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Setting The Default Topic
Setting The Default Topic
There are two ways to set the default topic: You can choose it directly in the TOC, or you can specify it by its topic ID in the project configuration
options.
Once you have set it, the default topic is indicated by a green arrow icon (the green check marks you see in the example are for version control
status):
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Note that this setting will generally only apply for the main TOC if you have defined multiple TOCs in your project. See the section on default
topics in multiple TOCs further below for details on this.
If you use the default topic setting in Language Settings you can also use a user-defined variable instead of selecting the topic ID directly. (This
variable must insert a valid topic ID, of course.) This makes it possible for you to change the default topic at publish time by changing the
definition of the variable.
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If you are using multiple TOCs in your project you can set a separate default topic for each TOC. Then you will automatically get the correct
default topic for that TOC when you use it.
Important: The default for secondary TOCs must be set in the TOC
Default topics for secondary TOCs must be set directly in the TOC. The setting in Configuration > Common Properties > Language Options
is only for the main TOC.
Each TOC you define can have its own default topic:
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Help+Manual allows you to combine multiple projects in modular help systems and each project can have multiple TOCs, each with their own
default topic. This means you can have multiple default topics defined, but your output can only ever have one default topic. The right one to
use is chosen as follows:
In modular projects only the Master defines the default topic
In modular projects only the default topic defined in the Master project is used. Any default topics set in child modules are always ignored,
because child projects can be excluded.
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