TOC and topic Heading styles

[Midacol]

I would love for someone to explain why topic heading styles are tied to how the TOC is laid out when outputting to PDF and choosing to use bookmarks for the TOC. The following always occur:

• If you uncheck the option to Maintain HTML Heading Levels (Outputs (SSL) > Printed Documentation Print Document Content - Printed Documentation), then the PDF TOC bookmarks mimic the Book/Page structure present in the default TOC file (.hhc); however - any topic that holds a position in the folder structure higher than level 1 (so if it's within a sub-folder of one of the main folders), then all heading styles in that topic get bumped the proportionate number of heading levels. For example, if Topic X lies in Folder 3 - a sub folder of Folder 2, which is a sub folder of Folder 1, then the heading styles in Topic X are output three levels down (Heading 1 becomes Heading 3, 2 becomes 4, and 3 becomes 5).

Conversely:

• If you check the option to Maintain HTML Heading Levels, topic heading styles remain unchanged; however - the TOC bookmarks are now listed in one LONG list, instead of representing the Book/Page structure present in the default TOC file (.hhc).

Is there some reason why bookmarks can't pull from the .hhc structure AND heading styles maintain their properties in all topics, regardless of their position in the folder structure? Or, am I missing a simple option to correct this?

[Midacol]

I still need help. I need the manner in which table of contents topics are nested in the book/page structure in RoboHelp to be the same when outputting to Word or PDF (using the Printed Documentation output). For some reason, it completely strips the nesting order out and places them all at the same level. I understand that I can uncheck "Maintain HTML Heading Levels" and it will work, but that strips the Heading styles out of the headers in the actual help topics. Why can't I take what's in RoboHelp and SIMPLY duplicate it when outputting to Word or PDF?

[Willam_van_Weelden]

You described how the 'heading' option works when creating printed documentation.

The Word TOC is created based on the styles used in the document. So a heading 1 is a chapter in the output. Basically, in Word the relation between headings and the TOC is 1:1. That's the reason there isn't another option, other than creating your TOC manually in Word by typing all heading titles manually.

[Peter Grainge]

The method I use is to create a copy of my online TOC and use the copy in Printed Documentation. In that copy I change the indentation levels of the TOC to get the result I want.

It does mean you have two TOCs to maintain but it's a small overhead and solved the problem for me.

When you make changes to the Print TOC, don't forget to refresh it in the Printed Documentation Layout. Use the left and right chevrons to remove the outdated layout and the right to use the new layout.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge