption. For Manual, it is the default title. For the MSHelp Viewer, it is the default product vendor, product name, and product book.
    • Default template The document template attached to new source Word documents when they are added to the project.
    • Document folder(s) The name of the folder where all Word source documents will reside. The default folder name is Documents. It is strongly recommended that all source documents be stored inside this folder, because it helps to keep the project files organized and will ensure that links to files of any kind are preserved.
    • Keep outline numbers When selected, outline numbers are included as part of topic titles and are present in targets. This setting only affects the RTF files generated from source documents; it does not affect the source documents themselves.  Modifying this setting for an individual document will override the settings for that document only.
    • Keep page breaks When selected, retains the page break characters in the source documents during compilation of a Printed Manual target. Clear this check box to discard page break characters. Modifying this setting for an individual document will override the settings for that document only.
    • Adjust left indent Controls whether paragraph indentation is adjusted to account for wide margins when building online output. By default, this check box is selected to accommodate the standard Doc-To-Help templates. Clear this check box if you are using custom templates and want to preserve the indentation used in your source documents.
    • Plain text popups If selected, generates a plain text-only version of the file for context-sensitive Help topics. Modifying this setting for an individual document will override the settings for that document only.
    • URL mode The rule used to name the HTM/HTML files generated for each topic in browser-based outputs. The rule is used when the topic URL is generated automatically. If you change this rule, you can apply the new rule to all existing topics in your project. You can also modify the URL of a topic manually, which will override the default rule. You can view the URL of each topic in the Topic Properties dialog (URL field).

      • Full Title File name contains all letters and digits from the topic title, even non-ASCII national alphabet letters.

      • ASCII Only Non-ASCII characters are removed from the file name. File name complies with URL standard.

      • Internal Topic IDs File name is formed from the numeric topic ID.

    • Truncate file name length This property limits the length of the HTM/HTML file name generated for each topic in browser-based outputs to this number of characters. The default is 64. You can view the URL of each topic in the Topic Properties dialog (URL field).
    • ‘On Page’ text Specifies the default text used to complete cross-references in a printed manual target. For example "See Creating a Topic on page 5."
    • Is modular hub project If selected, the generated file can dynamically load the contents of other output files, if present. Only HTML Help, and NetHelp platforms can support modular hub projects. For HTML Help targets, to specify a component output file in a modular hub project, create a placeholder topic, then set the Module file and Contents file fields of that topic (in the Topic Properties dialog) to the component filenames. When testing your project, you will need to copy the component files into the output folder of each modular target. For NetHelp targets, to specify a component output file in a modular hub project, create a placeholder topic, then set the Module file field of that topic to the component filename.
    • Generate context IDs automatically Determines whether a unique Context ID (map number) is generated for each topic. For Context IDs to be generated, the Auto context ID check box must be selected for each relevant topic type or paragraph style in the Styles dialog.
    • ID offset The value specified is added to the automatically generated map numbers to prevent numbering conflicts in modular Help systems.
    • PlugIn folder(s) The folder plugin documents (e.g., Sandcastle XML documents) are stored in. The default folder name is XMLDocuments, but remains empty until at least one plugin document is created in the project. Plugin documents are added from the Project ribbon (PlugIns group).
    • Media folder(s) The name of the folder where graphic files (images, videos, audio, etc.) should reside. The default folder name is Media. It is recommended that all media be stored inside this folder because it helps to keep the project files organized.
    • Language for translation This property is set automatically when you choose the default language for your project in the New Project Wizard.
    • Update customized table of contents in build If selected, any customized tables of contents (TOCs) in your project will be updated with all new topics added to your project since the TOC was created. Target-specific TOCs will not be updated.
  4. Click OK.