Merged help projects and context sensitiviy

Question

I am using RoboHelp x5 and have created a master project and
I have 3 .chm files merging into the master project. I've gotten
TOC, Indexing, and Searchable help to work. But what about context
sensitivity?\
Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi, again,
> 1. In my case, I don’t have bookmarks as part of
the context sensitivity
> path. I want an entire html page to display. So, I
don’t have to use the
> Dummy_Usage line, correct?
No, the Dummy_Unused entries were required to work around a
limitation in the Helpware solution. Now that I test this again,
though, the problems I encountered yesterday for which adding the
Dummy_Unused entries was the solution don't seem to be recurring.
So, probably best to forget about this for the time being.
> 2. What should the master project’s .h file
contain?
It should contain all the context help mappings for
all the help files — master and slaves. So, to the
mappings for the master help files you would append the entries
from the .h files for the slaves, like this:
// Master help mappings
#define IDH_MASTER_TEST1 1
#define IDH_MASTER_TEST2 2
#define IDH_MASTER_TEST3 3
// Slave #1 mappings
#define IDH_SLAVE1_INDEX 4
#define IDH_SLAVE1_ANOTHER 5
#define IDH_SLAVE2_INDEX 6
Likewise, the alias (.ali) file for the master project should
contain the aliases for all the help files. But in this case you
associate the topic IDs for the slave topics with the redirector
file, to which you append the appropriate IDs again, like this:
; Master help aliases
IDH_MASTER_TEST1=master1.htm
IDH_MASTER_TEST2=master2.htm
IDH_MASTER_TEST3=master3.htm
; Slave #1 aliases
IDH_SLAVE1_INDEX=redirect.xhtm#IDH_SLAVE1_INDEX
IDH_SLAVE1_ANOTHER=redirect.xhtm#IDH_SLAVE1_ANOTHER
IDH_SLAVE2_INDEX=redirect.xhtm#IDH_SLAVE2_INDEX
Then, in the redirector file, you set up a series of mappings
between these topic IDs and the corresponding topics in the slaves,
like this:
if (Code == "IDH_SLAVE1_INDEX")
URL="its:Slave.chm::/slave1.htm";
else if (Code == "IDH_SLAVE1_ANOTHER")
URL="its:Slave.chm::/slave2.htm";
else if (Code == "IDH_SLAVE2_INDEX")
URL="its:Slave.chm::/slave3.htm";
This probably sounds more complicated than it is in practice.
Once you've got to grips with how the method works, it's actually
quite straightforward.
> 3. I notice that RoboHelp wipes out or adds to the edits
I make (via
> EditPlus or Notepad) to the .hhp file – why is
that? I noticed this days
> ago so I always have a backup to replenish my edits in
the real .hhp file.
I'll have to pass on that, as I'm not currently a RoboHelp
user. Perhaps someone else following this thread can comment.
> 4. Will context sensitivity be easier with RoboHelp 7?
As far as this issue is concerned, I doubt it, because we're
using an under-the-hood technique to work around limitations in the
HTML Help format. Users of Flare, Doc-To-Help, and all other help
authoring tools have to jump through the same hoops to get context
sensitivity to work seamlessly in merged help projects.
Just to repeat what I said yesterday, I have a sample help
collection illustrating this technique if you'd like me to send it
to you off-list. Maybe that will make things a little clearer.
Pete