Maps and 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.

Root maps

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 root map, necessarily at least one level under it.
Root map title as 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.

Map hierarchy

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 directly under that map. That topic can then contain other maps and topics as children. The following image shows how your choices produce the topic hierarchy in the generated output:

In the picture above, the top example "chapter 1" has a header topic that shows at the same level as the Welcome chapter. The content itself shows at a lower level, commonly grouped under the header. The bottom example has no header for "chapter 1", and the content seems like two independent chunks of information each at the same level as the Welcome chapter.