In RoboHelp 2020, is it possible to convert word's TOC structure without creating many topics?

Question

I'd like to have a single topic that is a result of importing a word document that has a TOC (heading 1 through 4) structure. I tried importing the document through the import feature, but I can only replicate the Word's TOC by splitting it into topics and then using the "Map Word styles to TOC Hierarchy" feature. Yes, that creates the exact Word's TOC, but it also generates many topic files. I don't want that, because the problem with that is that my Word document has heading 2 directly after heading 1, and heading 3 directly after heading 2 with no text in between. And that's in many places. So when an end-user clicks on one of the TOCs he might only see a heading text, which will confuse him. In that case he should see recursively all the way to the first non empty text style, yet I reckon that is not possible, so I can rather have a single word document displayed as a whole and navigate it through the TOC's #id maybe? I tried experimenting with MadCap Flare and it, in fact, has this feature. I'm thinking of purchasing either one. I like robo's price range better, but the aforementioned problem really complicates it for me.

I know some older version had a "Convert Table of Contents" feature. I wonder if that would've been what I'm looking for. Slyly, I tried selecting all the heading styles in the general tab, then selecting the "Map Word Styles to TOC Hierarchy" and binding all the selected styles, then deselecting the styles again in the general tab, but that seems to create many topics once again.. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Peter Grainge · Accepted Answer

I have looked in a bit more detail and the TOC created automatically can only be based on the topics created.

If you import as a single document you will only get the first heading in that document.
If you split on H1, you will get topics for each H1. The TOC will show only those headings plus any bookmarks.

You have said "So when an end-user clicks on one of the TOCs he might only see a heading text, which will confuse him". The TOC created does not have anything for the H2, H3 headings. They are not created automatically unless you break on those as well but that would not be desirable for you.

You can create bookmarks in the topics for the lower level headings and they can be added to the TOC at a lower level. So the TOC would show

My Topic 1 (based on the import)

...My Heading 2 (being a bookmark).

That is a manual task.

Go to RH2020 Cross References and Hyperlinks (grainge.org) on my site and you will see just the H1 heading for that topic is in the TOC. However, there is a mini toc on the right showing all the headings. There all the headings appear in the same font with no hierarchy. It is possible though to set a different font for each level effectively creating a hierarchy. Bold for H1, Normal for H2, Italic for H3 and so on. That also avoids an over long TOC.

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My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

Peter Grainge · Answer

It sounds like you need to import the document with the Start New Topic from Style to create topics based on Heading 1 only. That way you will get separate topics for each heading 1 in the document.

If you don't select Map Word Styles to TOC Hierarchy the TOC will be based on where you split the document.

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My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

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