In an open project, click Contents in the Author toolbar to view the Contents panel.
Last updated on
Mar 3, 2023
Learn how to set topic properties and customize your topic, your way.
After creating a topic in RoboHelp, you can set several topic properties. You can change the language of the topic's content, set a status such as In Progress or Ready for Review, specify search keywords, and more. You can also specify the style sheet, condition tags, and index keywords for the selected topic.
Edit topic properties
To access the Topic Properties dialog box and set the properties for a selected topic, follow these steps:
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Do one of the following:
- Right-click the desired topic in the Contents panel and select Properties.
- Click the Options icon
next to the desired topic and select Properties. - Double-click a desired topic in the Contents panel. You can view the Properties panel on the right side of the screen. If you are unable to view the Properties panel, select View > Properties Panel. In this panel, click the Topic tab.
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Specify the topic properties in the various sections of General, Search, Style Sheets, and more. To know more about these properties, see Topic properties.
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Once you've specified your topic properties in the Topic Properties dialog box, click Apply. If you're using the Properties panel, click the Save icon
in the upper-left corner of the standard toolbar.
Topic properties
In the Topic Properties dialog box, you can view the following sections:
General
In the General section, you can edit the following properties:
- Title Specify the title of the topic.
- File Name RoboHelp automatically adds the filename based on the topic title you specify. For example, if the Topic Title is 'Introduction to ABC Manual', RoboHelp adds the filename as 'Introduction_to_ABC_Manual.htm'. You can edit the File Name field and provide a custom filename.
Note:
RoboHelp does not support the following characters in filename:
\, /, :, *, ?, ", <, >, |, ', ;, #, and %
RoboHelp automatically converts spaces and unsupported characters into underscores _ or displays an error message. To change this setting, choose Edit > Preferences. In the General tab, deselect the Use underscores in file names field.
- Language Use the drop-down list to select a language for the topic's content. If you don't specify this setting, RoboHelp uses the Project language setting as the default language for topics.
- Status Use the drop-down list to add a predefined status for the topic, such as Draft, In Progress, and Reviewed.
- Map IDs Shows all Map IDs assigned to the topic.
Search
In the Search section, you can edit the following topic properties:
- Search Keyword Define search keywords for the topic. When a user searches for content in the output, these keywords will help relevant topics to appear in the search results. You can separate keywords using a comma and press Enter. Alternatively, you can type your keyword and press Enter. The keywords are then displayed below the Search Keyword field. To remove a keyword, click
in the desired keyword. - Exclude this topic from search Select this setting to exclude the topic from search.
Style Sheets
In the Style Sheets section, you can associate a topic with multiple style sheets. Do the following:
- Use the Style Sheets drop-down list to select a style sheet from the current project.
- Click
to browse and select a style sheet from your computer. When you specify a style sheet from outside the project, it is copied in your project.
The selected style sheet is added below the Style Sheets field.
If you have selected more than one style sheet, you can reorder the list using drag-and-drop (use the Drag icon 
). If a style has different properties in different style sheets, preference is given to properties in the style sheets that are the latest, that is, at the bottom of the list.
To remove a style sheet, click against it.
Index
In the Index section, you can add index keywords. These keywords are specific to the topic and appear in the Index panel. In the Index Keywords field, specify your keyword and press Enter. You can also add subkeywords by using : in between keywords. The keywords are then displayed below the Index Keywords field. To remove a keyword, click in the desired keyword. For more information, see Create and manage an index.
Condition Tags
In the Condition Tags section, you can apply two types of condition tags - Topic-Level and Content-Level tags. In Topic-Level, you can add or remove the condition tags applied in the topic. In Content-Level, you can view all the tags across the topic. You can then delete a condition tag to remove it from across that topic.
To add condition tags, click Apply Tags to view the Apply Condition Tags dialog box. In this dialog box, you can access the list of condition tags in your project. Select your desired condition tags and click Apply. To remove an applied condition tag, click in that condition tag.
File Info
In the File Info section, you can view the following details of the selected topic:
- Created On Displays when the topic was created, with the date and time.
- Last Modified On Displays when the topic was last edited, with the date and time.
- Location Displays a link to the saved location of the topic file on your computer. You can click this link to open Windows Explorer where this file is located.