Basic Working Procedures > Managing the TOC & Topic Files

To change the structure of your project you need to be able to move topics around in the Table of Contents (TOC). You can do this by dragging topics with the mouse or by cutting and pasting. You can also copy, cut and paste between different projects in the Project Explorer.

Note that all these operations must be performed in the Table of Contents section of the Project Explorer. Different rules apply for managing your topic files directly in the Topic Files section – see Managing topic files in the Explorer for details.

Key Information

There is no UNDO in the Table of Contents (TOC) – all changes that you make here are permanent! In addition to deleting TOC entries this also applies to cutting, pasting and moving TOC entries. Use Explore > Disable Drag & Drop in the Project tab to prevent accidental changes to the TOC.

Drag & Drop can only be used on single topics. To move or copy multiple topics you must use Cut & Paste. You can perform these operations both within the same project and between multiple projects open at the same time in the Project Explorer.

Move:

Select and drag with the left mouse button

Copy:

Select, hold down Ctrl and drag with the left mouse button

exp_dragdrop

•Select a topic or chapter in the TOC and drag it onto another TOC entry (target topic is highlighted) to make topic you are dragging the child (sub-topic) of the target topic.

•Select a topic or chapter and drag it between two other topics (a blue line is displayed between the target topics) to insert the topic you are dragging before/after the target topic. Position the mouse pointer to the right or left of the topic caption to display the blue line.

Note:

You can create a second TOC reference to an existing topic by holding down Shift+Ctrl and dragging a topic in the TOC!

The Ribbon tools can only be used on single topics. To move multiple topics you must use Cut & Paste (see below).

The Up and Down arrows move topics.

Select the topic you want to move, then select the blue Up or Down arrow in Project > Manage Topics to move the selected topic up and down one step at a time.

You can use Cut & Paste to move and copy multiple topics and chapters at the same time. To select multiple entries use Shift+Click to select continuous blocks of entries and Ctrl+Click to select multiple individual entries in different locations.

1.Select a topic or chapter in the TOC or in Topic Files and then use one of the Copy or Cut options:

Keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+C (copy), Ctrl+X (cut)

Ribbon: Clipboard tools

Context menu (right-click in TOC): Copy, Cut

2.Click on the topic after which you wish to insert the topic and use one of the Paste options:

Keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+V

Ribbon: Clipboard tools

Context menu (right-click in TOC): Paste

When you copy topics "(COPY)" is added to the topic caption in the TOC and "_2" (or _3 etc.) is added to the Topic ID in the to prevent duplicates. See Multiple TOC entries for one topic for an alternative to copying.

You can also copy and move single and multiple topics and chapters between projects:

1.Open the second project in the Project Explorer. Use the Split Explorer tool in the Write tab to make it easier to see both parts of both projects at the same time. See Using the Project Explorer for details. Alternatively, you can also open the second project in a second instance of Help & Manual (just start Help & Manual a second time and open the project there).

2.Follow the instructions above to copy or move topics and chapters.

Moving, cutting and pasting topics

Moving, cutting and pasting topics