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Inserting Related Topics Links into Topics

This feature is supported in DotNet Help, HTML Help, WebHelp, WebHelp Plus, WebHelp AIR, and WebHelp Mobile output.

A Help control is a link (usually inserted at the bottom of a topic) that lets users open other topics that have some kind of a connection with the current topic. There are a few types of Help controls that you can use in Flare:

• Related topics link This is a navigation link that lets users open topics that you've determined are related to the current topic. This is similar to a concept link. You should use a related topics link if you are applying it to a topic that you want to associate with specific topics but you do not plan to reuse the same link in other topics.

  example

  Let's say you have an introduction topic for your Help system. You want to create a Help control navigation link at the bottom of that topic that links users to three other topics that you feel are particularly useful to new users. However, you do not intend to use this same navigation link in other topics. So you decide to create a related topics link because it is quicker than creating a concept link.

• Concept link More…This is a navigation link that lets users open topics that you've determined are related to the current topic. It is similar to the related topics link. However, whereas you associate a related topics link with specific individual topics (usually for a one-time use), you associate a concept link with a group of topics (to be reused in different topics). One great benefit of this type of link is that, if you later want to add or delete topics from the group, you only need to do so in one place and the changes are applied to every topic containing that concept link. Let's say you are developing a Help system for an employee time-reporting software application. You might have a group of related topics (e.g., Creating a Time Sheet, Changing a Time Sheet, Deleting a Time Sheet), and you want each of those topics to have the same Help control button that links to the same topics. So you might create a concept called "TimeSheets." You would then insert the keyword into each of those topics. After that, you insert a concept link into each of those topics, selecting the "Timesheets" keyword for that link.

• Keyword link More…This is a navigation link that lets users open topics related to the current topic based on index keywords that they share. Let's say you have inserted an index keyword called "Accounting department" to some of the topics in your project, including the current topic that you are working on. At the bottom of this topic, you insert a keyword link that includes the "Accounting department" index keyword. In the final output, when users click this Help control, they can select and open any topics that also contain the "Accounting department" keyword.

Note: Another type of automated link that can be added to topics is a relationship link, which has a similar result but works a bit differently than Help controls. One benefit of a relationship link is that you can create all of your link information in one place, in a single relationship table. Another benefit is that you can have multiple types of links at the bottom of topics (e.g., one for "Related Information," one for "Related Tasks," and one for "Reference Materials"). See About Relationship Tables.

There are a couple of methods do use for inserting related topics links. You can use the "drag-and-drop" method or the "Insert menu" method.

How to insert a related topics link into a topic using drag-and-drop

1. Open the topic.

2. In the Content Explorer, click the Show Files button .

   The Content Explorer splits into two halves.

3. On the left half of the Content Explorer, locate and select the folder containing the topics to be included in the related topics link.
4. On the right half of the Content Explorer, select the topics to be included in the link. You can hold down the CTRL or Shift key and click the topic file names to select individual topics or a range of topics.

5. Drag the selected files to the appropriate location in the topic in the XML Editor.

   As you drag the files, a colored vertical bar shows you where the link will be inserted when you release mouse button.

6. Release the mouse button.

   The Insert Related Topics Control dialog opens.

   The folders and topic files available in the project are shown in the sections to the right. The files that you selected are automatically added to the section on the left.

7. Click OK.

   The related topics link is added to the topic.

   

8. Press CTRL+S or click to save your work.

How to insert a related topics link into a topic using the Insert menu

1. Open the topic.
2. In the XML Editor, click in the topic where you want to insert the link (usually at the bottom of the topic).

3. Select Insert>Help Control>Related Topics Control.

   The Insert Related Topics Control dialog opens. The folders and topic files available in the project are shown in the sections to the right (depending on your selection in the next step).

4. In the Folders section, select one of the options to see the correct topic files:
   • top This option shows all topic files that are located in the same folder as the current topic file.
   • all files This option shows all topic files in your project.
   • [specific folder] If you added your own folders to the Content Explorer, you can click on one of the folders to see the topic files contained in it.
5. Do one of the following:

   • In the Files section, double-click a topic file that you want to add to the related topics link. The topic file is added to the section on the left side of the dialog. Do this for each topic file that you want to add to the link.

     OR

   • In the Files section, click on a topic file that you want to add to the related topics link. Then click . The topic file is added to the section on the left side of the dialog. Do this for each topic file that you want to add to the link.

   Alternatively, you can click the Browse button to find and select a file.

6. Click OK.

   The related topics link is added to the topic.

   

7. Press CTRL+S or click to save your work.

WHAT'S NEXT?

If you want to change the way the link looks, you can modify the style of the related topics link. See Editing Related Topics Links.

You also may want to apply an "online only" condition tag to the paragraph tag holding the link. The main reason for this has to do with creating print-based output. When you generate print-based output, Flare automatically removes any Help control links in your topics, since they do not make sense in print output. However, this may leave an empty <p> tag at the end of that topic. This means that there will be an extra empty paragraph, where you might not expect there to be one. For example, in print-based output, you might notice that a particular topic ends near the bottom of the page. Let's say that on the next page, a new heading should start. Furthermore, let's say that the heading style specifies a page break before it. If you have an empty paragraph after the text on the first page, you might end up with a blank second page before the new heading starts on the third page. Applying a condition tag to the paragraph holding the Help control link will ensure that an empty paragraph does not occur in that location. See Applying Condition Tags to Content.

See Also

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