by Kevin Siegel
If you want to include PDFs in your RoboHelp Help System there are basically two ways to proceed. First, you can store the PDFs on your Web server and then create a standard link to the PDF from within any topic in your Help system. However, if you go that route, the PDFs won't be searchable from within the Help System.
If you instead add the PDF to your Baggage Files folder, and then create links, the PDFs will be part of the generated Help System and the PDFs will be searchable via the Search tab. Sweet! The problem is that creating the link to the PDFs isn't an obvious series of steps. Read on to learn how.
Add the PDF to the Baggage Files folder
Right-click the Baggage Files folder (the folder is located on the Project Manager pod, but you'll need to change the view to Details view instead of Global view) and choose New > Baggage File.
Add a Link to the PDF Link the TOC
If you would like to add the PDF to your TOC, create a new TOC Page. On the General tab, give the page a title. Select Baggage File from the Link to drop-down menu. Finally, select the PDF you just added to the Baggage Files folder.
Create a PDF Link within a Topic
If you'd like to make a link in a topic to the PDF in the Baggage file, press [shift] on your keyboard and drag the PDF from the Baggage File into a topic. Nice!
If you would like to watch a video of this process, click here.
If you want to include PDFs in your RoboHelp Help System there are basically two ways to proceed. First, you can store the PDFs on your Web server and then create a standard link to the PDF from within any topic in your Help system. However, if you go that route, the PDFs won't be searchable from within the Help System.
If you instead add the PDF to your Baggage Files folder, and then create links, the PDFs will be part of the generated Help System and the PDFs will be searchable via the Search tab. Sweet! The problem is that creating the link to the PDFs isn't an obvious series of steps. Read on to learn how.
Add the PDF to the Baggage Files folder
Right-click the Baggage Files folder (the folder is located on the Project Manager pod, but you'll need to change the view to Details view instead of Global view) and choose New > Baggage File.
Add a Link to the PDF Link the TOC
If you would like to add the PDF to your TOC, create a new TOC Page. On the General tab, give the page a title. Select Baggage File from the Link to drop-down menu. Finally, select the PDF you just added to the Baggage Files folder.
Create a PDF Link within a Topic
If you'd like to make a link in a topic to the PDF in the Baggage file, press [shift] on your keyboard and drag the PDF from the Baggage File into a topic. Nice!
If you would like to watch a video of this process, click here.
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Follow Kevin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kevin_siegel
Kevin,
I am attempting to find a list of links from topics to the baggage files. The IT gods now want the links to point to a location on the server so I am now have to find and change all those links then delete the baggage files. I have tried several reports without any luck. Any ideas?
Thanks
Don
Posted by: Apps 55753818692 1244802742 32f03a2eadf132164fd273433f5d92ae | September 21, 2010 at 01:25 PM
What version of RH are you using? If the lastest and greatest, check out the scripts panel. There is a script that will update/change URLs project-wide.
Posted by: Kevin Siegel | September 28, 2010 at 12:09 PM
Thanks for keeping these pages around! Great help! Joel Sr. Tech Writer -- NASDAQ
Posted by: Joel Meier | May 31, 2012 at 04:42 PM
Thanks Kevin, I'm thrilled to be able to have a PDF searchable from within the Help.
Posted by: Nick Shears | June 13, 2012 at 12:38 AM