Generating TOC in RoboHelp using the Heading styles

[SwatyMurthy]

Hi,

One of my artefacts involves importing a Word document to RoboHelp and generating a Microsoft HTML output. The Word document is a fairly big one with 1000 plus pages.

I was wondering if there is an option to auto generate a TOC in RoboHelp 2019 that would take Heading 1, 2 and 3 into consideration.

Currently i am adding Bookmarks to each level Heading(1,2,3) and dragging it to the TOC which is very time consuming and frustrating.

Thank you.

[Amebr]

Which version of Robohelp? If RH2019, is it Classic or New UI. Please include this information every time you post, as many answers differ depending on the version.

[SwatyMurthy]

Apologies. It is RH 2019 Classic.

[Amebr]

No worries, it's easy to forget. 🙂

It's been a long time since I generated a toc from a Word import, but I feel like it was possible. I'll see if I can find a Word document to poke around the settings.

One other question, is this a once off import, or something that that you have to repeat on a semi-regular basis?

[SwatyMurthy]

It definitely will be a repeating affair. Appreciate any kind of help.

[Peter Grainge]

It's getting late where Amber is so let's see if this helps.

Right click in the TOC pod and select Auto Create. Note the text in the dialog and as you will see it is limited to topics. TOC entries to heading levels has always required creating bookmarks and doing what you are doing.

I'm not aware of anyone having posted that requirement, much less a solution. Sorry it's not the answer you want.

[Peter Grainge]

Amber and I have been chatting behind the scenes and she has found the OLH for an old version of RoboHelp suggests it might work for an import.

It seems to be at odds with the dialog I posted so I would create a new project and try it there. In the Word document make sure the TOC there is set to go down to the heading level you want.

Worth a try. Please let us know whether or not it works.

[SwatyMurthy]

Thank you Peter. I did try spilitting each Heading level into topics, worked well but it would take forever especially if i had to target Heading Level 3 too. 

[SwatyMurthy]

And it worked. Generated the TOC in Word with the Heading Level that was needed and while importing the document in RH2019, in the Content Setting window, checked the option Convert Table of Contents, Add to existing TOC. It was as simple as that, no idea why i missed it previously. Thank you Amebr/Peter.

[Peter Grainge]

It's Amber who found it. Nice one.

[Amebr]

Do note, that when you import again using those same settings, the table of contents will be added again, so you'll need to clean up the toc.

However, given you'll be re-importing the document down the track, you should have a look at linking the word document instead.  This means when the word document is updated, you just select Update in Robohelp and the related topics and toc are refreshed from the Word document. Have a look at the help for more information about linking word documents.