FILENAME markers for mid-topic IDs

John Pitt john at pitt.net.au
Fri Dec 5 04:46:29 PST 2008


Olga and Richard,

eP changes the name of the topic's default html file to use the text of 
the Filename marker. This is fine if there is only one in a topic, but 
as soon it encounters another in the same topic, it changes the html 
filename again. This effectively deletes the location of Filename number 1.

If you always have only one marker in a topic, continue to use Filename. 
But if you have two or more you need to use TopicAlias markers instead.

TopicAlias markers are designed for situations where there are two or 
more markers in a topic. They do not change the filename, but instead 
append text of the TopicAlias marker PLUS the MIF paragraph number to 
the default eP filename. Because it has the MIF paragraph ID attached, 
the topic should appear already scrolled to display the location when 
called by the app.

You will need to change your Filename type markers to TopicAlias type, 
which you can do with a search and destroy of the .MIF. Sounds a lot of 
work, but in reality quickly done with a decent text editor. You will 
also need to create a new marker type called TopicAlias before doing 
this as it is not a standard Frame marker.

Your application should call the unique ID "General" (if that is the 
text in the TopicAlias marker inserted in Frame).

Unfortunately I don't have any examples here to make the above a bit 
simpler, but HTH anyway.

jjj


Olga Klenner wrote:

 > > We use filename markers in FM  to generate context-sensitive help with
 > > WWP.
 > > How can I create a filename marker for a mid-topic ID?
 > >
 > > e.g.
 > > Help page is  "About.html" => FILENAME marker input is "About". This
is
 > > easy.
 > > But: Help page is "Options.html#General" => what do I have to enter
into
 > > the FILENAME marker? If I type "Options#General" into the FILENAME
marker
 > > a page is created called "Options#General.html which in not what is
 > > needed.

I recently needed to do something like that in ePublisher Pro 9.2. The
solution there was to insert TopicAlias markers, not Filename markers,
in FM.

In ePP, the TopicAlias marker type is set to a value of "Topic alias."
Since I started from an existing FM/ePP project, I'm not sure if someone
had to set this up manually or it's there by default.

I still have a minor annoyance, though (and maybe some WebWorks guru can
straighten me out). Although ePP obediently inserts an anchor tag in the
HTML where the TopicAlias marker was, the anchor's name attribute is a
numeric value instead of my marker text.

In the application's onlinehelp.props file, which provides the
context-sensitive help mapping, I'd much rather specify the topic as,
say, "Options.html#General" instead of "Options.html#123456." Is there a
simple way to tell ePP to use the marker text for the anchor name?

Richard


Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------






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john at pitt.net.au
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