Merged Helpsets in OHJ

A collection of help topics, with their associated control files, is called a "helpset." In OHJ, helpsets can be merged at runtime. That means that multiple authors can create multiple helpsets which will be seamlessly merged after authoring has been completed. Similarly, new components can be added to a user's help system without having to rework the entire system.

Several features support merged helpsets:

Tables of contents can be concatenated, so the Contents tab in the navigator window displays one tree with all the contents from all the merged helpsets. The index shows all the index entries from all helpsets, properly sorted. The text search searches through all the merged helpsets.
Alternatively, authors can specify that selected helpsets are displayed in a drop down list in the toolbar. This can simplify the presentation of a complex help system to the user.

Merged Helpsets in a Choice List

When this implementation is selected, the table of contents and the index show only items from the helpset selected from the list. The text search searches only for items in the selected helpset.
When an author provides associative links, the list of topics associated with a link includes items from the merged helpsets.