Autonumber Topics in the TOC

[Daedalus321]

How can I autonumber the TOC entries within a given book?

I'm new to RoboHelp, am running RoboHelp 2015.

I'm listing steps in a process.

Example:

Step 1:  Get out some bread

Step 2:  Open the peanut butter

Step 3:  Apply peanut butter to bread

I've figured out how to apply multi-level list to the headings on the topic pages. So on each topic page, I've successfully formatted autonumbered headings on the topic page.

But in the Table of Contents, I have only:

Get out some bread.

Open the peanut butter.

Apply peanut butter to bread.

How do I have the TOC entries themselves autonumbered?

Thanks much!

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

Unfortunately there simply isn't a clean and easy way to click a button and poof! The TOC entries are numbered.

You have choices.

1. You are able to freely right-click a TOC element and change its name to what you want.

2. If you change the Title of the topic in the Topic Properties to something like Step 1. Get out some bread, the TOC will then update to show exactly the Topic Title if you click and drag the topic to the TOC or if you use the auto-create tool.

Maybe one of these works for you?

Cheers... Rick

[prhmusic2]

One strategy would be to create a variable for each step and then to set the Topic Title to use the appropriate variable on the Topic Properties window.

Or you could structure the content differently and make the three "step" topics be an ordered list within a single topic:

|

Make a Sandwich <--Topic

1) Get out some bread <-- Step

2) Open the peanut butter <-- Step

3) Apply peanut butter to bread <-- Step

|

Just a suggestion...

Paul

[Captiv8r]

Paul, can you expound on how the variable thing would work to simplify matters?

That one is making me scratch my head in confusion.

Might just be my mental state at the moment. Low energy and mushy because of a cold I've been blessed with.

Thanks... Rick

[prhmusic2]

If you create a variable for each step:

And then setting the page property to the appropriate step:

you would get the desired result.

To be clear, personally, I do not endorse this method because it relies upon manually numbering the steps. The advantage of using the step as a variable may / may not be a good strategy, but it was my first reaction.

Paul Hanson

[Daedalus321]

Thanks for your input, you guys.

What I'm looking for, though, is AUTO-numbering the TOC entries, as they appear in the TOC, so that if the sequence of the steps are re-ordered, the numbering will automatically reorder itself to be correct. Or, if a new step is inserted between existing steps 5 and 6, for example, the new step would be automatically numbered 5, and the step formerly numbered 6 would now automatically be numbered 7.

Maybe I'm missing something (I'm new to this whole program), but it seems like the above still amounts to me manually numbering the step titles in the TOC, one way or another.

[prhmusic2]

You are spot-on that the "solution" I outlined is still manually numbering. I don't know of a way to do the numbering automatically.

And I get what you want. If you were working in a Word document, you could set up a field to automatically update the TOC in the situations you describe (re-ordering, inserting) but to the extent of my knowledge, there isn't that functionality in RoboHelp. The actual TOC you see is based upon a text file that is updated when you make a change to the TOC in the RoboHelp interface - it's called a .hhc file and that file type has been around for many years, back when Microsoft introduced the .CHM file type.

So that takes me round the merry-go-round back to having a procedure on a single topic, as I outlined initially.

Paul