#DITA example:
In a multi topic file, there will be multiple, parallel - eh - topics.
And each topic can be collapsed. Nice.
However, in order to get an overview over all the topics in the file,
there should be an automatically available "top level topic", which it
should be impossible and unnecessary to insert (after all, DITA does not
support nesting of topics). But for this "automatic" top level topic
should nevertheless be possible to activate both “close all” and
"expand all". When one first uses "close all" and then opens this top
level topic again, all the parallel topics (the virtual "sub topics")
would be remain closed.
Which in turn would allow you to get a good overview of all the topics
in the file. This way the user would get a simple overview over all the
topics in the file. Something whic is very useful, not least if one
keeps more topics than one makes use of in the map file.
Also, this way the user could very simply move topics around in a
logical fashing - in order to keep the topics in the book map order.
#XMLmind translation project example:
The .xlf files - the translation/localization files - for XMLmind XML
editor have this feature. (And - ahem - it was I who requested this
feature.) The .xlf files are compareable to multi-topic dita files, in
one sense, because a single .xlf file contains several parallel files -
one container element for all the dita transaltion, another container
element for all docbook related translations, and so on. And a multi
topic file works the same way.
#HTML example:
But it is not only about DITA: If we consider a XHTML file, then the
title of a page is often not keept inside a <h1> element. The page might
instead keep several h1-elements, where each h1 is its own topic. And
the overarching title of the file or page is not placed withing h1-h6
elements. This makes sense if we for instance thinka about a Table of
Contents: The title of the book never occurs in the books Table of
Contents. And yet it is the title of the book that keeps everytning
together.
Anyway, there are several contexts - at least DITA and hierachically
laid out XHTMl documents - where we need a way to expand and collaps
parallel topics/articles/sections.
In fact, when I work with XHTML documents in XMLmind XML Editor, I tend
to add an outer "root" element with a h1-h6 element, just in order to be
able to collapse/expand the the "sub topics". (I will then use CSS to
make sure the "root element" and its h1-h6 element is hidden from the
"public output".)
Leif Halvard Silli
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