Create a variety of different links between content in Web Help.
| "Container" topic in Author-it with hyperlink |
| "Target" topic in Author-it |
Topics containing the link are referred to as the container topic. Topics you are linking to are called target topics.
Methods using topic to topic hyperlinks in Author-it
The first two options open the target topic at the beginning of the topic only.
- Create a link from one Web Help page to another Web Help page:
| This method uses a hyperlink in one Web Help page to open another Web Help page. One Web Help page is created from the container topic, the other Web Help page is created from the target topic. |
- Create a topic-to-topic hyperlink. Open the container topic and add the hyperlink to the target topic.
- Create a link from a Web Help page to the top of a sub topic using concatenated topics:
| This method creates a single Web Help page during publishing. The Web Help page is created from the container topic with the target topic content appended below the container topic's content. The link is from the main page to the beginning point of the appended content. |
In Author-it create the container topic and the target topic; add a topic-to-topic hyperlink in the container topic that links to the target topic.
Important steps before publishing:
- The target topic must be placed directly after the container topic in the book's table of contents pane. This ensures the target topic is published in the correct Web Help page.
- The target topic's properties must be updated so its content is appended in the container topic's Web Help page. To do this, open the properties for the target topic and select the Web tab, remove the check mark against "Start new page".
The other options use an anchor in order to link to a specific location in the target topic.
- Create a link from an Author-it topic to a tagged content location (anchor) in another Author-it topic:
This method opens the second topic at a specific point, rather than opening the second topic at the beginning of the topic.
Create a small HTML file outside of Author-it with a named anchor - the file just contains <a name=anchorname>.
In Author-it use a File object to add the file to the target topic using a Linked HTML Code File template. In the File object, on the Web tab, the code appears in the image preview window.
In the container topic create a link using a URL link that references the target topic and the anchor: page.htm#anchorname.
The page name of the target topic is either the object code or a user defined file name.
To define a file name:
- Open the topic properties for the target topic and select the Web tab.
- Type the name in the Filename field. .htm is automatically appended and does not have to be added to the filename.
- Create an external link from an internal web page to a tagged content location (anchor) in a help topic:
- Follow the instructions for option 3 for adding the anchor to the target topic.
- When constructing the href link in your web page, the link must also contain index.htm. Otherwise only the home page of the web help site displays. For example, the link in the web page uses the format: index.htm#filename#anchorname and looks something like this <a href="index.htm#page.htm#anchorname">link text</a>.
- Create an external link from an external webpage to a tagged content location (anchor) in a help topic:
- Follow the instructions for option 3 for adding the anchor to the target topic.
- When constructing the href in your external web page, the link must also contain references to the web server and web help address. Otherwise the server can't be found. For example, the link in the web page uses the format: http://webservername/web help output location/index.htm#filename#anchorname.