external link to webhelp, view TOC

[InezV]

Hi,

is it possible to automatically view the toc pane when linking from an external html file? On our intranet, a lot of pages are not compiled with robohelp, they are Word--> html pages, but we do link from those pages to the robohelp webhelp.

By default, you only see the topic, and have the Display link on top of the page. But this display link is only visible if you really link to the top of that page.

I would like to activate the navigation pane by default whenever an external link refers to the RH webhelp.

Inez

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Inez.

I'm not sure you can. If you point to the topic, that is all you see. However if you point at the RH project's default file you will display the TOC with the default topic displayed. I can't see how you can display the TOC if you want to display a specific topic.

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Read the RoboColum(n).

[InezV]

Thank you Colum,

I was afraid of that answer, but pointing to the default start page is not an option here. Well, they will have to display the navigation pane manually then.

Regards,

Inez

[Peter Grainge]

The method of calling webhelp using a URL so that it opens with the navigation pane but a topic other than the default is described on my site. See Calling WebHelp using URLs.

If you can edit the links in Word so that it is structured in the way I describe, then it might work. I am not sure if Word will accept that link so you will have to try it out.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[InezV]

Hi Peter,

thank you for the info. I've tried to edit the Word links, according to the suggested method:

X:/startpage.htm#path/targetpage.htm

- now, we always link from the html page to the http://intranet/path of the target page, not the network drive X:/ , but I presume that is not a problem?

- I opened the html page in Word, and edited the hyperlink. However the field in which you put the hyperlink is too short to combine both absolute paths, so I started with http://address/startpage.htm, followed by #, followed by ../../targetpage.htm but word only reaches the start page. Is a combination of absolute/relative paths an option?

- the target page I need, is a targetpage.htm#bookmark - is that conflicting, to have two times the # sign?

Rgds, Inez

[Peter Grainge · Accepted solution]

http://intranet/path/startpage.htm#path/target.htm

I am not following you but the above should work.

With things like this it is worth creating a small test project and getting IT to allocate a folder for you on the server. Then you can test without affecting your project or online users.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips