About publication structure
Learning a few basic rules will help you know your way around in a publication. As flexible as it may be, the structure of a publication follows rules that define the way maps and topics interact. The difference that you see between the structure of the publication in Publication Manager and the one you see in the output are consequences of these rules.
- Names and titles
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What you see in Publication Manager left-hand pane on the Content tab, is the publication tree. This tree shows the objects' names: the objects label defined in their properties. What will appear in the output are the topic titles: the title that is defined inside the topic as part of the content. Topic name and topic title can be different.
The names and titles of the maps will not be seen in the published result, except for the root map which may contains the title of the publication (if configured accordingly: the publication object could also provide the deliverable title). Therefore be sure to use topics that contain proper titles at the highest level of each map.
- The name of the publication
- The title of the publication, the one that you want the audience to see as the identity of the deliverable, is the title that is defined inside the root map. It is not the name of the publication object, nor is it the name of the root map object as defined in the properties. When you change version for the publication, you also change the version of the root map and you can give it a different title so the version difference can be seen by the audience, without having to change the publication object's name nor any property-defined label.
- Only one root map
- Each publication has only one root map right under the publication object. There is only one map at this hierarchical level. All the content of the publication (except resource) is inside the rootmap, necessarily at least one level under it.
- Topics under maps
- If you want a map to be a chapter or any part of publication that has a common title and introduction, then you need to put one and only one topic under that map. That topic can then contain other maps and topics as children. All the map content goes into that single topic, and this head topic gives its title to the map content. In this case adding an object to the map means adding it to the head topic just under the map.
- Movement inside a map checks out that map
- The map contains the list of links to all the objects inside it. If an object is added, the map needs to be checked out first, and checked back in after. The same applies when you move or remove objects inside it. However, when you only change the content of a topic without moving it, the map doesn't change.