Topic icon

The topic icon is displayed before the topic title in the table of contents. By default, topics containing children will be given a book icon, whereas topic without child will be given a note icon. To change the icon for each individual topic:

  • Select the "Home" ribbon tab, then click the "Topic properties" item and choose the new topic icon
  • Right click on any existing topic in the table of contents to open the topic management menu then choose the new topic icon

See the How to select a new icon for a topic in HelpNDoc step-by-step guide.

Topic kind

Each individual topic in HelpNDoc can be either:

  • A normal topic - This is a standard topic where new content can be entered in the topic editor
  • An empty topic - No content will be entered in that topic and will make it a chapter topic
  • An URL topic - This topic will show an external URL instead of the content
  • An external included file - The file specified will be included at compilation time in the content of the topic

To change the topic's kind:

  • Select the "Home" ribbon tab, then click the "Topic properties" then "Topic kind" item and choose the topic kind
  • Right click on any existing topic in the table of contents to open the topic management menu then go to the "Topic kind" item to choose the topic kind
  • At the top of the topic editor, click the "Change..." link to choose the topic kind

See the How to assign topic kind in HelpNDoc step-by-step guide.

Description

This field can be used to describe or summarize the current topic. It is used by the default HTML template to generate the HTML description tag for better Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Help ID

This is one of the most important part of a topic when using the generated documentation. The help ID is a unique alpha-numeric identifier used to locate the topic. This ID will be used to name individual HTML files in the generated HTML documentation, and can be used to open that specific topics from any programming language in the CHM documentation.

To change a topic's Help ID:

  • Select the "Home" ribbon tab, then click the "Topic properties" item and enter the new Help ID
  • Right click on any existing topic in the table of contents to open the topic management menu then enter the new Help ID

Note: If the "Always synchronize Help ID with topic caption" project option is checked, HelpNDoc will automatically replace a custom Help ID when the topic's caption is changed.

Note: The Help ID can only contain alpha-numeric and "-" characters. HelpNDoc will ensure this rule by automatically removing any unwanted characters (such as spaces) from the input.

See the How to manage your topic identifiers in HelpNDoc step-by-step guide.

Help Context

The help context is a numeric value which is unique to each topic. It can be used to uniquely identify a topic, or open a specific CHM topic using Windows APIs.

To change a topic's Help context:

  • Select the "Home" ribbon tab, then click the "Topic properties" item and enter the new Help context
  • Right click on any existing topic in the table of contents to open the topic management menu then enter the new Help context

See the How to manage your topic identifiers in HelpNDoc step-by-step guide.

Topic Header

The topic header is a simple text which is usually displayed as the title of the topic. By default, HelpNDoc will use the topic title as the header, but it can be configured to either:

  • Hide the header - No header will be displayed for that topic
  • Display a custom text - A custom text can be specified as the header of that topic.

To change a topic's header:

  • Select the "Home" ribbon tab, then click the "Topic properties" then "Topic header" item and choose the topic header
  • Right click on any existing topic in the table of contents to open the topic management menu then go to the "Topic header" item to choose the topic header
  • At the top of the topic editor, click the topic header link to choose the topic header

See the How to define a header for a topic in HelpNDoc step-by-step guide.

Topic Footer

The topic footer is a simple text which is usually displayed at the bottom of the topic. By default, HelpNDoc will use the project copyright as the footer, but it can be configured to either:

  • Hide the footer - No footer will be displayed for that topic
  • Display a custom text - A custom text can be specified as the footer of that topic.

To change a topic's footer:

  • Select the "Home" ribbon tab, then click the "Topic properties" then "Topic footer" item and choose the topic footer
  • Right click on any existing topic in the table of contents to open the topic management menu then go to the "Topic footer" item to choose the topic footer
  • At the top of the topic editor, click the topic footer link to choose the topic footer

See the How to define a footer for a topic in HelpNDoc step-by-step guide.

Custom Properties

Each topic can have a set of custom properties. The "Topic properties" panel can be used to manage them: add, rename, delete them as well as edit their values. Custom properties can have any name and value and can be used by templates or scripts for additional custom processing.