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Managing references in Adobe RoboHelp project

Learn how to view the incoming and outgoing links in each topic.

The Topic References report provides a detailed summary of all references in your topic or project. References such as Topic, Title, Folder, Outgoing Links, and Incoming Links are included in the report . In addition, you can customize the fields and download it for future access.

Open a report

To open the References report, do the following:

  1. In an open project, click Reports  on the Author toolbar.

  2. In the Reports panel, double-click the Topic References tab to open the report. Alternatively, click Options  next to the Topic References tab and choose Open

Customize a report

You can customize the Topic References report using the Filters panel on the right side of the screen. In this panel, you can view the  report in different formats, filter information, use browse sequence, and various columns. To customize your report for Table or Graph view, use the following options in the Filters panel:

Table view

When you view the report in Table, RoboHelp displays data in rows and columns, as in a spreadsheet. 

TYPE

Under Type, you can view the type of report that is open. For example, Topic References.

VIEW

By default, the Topic References report is shown as Table. Use the options under View to change the appearance of the report.

FILTER

Under Filter, use the drop-down list of various project components to include information in your report. You can also select multiple options in the drop-down list.

COLUMNS

Following are the types of information that can be included in your report.

  • Topic Displays the name of the topic with a link. You can navigate to the target topic by clicking on the link.
  • Title Displays the title of the topic.
  • Folder Displays the location of the topic.
  • Outgoing Links Lists all the occurrences of outgoing links that are referenced from the topic. Outgoing links are meant to drive the users to additional sources of information on a specific topic. 
  • Incoming Links Lists all the occurrences of  incoming links that are referenced to the topic. Incoming links are links from other topics that, when clicked, reach to the current topic. 

Select a column to view it and deselect to remove it from the report. To sort the data in each column, click the column header. 

Graph view

When you view records in Graph, RoboHelp displays the data in graphical format. 

TYPE

Under Type, you can view the type of report that is open. For example, Topic References.

VIEW

By default, the Topic References report is shown as Table. Use the options under View to change the appearance of the report to Graph.

FILTER

Browse Sequence Use browse sequences to provide sequence of topics to the users to navigate to the previous or the next topic. You can select a particular browse sequence to see the references of the topics in the chosen sequence by using left and right arrows at the right side of the screen.

TOPIC

Use the search using the search box to look out for any other topic.

View a report

You can view a report in Table and Graph formats. The display type you select determines how the report looks and the extent to which the report can be formatted. 

The following examples show the same report run in different view options.

Table view

Select View from the Filters panel, then select Table to display the report in Table view.

The report is displayed in a table format. 

Table view
An illustration of how the Reference report looks in Table view

The Topic is displayed at the left, Outgoing Links at the center, and Incoming links at the right side of your screen.

Graph view

Select View from the Filters panel, then select Graph to display the report in Graph view.

The report is displayed in a graphical format. 

Graph view
An illustration of how the References report looks in Graph view

The Incoming links are displayed in green at the left, Topic in blue at the center, and Outgoing links in orange at the right side of your screen.

A broken reference in the report is indicated with red color alerting you about the broken link. 

To fix, select the link that contains the broken link. The Fix Broken Links dialog box opens that displays the list of broken link and its location. You can point the broken link to the correct topic and update the link as appropriate.

Broken link

Delete references

While deleting any topic you can delete all its references, too by following the below steps:

  1. From the Reports panel, right-click a topic and click Delete.

  2. The Confirm dialog box opens, showing the list of files where this topic is referred from. Click the checkbox to confirm deletion of all the references from the files.  

    Delete reference

  3. Click Yes to confirm the deletion. The topic, along with its references, is deleted.

Note:

Choosing NOT to delete the references forces the links to display as Broken Links.

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