Create a New Topic
Press the New Topic HotKey (Ctrl+T);
or
Click the New Topic button on the Project Ribbon Tab;
or
Click the New Topic and Table of Contents Node button on the Table of Contents editor Toolbar to create a Topic and a related Table of Contents node in one operation;
or
Select an existing Topic on the Project Explorer and click Clone on the Right click Context Menu to create a new Topic that is a copy of that existing Topic;
or
Right click on a specific Topic Category and click New Topic from the Context Menu to add a Topic to that Category;
Change Topic Properties (Name, Status, Title, Page Type etc.)
Create a new Topic Category
Rename a Topic Category
Move a Topic or Topic Category
- or -
Find a Topic or Topic Category
Add a Hyperlink to Topic Content
Insert an Image in Topic Content
If the image you select is a thumbnail (e.g. the filename without the extension ends with _thumb), the image will be inserted as a Dynamic Image Widget so that users of your content can enlarge the image in place.
You can easily create a thumbnail for an existing full size image by right clicking the image in the Project Explorer and selecting Create Thumbnail.
Add a See Also link
Select See Also Links on the Topic Editor View bar and click the New toolbar button;
or
Click the New button next to the See Also section at the end of the Topic Content in the Topic Editor.
The Link Designer dialog will be displayed, allowing you to choose the target and caption for the new See Also link.
Add an Index Keyword
Select Index Keywords on the Topic Editor View bar and click the New toolbar button;
Keywords will be default appear at the top level of the generated Index. You can create hierarchical keywords by using the | character. As an example, the following keyword:
Customer|Editing|Editing Customer Details
Would appear in the generated Help System index as:
Customer
Editing
Editing Customer Details
You can include the same prefixes in multiple keywords. For example, the following 2 keywords, which could be defined in different Topics:
Customer|Editing|Editing Customer Details
Customer|Editing|Recording a Call
Would appear in the generated Help System as:
Customer
Editing
Editing Customer Details
Recording a Call
When creating Microsoft Help 2.x systems, you can create 2 additional types of Index keywords in addition to those in the visible Index.
Associative Keywords allow you to assign keywords to Topics that you can use to create links from other Topics. As an example, you could assign an associative keyword to each Topic related to a specific concept in your Help System. You would then be able to create a Help 2 link using that keyword; at runtime the Help System would show a list of Topics matching the associative keyword when the link is clicked.
Context (F1) Keywords are used by Visual Studio to find Topics for the Dynamic Help window matching the current Visual Studio context. If you are developing Add-Ins, Designers or Components for the Visual Studio IDE you can contribute help context keywords. By defining matching Context Keywords in your Help System you can provide your users with F1 or Dynamic Help content based on context.
To enable or disable automatically generated Index Keywords for a Topic
By default, Document! X will generate an index keyword for each Topic using the Topic Title.
Disabling the automatic index keyword for all Topics
You can disable this behavior throughout the whole project on the Topic Settings page in the Build Profile Editor.
Disabling the automatic index keyword for a specific Topic
You can also disable the automatic keyword generation for individual Topics as follows:
Enabling additional automatically generated categorized keywords
In addition to the automatic keyword generated from the Topic Title, Document! X can also generate an additional hierarchical keyword based on the Topic Category. When this option is enabled (on the Topic Settings page in the Build Profile Editor), a top level keyword is generated for the Topic Category which contains a child keyword for each Topic in that Category.
You can enable and disable the automatic additional keyword generation for individual Topic Categories as follows:
Create a custom Topic Property
Once the new Topic Property is defined, select one or more Topics in the Project Explorer and then define the value of your custom Topic Property in the Properties Window.
You can use the Topic Property anywhere in the Topic Content by surrounding the Property Name with %% characters - e.g. %%MyCustomProperty%%. When the Topic is output, the %%MyCustomProperty%% placeholder will be replaced with the current value defined against the Topic for that property.
Add a Topic to the Table of Contents
Click the Add Sibling Node or Add Child Node toolbar button on the Table of Contents Editor. When the Project Link Designer dialog appears, select the Topic you want the new Table of Contents node to link to;
or
Select the Topic or Topics that you want to add to the Table of Contents on the Project Explorer. Drag and Drop the Topics on to the Table of Contents editor in the desired location.
Mark a Topic as new in the Table of Contents
Highlighting new Topics in the Table of Contents makes it easy for users of your Help System to identify new content when you issue a new version of your Help Systems. Document! X provides a structured way to mark Topics as new in the Table of Contents.
By establishing (in the Build Profile Editor) a date after which Topics are considered new, Document! X can automatically identify new or changed Topics and mark them as new in the generated Table of Contents.
The modification date to be used in determining new Topics can now be set using the Change Date property that appears in Topic Properties.
Add a Task to a Topic
Select Tasks on the Topic Editor View bar and click the New toolbar button;
The Task that is created will be associated with the current Topic and will be listed on the Task list in the current Topic.
You can view a Project wide list of Tasks from the Tasks editor (Tools ribbon tab).