Window-level Help topics use aliases. Authors create both the window-level topics and their aliases in RoboHELP. An alias is the relationship between a window-level Help topic and a topic ID. The topic ID refers to the window or dialog box in your application that the window-level Help topic explains how to use.
Before you start working with aliases, review the following information:
You can import existing map files or RoboHELP can auto-generate them at the same time you create aliases. Talk to your developer and find out who will supply the map files.
When you create aliases, you select topic IDs and window-level Help topics and match them together at a dialog. In order to do this, you need to import the map file and create the window-level Help topics. If you are using developer-supplied map files, import these files into the project before you start creating the aliases.
If you are auto-generating map files in RoboHELP, create the window-level Help topics first. Then, manually enter the topic IDs at a dialog and match them to the window-level Help topics that you created. Ask your developer if there are any required naming conventions you should use with the topic IDs.
You can auto-generate a single map file or you can create several map files. Talk to your developer before you start and find out if there is a preference.
When you create aliases, RoboHELP saves information about each topic ID and its matching HTML file in an alias file (.ALI). When you compile the HTML Help project, the .ALI file is compressed and included in the .CHM file.
You can design a custom window and only use it to display the window-level Help topics. This window is separate from the HTML Help viewer used to display your HTML Help system. You create a custom window in much the same way you modify the HTML Help viewer. Custom windows are usually smaller in size and use a single pane without navigation. Users close the window after they finish viewing the Help. Your developer needs to know the name of the window so coding can be done in the application to display the Help topics in this window.