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Meka1991
Participant
January 8, 2013
Question

RoboHelp HTML 9 Webhelp Layouts include all (unnecessary) project files

  • January 8, 2013
  • 1 reply
  • 1370 views

I am currently using RoboHelp HTML 9 on Windows 7 Pro. I have administrative rights on the computer.

My current project contains over 30 different webhelp layouts with 30 different TOCs that are all based on the different functions in a web-based application for a client. The project also includes over 30 different print layouts based on the same TOCs. I use build conditions to specify what I want to appear in the webhelp and print layouts. My project is organized into basically three main folders that represent Tasks, References and Concepts (as close to DITA as I can get this client). Each of these main folders has a subfolder named after a function and it contains the topics and screen captures that relate to that specific function task, function reference or function concept.

I created each webhelp layout in the SSL pod based on the specific TOC that was created for the function. In the WebHelp settings, I specified the TOC in the Content section along with enabling the "exclude unreferenced topics from output" and "exclude unreferenced baggage files from the output" options. In the Navigation section, I selected the appropriate skin that I customized along with enabling Contents and Search options with adding the About box.

With these settings my problem is that ever single webhelp layout includes all of the files in the three main folders, even when they are not referenced in the TOC. This has caused my outputs to explode in size because of the unnecessary folders filled with files (topics and graphics). How can I compile the webhelp layouts so they only output the files referenced in the TOCs and not every single file in the the three main project folders?

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated because my client is not local and I have to send these files to them over the internet.

Thanks in Advance!

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1 reply

A
Community Expert
AmebrCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 8, 2013

I haven't used RH9, but in previous versions the TOC does not determine what is included in the output, only what displays in the TOC itself.

From the help, it looks like the "Exclude unreferenced topics from output" setting only affects search results, rather than output content:

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/RoboHelp/9.0/RoboHTML/WSC9A96255-05D4-426c-9CB7-1F0F2CB670E7.html

"Excluding unreferenced topics from search - The Exclude Unreferenced Topics From Output option in layout properties ensures that search results are displayed only from topics that are referenced in the following project components:

  • TOC
  • Index
  • Browse sequences
  • Default topic
  • CSH map IDs
  • See Also keywords
  • Related Topics keywords
  • Hyperlinks"

The conditional tags combined with the SSL build expression determine what is generated as part of each target. So I believe you need to use conditional tags on all your topics, and apply the appropriate build expressions for each target to prevent unwanted content appearing in the output folders.

HTH,

Amber

Peter Grainge
Community Expert
Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 8, 2013

"Exclude unreferenced topics from output" starts by excluding topics that are not in the TOC etc. However if a topic in the TOC has a link to a topic that is not in the TOC, the linked topic will also be included to avoid a broken link. It also daisy chains so that if the second topic has further links, that too gets included.

The idea behind this option was that people wanted TOC only outputs but Adobe chose to implement it in this way. I can see why but I take the view that if that results in broken links, that is the author's responsibility. If you agree, then please follow this link and ask for true TOC based authoring.

http://www.Adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform&product=38

Meantime you will, as Amebr points out, need to create build tags and expressions. There is a page on my site that covers that.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

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M
Meka1991Author
Participant
January 9, 2013

This explains it. It took over 19 hours for my project to FTP because of the excess files.

Thanks Peter and Amber for your feedback. I will definitely create the feature request.

Best Regards

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