Dragging primary & variant objects

Object Variants

Create some relationships between objects by dragging primary or variant objects. The resulting relationship points back to the primary object, whether you dragged the primary or the variant.

The following behaviors occur when you drag and drop a variant object:

Creating a hyperlink

You can drag and drop a primary or variant topic into topic text to create a hyperlink, or into the Hypertext Links tab on the Hyperlink object.

Creating anchor text: When drag and drop a topic into a topic to create a link, if you have not selected "anchor text" for the link, then the heading from the topic you drop is used to create the anchor text.

Note: Anchor text does not change when you filter and publish the book.

Dragging and Dropping Variants

1

Text is selected before dragging and dropping a topic to create the hyperlink. The selected text is used for the anchor text.

2

Text is not selected before dragging and dropping a topic. The heading from the topic you drag and drop will be used as the anchor text.

Important: If the target topic for the hyperlink is a variant, the published output will link to the variant topic based on the selected variant criteria value. However, the anchor text in the topic does not change when the book is filtered. For example, using option 2, if the variant topic Acme X2001 Pro-Tekt Case is used to create the hyperlink its heading becomes the anchor text. If the book is filtered for the X5000 content or the X2001 content, the anchor text in both cases will be "Acme X2001 Pro-Tekt Case".

The target topic in the Hyperlink object: The target topic shown in the Hyperlink object's Hypertext Links tab always points back to the primary topic, whether the link was created using a variant topic or primary topic. This occurs when you create the link by dragging and dropping into a topic, or dragging and dropping directly into the Hyperlink's Link tab. When filtering and publishing the book, the target topic used by the link is based on the selected variant criteria value. In the following example the variant topic (X2001) was dragged into the "Internal object links" field but the relationship is created using the primary topic (X1000).

Primary Topic in the Hypertext Links Tab

Creating an index entry

You can drag and drop a primary or variant topic into the Entry Links field in the Index Entry object. When you view the Entry Links tab the primary topic will be displayed. When the book is filtered for publishing, the Index Entry points back to the correct topic.

If you need the Index Entry heading to change in the published Index then you'll create variants of the Index Entry. Each variant of the Index Entry object will still point back to the primary topic in the Entry Links field.

Creating a specific link (for HTML based outputs)

You can drag and drop a primary or variant topic into the Specific Links tab for Related Topic groups. When you view the Specific Links tab the primary topic will be displayed. When the book is filtered for publishing the correct topic is displayed in the related topic group.

Embedding a topic

You can drag and drop a primary or any of its variant topics when you want to embed content into a host topic. When you filter the book for a specific variant, the selected variant of the embedded topic is displayed in the host topic. If there is no matching variant then the "primary" embedded content will be displayed in the host topic.

For example, the "Acme X1000 Pro-Tekt Case" topic has variants for the X2001 and the X5000. This topic is embedded into a host topic. When the book is filtered for the X2001 then the "Acme X2001 Pro-Tekt Case" embedded content is displayed in the host topic. When the book is filtered for the X5000 then the "Acme X5000 Pro-Tekt Case" embedded content is displayed in the host topic. Double-clicking on the embedded topic displayed in the book opens that variant of the embedded content for editing.

Pasting a topic

Note: This action is different from embedding a topic as it does not create a relationship between objects.

You can drag and drop a primary or variant topic into a host topic and choose the option to paste the content. In this case, the topic you pasted is always displayed in the host topic. The pasted content does not change if from one variant to another if you filter the book.