Publications
A publication is a collection of topic references (called "forks"), assembled into a certain order. You can think of it as being similar to a table of contents for your documentation. You do not write anything in the publication, except for the Publication Topic - "Front Matter", where you enter the title, copyright and similar information. For the main content of your documentation, you write your content in Topics and then add references to them in your publication structure.
For example, in the following image, the publication is for an "Acme WG 20X" user guide. There is a "fork" reference to a topic for each section, such as "Introduction", "Quick start" and "Connecting via Bluetooth", and these are arranged into an appropriate order. There is also a hierarchy, so lower-level topics, such as "Pair with another device" and "Turn Bluetooth on/off" can be subsections of their parent topic, in this case, "Connecting via Bluetooth".
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Note that the "Warranty" topic has a branch icon next to it. This means it is one of many versions of this topic. To find out more, see Branching.
When you publish, Paligo creates an output in the format of your choice, such as an HTML5 Help Center or a PDF. It uses the publication structure to order the topics in the output.
Tip
If you have many related publications that you want to publish in the same HTML5 Help Center with a single hub page, see Multiple Publications in the Same Portal. We call this type of output a "super help center".
To create a new publication that you can use to build the structure ( "table of contents") for a document:
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Select the options menu ( ... ) for the folder that is going to contain the publication.
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Select Create content.
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In the Document Title field, enter the title for your publication.
Note
The characters you can use for titles are: numbers, language characters, punctuation characters, and spaces. The punctuation characters are:
! " # $ % / & ' ( ) * + , - . : ; < = > ? @ [ \ ] ^ _ ` { | } ~
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In the Document Type section, select Publication.
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(Optional) Choose any additional languages that you want to translate to later, and then select OK.
Paligo creates the publication and adds it in the Content Manager. It is shown with a briefcase symbol.
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When you have a publication, you can open it in structure view and from there, you can add content to it and organize the topics.
When your publication is ready for release, you can publish it.
Use a publication in Paligo to create the "table of contents" that you want to publish. Open the publication's structure view and drag and drop content to it. Every topic or publication that you want to appear in the published output must be included in the publication. But it is also possible to Exclude Content from a Publication's TOC.
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To add content to a publication:
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Select the publication in the Content Manager.
Paligo displays the publication's structure.
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Now you can:
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Drag and drop topics from the Content Manager into the publication structure.
For each topic that you drag and drop, Paligo adds a fork to the publication structure.
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Drag and drop other publications from the Content Manager into the publication structure. When you add a sub-publication to a another publication, Paligo adds forks for the entire sub-publication, including its topics.
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Create new topics that are added to the publication structure automatically. There are two ways of doing this. You can either:
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Select the New Topic button at the bottom of the structure view and enter the topic's name. Paligo will add a fork to the new topic after the last topic in the structure. It will also create the new topic in the Content Manager.
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Select the dotted menu ( ... ) for a topic fork that is already in the publication structure, and then select:
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New followed by Child to add a topic fork at the next level down in the structure. It will be nested below the topic you selected.
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New followed by After to add a topic fork at the same level in the structure. It will be added after the topic you selected.
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Paligo creates a new topic and adds a fork to the topic in the publication structure.
Tip
To control where the new topic is stored in the Content Manager, select the button next to the New topic option and then select Choose folder. Use the dialog to browse to your preferred folder.
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Use the arrow buttons to arrange your topics and reused publications into the order you want. You can set them to display as a flat structure or you can "nest" topics and publications so they have a more complex structure, with multiple levels of content. To learn more, see Organize a Publication.
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Select Save to confirm the publication changes.
Note
Paligo does not create new topic forks in a publication structure until you select Save.
When you have a publication and you have added topics or other components to it, you can organize them into a logical order. When you publish, the structure of the publication is what the reader will see as the table of contents or navigation menu. You can create a hierarchy of content so that there are sections and subsections. Use Chunking to Control Subsections to control how many levels of the content are shown in the table of contents.
To organize the content in a publication:
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Select the publication in the Content Manager.
Paligo displays the publication's structure.
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Select the topic or subpublication to be reorganized.
Press and hold Shift to select and move several topics or subpublications at the same time.
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Use the arrows to move content up or down in the structure and also to different levels in the structure hierarchy.
Tip
You can also:
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Drag and drop the content in the structure.
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Use keyboard shortcuts to move content in the structure hierarchy.
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Move left use Shift and Tab
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Move right use Tab
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Move up use Alt + ↑ (Windows) and Option ⌥ + ↑ (Mac)
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Move down use Alt + ↓ (Windows) and Option ⌥ + ↓ (Mac)
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Select Save to confirm the publication changes.
Let's say you have a publication and you add a "Pair with another device" topic and a "Turn Bluetooth on/off" topic. When you add the topics to the publication structure, they appear at the bottom of the structure. You want to move them so that they are subsections of a "Connecting via Bluetooth" topic.
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To move them, you press and hold the Shift key and then select both topics in the structure. Next, you use the up arrow icon on the "Pair with another device" topic to move both topics up until they are directly below the "Connecting via Bluetooth" topic.
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With the topics still selected, select the right arrow icon (or press Tab) to move the topics so that they are sub-sections of the "Connecting via Bluetooth" topic.
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With the topics now arranged in the structure you want, select Save to store the changes.
On some projects, you may want to include topics in a publication, but stop them from appearing in the table of contents (TOC). For example, if you have a high number of topics, that could result in a large TOC that becomes a little overwhelming for people who are using your help center. So you might want to prevent some topics from being in the TOC, but still have them in the help center so that people can search for them.
To hide topics so that they are not in the publication's TOC, but are still searchable in the help:
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Edit the topic that you want to exclude from the TOC.
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In the Element Structure Menu, select the top
sectionelement and then select Go to element.
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In the Element attributes, add the
roleattribute.
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Set the value of the role attribute to:
notintoc
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Use the arrow buttons to arrange your topics and reused publications into the order you want. You can set them to display as a flat structure or you can "nest" topics and publications so they have a more complex structure, with multiple levels of content. To learn more, see Organize a Publication.
When you publish the content, topics with role = notintoc are included in the publication, but will not appear in the table of contents.
Each time you save changes to a publication's structure, Paligo stores a record of the publication at that point in time. These records are the "revisions" and you can revert back to any available revision. For example, let's say you make changes to the structure of a publication on July 1st, but you then change your mind and want to revert back to how it used to be. By using the Revisions feature, you can change the publication's structure back to how it was on an earlier date.
When you use the Revisions feature, it is only the structure of the publication that changes. Paligo does not revert the content in the publication's topics.
Note
It is possible that you could revert back to a revision of a publication that links to topics that no longer exist, as they have been deleted. In this scenario, Paligo will recreate those topics, and try to add as much of the metadata as possible, including the ID. If the metadata ID is added to the topic, you may be able to use Revert a Topic to a Previous Revision to restore the topic's content. If not, you will need to add the content manually.
To revert back to an earlier publication revision:
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Select the publication in the Content Manager.
Paligo displays the publication's structure.
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Select the Revisions button at the bottom of the Structure view.
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Select the link in the date column to preview the publication structure for a certain revision in the Preview panel.
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Select Revert to restore a revision.
Paligo will restore the publication revision that you selected.
Tip
Two useful features in the Revisions view:
To delete a revision from the Revisions view, select Remove revision at the bottom of the Preview panel.
To manually save the latest structure update, select Create a revision at the bottom of the Revisions view.
You can copy an existing publication and use the copy as a starting point for a new publication. When you make a copy, the copy contains the same links to topics ("forks") as the original publication. You can add and remove forks from the copy without affecting the forks in the original. But be aware that if you make changes inside the topics, those changes will affect the original publication and the copy.
If you are new to copying publications, we recommend that you:
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Read What Happens When You Copy a Publication?. This explains what happens when you copy a publication and how Paligo handles the IDs for the publication and the fork references.
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Make your own publication copies by following the instructions in Copy Publication.
Note
If you want to copy forks rather than an entire publication, see Reuse Forks.
Tip
To make different versions of a publication, you may prefer to use the branching feature. Branching is designed for creating multiple versions and allows you to make a copy that can later be merged back into the original. To find out more, see Branching.
When you copy a publication, Paligo creates a duplicate of the publication. It gives the copy a unique name, based on the original name, and a unique ID. But it does not make copies of the topics that are included in the publication. Your publication copy contains links, called forks, to the same topics as the original publication.
For example, let's say you have an "Acme 100X User Guide" publication and it has links to the topics "Introduction", "Quick Start", "Connections", and "Troubleshooting". These links in the publication are called "forks".
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A publication contains links to topics. It does not contain the actual topics. The links in a publication are called forks.
When you copy the publication:
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Paligo makes a copy of the publication and its structure. The publication has a new, unique ID. Paligo does not copy the topics.
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The publication copy contains forks to the same topics as the original publication.
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If you make changes to the topics, your changes will affect both the original publication and the copy, as they both have forks to the same topics.
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You can delete forks from either publication without affecting the other publication.
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You can add forks to different topics without affecting the other publication.
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You can change the order of topics in a publication without affecting the order in the other publication.
To have a copy of a publication with forks to copies of the topics, you would need to copy the topics and then add them to the copy of the publication. That way, the copy will have different forks to the original.
The best way to reuse a publication is to Reuse Forks and its "structure" between publications. This will help you to save time when creating new publications and reduce the amount of work needed when updating the publication structures. To learn more, see Content Reuse.
But if you want to reuse a publication and its structure without reusing its forks, it is possible to make a standalone copy. The copy will appear below the original publication in the Content Manager.
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To copy a publication:
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Select the Dotted menu (...) to the right of the publication in the Content Manager.
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Select Copy from the menu.
The copied publication ("copy 1") appears below the original publication in the Content Manager. You can now rename it and change the structure without affecting the original publication.
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Select the dotted menu ( ...) for the copy and choose Rename.
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Enter the new name for the publication copy.
Tip
You can then edit the publication copy to meet your requirements. For more information, see:
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Reuse Forks (for copying and pasting a fork)
To remove a topic, reused publication, or other component from a publication's structure:
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Select the publication in the Content Manager.
Paligo displays the publication's structure.
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In the publication structure, select the fork to the component that you want to remove.
Note
A fork is a reference from the publication's structure to a component, such as a topic, in the Content Manager. The fork is only the reference to the component. It is not the actual component.
Paligo adds a blue highlight to the selected fork.
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Either:
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Press Backspace or Delete
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Select the dotted menu ( ... ) for the fork and then select Remove.
Paligo removes the fork (and any of its "children") from the publication.
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Select Save to confirm the publication changes.
Note
When you remove a component from the publication structure, you only remove the publication's reference to the component (the "fork").
The component still exists in Paligo, it is just no longer included in your publication. You can find the component by searching or navigating the content in the Content Manager.
If the content has taxonomy labels, you can also use the About Taxonomy Manager to find it.