A

Anonymous

Question

Build Tags

Forum|Forum|17 years ago
December 8, 2008
16 replies
1788 views

I thought the build tags were a great idea, used them in both the TOC and topic level, and even some inside the content. After I first did this, along with experimenting with the Define (what to include vs what exclude), it was great. Now, I am recompiling those same files, and missing topics that are tagged to be included.

Those were mostly topics with dual tags, so I removed one (defeating the purpose of tags). That worked for some, but not all. I moved on to another layout, and now again topics that are tagged to go in are not showing up! And these do not have dual tags. I don't know what else to do, and folks are waiting on this project.

Is there a way to review you TOC before compiling (like with the print version)? Which works better - tagging the Topic or the TOC or both? Any other ideas? :)

Felicia

HTML

This topic has been closed for replies.

RoboColum_n_

Legend

Hi flucco. I answered your private message.

A

Anonymous

Thanks to both of you. LMarden, I see your point, and that may work. And yours, too, Rick, only it's not just two outputs. I have seven different audiences/outputs for this project. :) I had to mark the content for Traders because for some audiences that would be omitted. But seriously, I appreciate both of you helping me out. One day, I'll be an expert at this too. lol

A

Anonymous

Imarden, thank for your examples. That is very clear. It's when one sentence is assigned mulitple tags and the build expression omits one of those. Please see the example I just posted. (I'm still trying to come up with a solution for this.)

A

Anonymous

But, my point is that you don't have to shove all your build tags into a single sentence.

Copy and paste the sentence, whatever it is, so that there are two.

Edit the first one for one audience, and apply your build tag to the entire sentence.

Edit the Second one for the other audience, and apply your second build tag to the entire sentence.

A

Anonymous

ok, that did not work. lol Supervisor content appeared because I didn't tell it not to. *sigh* Rick, re your last suggestion... may I give you an example? (I'm not dividing sentences here as much as paragraphs, but perhaps I'm not tagging them correctly.) In the following bulleted list, I'll put my tags in parens.

Example...

Right-click an order to do any of the following: (no tag, pertains to all)

Enter Order (trader)
View the Order History (trader, supervisor)
See the Position Overview (trader, supervisor)
View the Position Details and History (trader, supervisor)
Activate/Inactive Orders (trader)
Cancel Order (trader)
Show Underlying (trader, supervisor)

Double-click an order to quickly bring up the Enter Order dialog. (trader)

Double-click an order to quickly bring up the Order History window. (supervisor)

*end*

So you see all 7 bullets apply to the trader, but only 4 of them pertain to the supervisor. Now I generate a file for TRADERS and RoboHelp gives me no choice but to exclude Supervisors. The 4 bullets pertaining to the supervisor are excluded regardless of the fact that they ALSO pertain to the trader. Is that more clear? Would you do this differently?

I really appreciate your time. :)

A

Anonymous

ok, that did not work. lol Supervisor content appeared because I didn't tell it not to. *sigh* Rick, re your last suggestion... may I give you an example? (I'm not dividing sentences here as much as paragraphs, but perhaps I'm not tagging them correctly.) In the following bulleted list, I'll put my tags in parens.

Example...

Right-click an order to do any of the following: (no tag, pertains to all)

Enter Order (trader)
View the Order History (trader, supervisor)
See the Position Overview (trader, supervisor)
View the Position Details and History (trader, supervisor)
Activate/Inactive Orders (trader)
Cancel Order (trader)
Show Underlying (trader, supervisor)

Double-click an order to quickly bring up the Enter Order dialog. (trader)

Double-click an order to quickly bring up the Order History window. (supervisor)

*end*

So you see all 7 bullets apply to the trader, but only 4 of them pertain to the supervisor. Now I generate a file for TRADERS and RoboHelp gives me no choice but to exclude Supervisors. The 4 bullets pertaining to the supervisor are excluded regardless of the fact that they ALSO pertain to the trader. Is that more clear? Would you do this differently?

I really appreciate your time. :)

A

Anonymous

Here's an example.

Sentence One: Rick likes a little water in his alcohol, unless it has been a tough day.

Sentence Two: Rick likes a little water in his booze, unless it has been a tough day.

Both sentences are visible to you, in the topic, but apply the trader tag to one version, and the supervisor tag to the other version - the entire sentences. You'll see the hash marks across your sentences, so it will be a cinch to review and edit as needed.

Make sense?

A

Anonymous

IDEA! :) what if I didn't specify NOT Supervisor, but instead, simply not include it in the build expression either way? I shall try it....

A

Anonymous

IDEA! :) what if I didn't specify NOT Supervisor, but instead, simply not include it in the build expression either way? I shall try it....

A

Anonymous

You're absolutely right. My experimenting proved that EXCLUDING provides better results. Except in cases of dual tags (and I have quite a few). Using your example,

I'll mark RUM as both 'alcohol' and 'booze' and WATER with 'innocent.'

Now I compile with the following expression: "Include alcohol and innocent and NOT booze." Because I said NOT booze, the word rum will not appear, though it should because I said to include 'alcohol.'

This is the problem I am running into because some of my content pertains to both a trader and a supervisor, but each are separate documents. So for trader document excluding supervisor, it leaves out the text that also pertains to the trader and should be included. See my frustration?

A

Anonymous

Hi flucco. You might be thinking a little too granularly (is that a word???).

There would be nothing wrong with having that sentence twice in the topic, worded slightly differently to address both audiences, and with one of the two different build tags covering an entire sentence. This may be easier than trying to break a single sentence into chunks that are to be addressed to one or both audiences.

Is that clear, or do you want an example?

A

Anonymous

Thanks, Rick.

I'll take your advice and stick to marking the topics only. The confusion started with the build dialog where you can check either or both the topics and TOC columns.

I'm going to experiment further with INCLUDING vs. EXCLUDING in order to get the content right. If you have any tips/tricks for that...

Thanks in advance. :)

Captiv8r

Legend

Hello again

Here is what I would advise. Create a small project that has perhaps ten topics in it. Then experiment away. Apply tags to topics and use inclusive as well as exclusive expressions until you get a good feel for how things work with either approach.

Then take the same content and flesh it out a bit. Maybe add some tables and images. Experiment with tagging content pieces until you get a good feel for how things work with content level tagging.

Once you feel you have mastered it, then return to your live project and it should become much easier to determine your best approach.

Cheers... Rick

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