Is Hide in output the same as elevator door close button

[The Atom Proj]

RH v 2022.3.93
I have an existing RH Project that has been migrated from numerous different versions of RH over the years and I'm now facing yet another migration nightmare around using Book vs Online TOC.
My desire is to have my RH Project produce a PDF that starts with a Cover page then has a Contact Us page then the TOC followed by the actual content. However I do not need or want the Contact Us page to appear in the TOC. For some reason no matter how hard or how many times I check the "Hide in output" checkbox for the Contact Us page it still appears in the TOC. Is that option more of an emotional support checkbox or something? I have even examined the xml of the TOC and saw processing-role="resource-only" for the specific page, but it still gets listed in the TOC. I even took a sample RH project (Two Cover Pages one) from a post by Peter Grainge, changed the TOC to Book, added the TOC to the Front Matter and it shows the CoverPage2 in the TOC. In the below example both CoverPage2 and First Topic are set to processing-role="resource-only" or "Hide in output" option from the UI.

Seems like this is a bug to me, but is there any workaround to this? It also messes up the Auto Number Headings I want to apply to the output file, but one problem at a time.

Thanks,
Adam

[The Atom Proj]

So far the only work-around I have found for this is to limit the number of Headings to 2 "Use Headings up to Level" and then set the Heading of the Contact Us page to h3 or greater. However I also have to modify the style for that Heading to match the intended Heading I would normally use. I guess using H5 or H6 would be 'safer', but it's still a kluge and not the best solution.

[Peter Grainge]

I am not sure I follow the elevator door analogy, buttons that don't work?

If I follow the issue correctly, you have a Book TOC something like this.

The output TOC then comes out like this.

At first I thought that the issue was because the hide option was not working in the Front Matter section. However, I then put the Contact Us page in the body of the output and it still showed. 

It appears the bug is that Hide In Output does not work in any printed output as it's the same in Word outputs. I will query this with an Adobe contact as I am wondering if it's a limitation of PDF and Word documents rather than a RoboHelp bug.

I will post back when I hear from Adobe.

________________________________________________________

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

[The Atom Proj]

In the United States we have the American Disability Act that has a provision in it that includes elevator doors. Within that provision there is a requirement for the doors to be open long enough for a disabled person to enter and as a result most elevator door close buttons do nothing.
So effectivy the elevator door close button is nothing more than a fidget widget for busy bodies to play with while waiting for the doors to close in an elevator. Most people assume that the button is disabled, but it in fact does work, just with limitations that are not obvious to the layman.
As you have pointed out the Hide in output has another use that is not obvious to me so I will keep pressing it and expecting a different outcome... hehehehe..

[Peter Grainge · Accepted solution]

I have heard back straightaway.

Hide in Output is for online outputs only and I have suggested the field label should be amended accordingly. It is indeed a limitation because of how PDF and Word documents are created so RoboHelp has no control over it.

Rather than your workaround with other heading styles, either apply the P tag with inline styling for the title or better still create p.dummyheading or suchlike.

________________________________________________________

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

[Amebr]

I think the toc picks up heading styles, rather than toc entries themselves, but I don't have access to RH2022 just now to test. So I think the workaround, rather than using one of the real heading styles, is to create a p class that is formatted to look like your h1. That way it won't be included in the toc and shouldn't mess up any heading numbering you have set up  So you'd create a p style with a class (say FrontMatter) and format your Contact Us "heading" as a regular paragraph with the FrontMatter class applied.

I feel like the Hide in Output behaviour is intended (or the appearance of the checkbox is an oversight), as my understanding is it's intended for baggage files, and print doesn't have "baggage". 🙂 My imagination fails to suggest scenarios where it would be useful for print, but they may exist and I just haven't come across them.

[Peter Grainge]

@Amebr Not just baggage files. I have seen projects where the TOC covers just main topics that have links to lower level topics. They would still get into a printed output by using the Include Reference Topics option.

________________________________________________________

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

[Julie30455249fy4u]

Just used this post to get rid of a similar problem that I'd agonized over for hours today!  The Table of Contents line inside of my TOC is finally gone! I already had the class... just had to change the h1 to a p. Thanks so much.