How to: Using this Library : How to Use the Online Documentation : Navigating Topics in the Contents Tab
Navigating Topics in the Contents Tab
The online documentation is developed such that each e-book is a unique entry in the Contents tab, and:
• Books are divided into chapters (or major sections).
• Chapters (or major sections) are organizing devices in the online documentation and are further divided into content-based topics. A chapter is not in itself a topic and has no content to itself.
• Topics are divided into sub-topics (if the topic has enough content to warrant such a division).
So, what happens when you:
• Click a book: When you click a book in the Contents tab, the online documentation takes you immediately to the first topic in the book.
• Click a chapter: Because chapters are simply organizing books in the Contents tab and have no direct topics, when you click a chapter, it expands the book in the Contents tab and nothing happens in the right pane. To collapse the chapter in the Contents tab, you must click the book icon to the left of the chapter title: .
• Click a topic: A topic includes content. When you click a topic, its contents populate the right-side pane. If a topic includes sub-topics, a book appears in the Contents tab to the left of the topic name (instead of a page).
• Click a sub-topic: A sub-topic appears in the Contents tab for additional drill-down control in your navigation. However sub-topics are not separate pages from the topics that contain them. Thus, when you click a sub-topic, it displays in the right-side pane (at the top of the screen if possible), though preceding sub-topics and later sub-topics continue to be available (via scrolling up or down). If a sub-topic includes further sub-topics, a book appears in the Contents tab to the left of the sub-topic name (instead of a page).
For example, in the following diagram:
• Clicking ANSI Library Reference Guide expands the menu and takes you to the guide’s first topic (1.1 Overview). This topic has no further sub-topics (you know this because there is not a toggle arrow to the left of the topic title).
• Clicking 2 Data Structure expands the book. Because chapters are divided into topics and have no contents by themselves, the right pane continues to display which ever topic you had last displayed (in this case, 1.1 Product Description).
• If you click 2.2 Using Data Structures (a topic with sub-topics), you expand the topic in the Contents tab (and thus you see its sub-topics) and the right-side pane populates with the 2.2 Using Data Structures topic contents.