Introduction > The User Interface > The Project Explorer

The Project Explorer on the left below the Ribbon provides direct access to all the components of your projects.

You can load multiple projects into the Explorer and work on them all at the same time – for example to copy and paste between projects and to work on the components of modular help systems.

Just select an item in the Project Explorer to view it for editing in the Editor.

Productivity Tip

Select Split Explorer in the Project tab to edit parts of your project in separate Explorer windows. This also makes copying and pasting in the Explorer easier.

The Welcome section of the Project Explorer displays general information, recently-opened projects, tips for finding information in the help, live information on the latest program updates and other details.

The Table of Contents or "TOC" is used to organize the topics in your project in a hierarchical structure. Every topic that has a TOC entry here will also have a corresponding entry in the TOC of your published output.

You can create new topics by adding new entries to the TOC, which automatically creates a matching topic file for the TOC entry in the Project Files > Topic Files section (see below).

You can change the structure of your project by moving entries around in the TOC. This is quick and very easy. You just drag TOC entries with the mouse or manipulate them with the tools in Project > Manage Topics.

Each topic file has its own individual settings, which are accessed in the tab in the editor.

The Project Files section is used for managing and viewing the files in your project. It is divided into two groups, Topic Files and Baggage Files. The Topic Files section contains all your topic files, both those that are included in the TOC and those that are not (known as "invisible files" in Help & Manual 4 and earlier).

Each topic file has its own individual settings, which are accessed in the tab in the editor. This tab can also be accessed in the Table of Contents section.

Topic Files

This section lists all the topic files in your project, including topic files that do not have entries in the TOC – for example topics containing the text for popup windows, for display in external windows or for use as embedded topics.

To create a topic without a TOC entry you create it in the Topic Files section just click in the Topic Files section where you want to insert the topic and create a new topic. You can always change the position of the topic later.

Baggage Files

You do not need to concern yourself with this section when you are just getting started with Help & Manual. It is used for storing additional files you want to associate with your project, such as additional graphics and script files that you want to reference in the code of your HTML templates.

All the files included in the Baggage Files section are automatically exported to the relevant output formats when you publish your project. See Using Baggage Files for more information.

This section contains all your project's configuration settings. This includes your project title, copyright notice, your language settings for help in international languages, special settings and editable layout templates for your output formats, "skins" for changing the appearance and formatting of your entire project, user-defined variables and so on.

Program configuration settings

Note that the Configuration section in the Project Explorer only contains settings for your individual projects (each project has its own configuration settings). The general configuration settings for Help & Manual are accessed in View > Program Options in the Ribbon.

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