About information types

Information types provide a great way for you to customize topics and define how your information will accommodate the needs of your users. Information types dictate what books and pages users can access from the Contents tab in the HTML Help viewer.

You define categories, add information types to these categories, and then assign topics to the information types. From the Contents tab in the HTML Help viewer (or browser), users can customize the books and pages that are displayed in the table of contents by customizing information types.

Categories versus information types

A category is a way to group Information types together. An information type is a way to classify topics. Examples:

Classifications of information types

In addition to categorizing Information types, they also fall into two classifications:

You can use any combination of categories, information types, and Inclusive and Exclusive classifications with your HTML Help topics.