Every topic should have a unique context string. The context string identifies each topic in a Viewer title. Viewer uses the context string to find a specific topic when users select a jump to that topic.
A number sign (#) in a footnote creates the context string for a topic. A context-string footnote must be the first footnote in the topic unless you use build tags to specify individual topics for the build. If you use build tags, the build-tag footnote must precede the context string. (See “Building Different Versions of a Title” in Chapter 11, “Advanced Build Options,” for more information about build tags.)
Context strings can contain the alphabetic characters A–Z or a–z, the numeric characters 0–9, and the period (.) or underscore (_) characters. Viewer allows context strings with up to 255 characters. However, it is recommended that you use shorter strings as they are easier to remember and easier to enter into topic files. Even though Viewer doesn't distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters, you might want to mix the case of characters to make the string more readable.
You can also include context strings that don't appear at the beginning of the topic. To create a jump to a location in the middle of a topic, you can insert the context string at that location.
·To insert a context string:
1.Place the cursor at the location in the topic where you want to insert the context string.
When users jump to this topic, they end up at the location where you insert the context string. Typically, you insert the context string at the beginning of the topic. But if you want users to be able to jump to the middle of a topic, insert the context string in the middle of the topic.
2.From the Insert menu, choose Footnote.
The Footnote dialog box appears.
3.Enter the number sign (#) as the footnote reference mark.
A superscript number sign ( # ) appears next to the heading and the cursor moves to the footnote window.
4.Type the context string as the number sign footnote. Make sure only a single space exists between the number sign and the text string (the context string itself shouldn't contain any spaces). For example, you might type the following context string to identify the “Kentucky: Economy” topic:
#ky_economy
This would appear as follows:
5.Click in the text window to return to the topic text.