PDF Export does not maintain sequence of articles and categories
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Gabriele Pincelli
When exporting a category and it's articles to PDF, the expectation is that the newly created document maintains the same sequence of articles and subcategories, as they are organized in the category.
In the current Export functionality, the sequence of articles is not maintained: first, all subcategories are exported, with their articles, then any other article is exported.
This loss of sequence creates a PDF document which is pretty much unreadable.
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Shakeer Hussain S
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Shakeer Hussain S
Hi All - We are pleased to inform you that the issue you were experiencing has been resolved. Previously, when exporting a category and its articles to a PDF, the order of articles and subcategories in the PDF did not match their arrangement in the category. This resulted in a PDF that was difficult to read, as it first exported all subcategories and their articles, followed by any remaining articles, disrupting the original sequence. We have now updated the export functionality to ensure that the PDF document maintains the same sequence of articles and subcategories as they appear in the category, making the document more coherent and readable. Please do check and share your feedback.
Anna McDonald
This is still an issue. When is Document360 going to resolve it?
Soloman LabJack
We are testing out Document360 and I ran into this issue. The ability to export a coherent PDF datasheet is very important to us. We may not migrate to Document360 if this issue cannot be resolved. It is also concerning to us that this has been a known issue for more than a year. We do not find it acceptable that the proposed solution to this issue is to reorganize documentation to avoid the use of subsections/categories.
As another example, this issue can be seen in a test export of our InAmp datasheet. One of the attached screenshots shows the datasheet organization in the documentation editor. There is a mix of "articles" and "categories" that make up Appendices A-E in the datasheet. You can see that the ordering is correct in the screenshot of the documentation editor. The ordering is also correct in our public documentation (test) portal.
When I go to export the datasheet to PDF, the "categories" (Appendix C and D) get separated from the "articles" and this ruins the datasheet organization. Attached is a screenshot containing the PDF category selection before export; this is the first indication of the export issue. There is also a screenshot of the PDF export table of contents that shows Appendix C and D separated and subsequently out of order.
Thiru
Soloman LabJack: Thanks for sharing your detailed scenario. For first scenario, the user interface you would like to display while generating PDF as the same in Category Manager. We will analyze this if we can fix this user interface and keep you posted.
Based on the second screenshot, that is Appendix - C,D are category pages which is treated as separate category. A folder containing multiple files in between sub-folders are placed within, for instance, then printing out the same folder first puts out the files and then sub-folders. To ensure users do not miss out, the TOC contains the path where these articles are placed in the category manager to avoid as misunderstanding for readers. Kindly let us know if you have concerns on this part.
Accessories > LJTick-InAmp Datasheet (Category)
LJTick-InAmp Datasheet > Appendix C (Page)
LJTick-InAmp Datasheet > Appendix D (Page)
Soloman LabJack
Thiru: Is the stance of Document360 that we should not use categories in this datasheet (or any other similar export) if we want one properly ordered and contiguous document (and table of contents) for PDF export? Do I understand correctly that you are not going to make any changes to the current PDF export behavior as a result?
Gabriele Pincelli
Hello Shakeer, let me make an example.
Let's say you have the following category organized internally in articles and subcategories:
- Category A
-- Art. 1
-- Art. 2
-- Sub cat. 3
---- Art. 3.1
---- Art. 3.2
-- Art. 4
-- Sub cat. 5
---- Art. 5.1
---- Art. 5.2
When I export the whole "Category A", the system would generate the PDF with the following sequence:
- Category A
-- Sub cat. 3
---- Art. 3.1
---- Art. 3.2
-- Sub cat. 5
---- Art. 5.1
---- Art. 5.2
-- Art. 1
-- Art. 2
-- Art. 4
This change in sequence breaks the logical flow of the articles. We would need the export to render the articles and subcategories in the same exact order they are in natively.
Hope this helps
Shakeer Hussain S
Gabriele Pincelli: Thank you so much for providing additional information. I will look into this and promptly get back to you.
Shakeer Hussain S
under review
Shakeer Hussain S
Hi Gabriele Monica Anna - Thank you for sharing your feedback. Firstly, please accept my apologies for the delayed response.
Regarding the Export to PDF feature, it functions in accordance with the organization of categories and articles in the documentation layout. To address your query about sequencing, I would greatly appreciate it if you could clarify the specific order in which you would like the categories and articles organized. Understanding this detail will enable us to offer you a suitable solution.
Alternatively, you also have the option to reorder the categories according to your convenience. Please let me know if this alternative approach meets your requirements. Your input is vital in helping us enhance our services to better suit your needs.
Monica White
I submitted a ticket for this on July 28, 2023. It seems this needs to be looked at more closely, as it may be a dealbreaker for one of our use cases. Now I have to hack my publication back into some sort of order that can be exported properly to meet industry standards.
Anna McDonald
Monica White: I've had to resort to just putting a pile of article pages under one category, because the categories do not export correctly. Essentially, I flattened the topic hierarchy and put more content into each article page, using all three available headings. As a result, for larger guides where I would have chapters, the PDF TOC is not an indented list and the knowledgebase looks like an endless scroll of article titles. It's not pretty, but it's functional.
Monica White
Anna McDonald I thought I left behind flattened TOC structures with Paligo!!
Anna McDonald
Monica White It's actually fixed now. Although the categories are still named as breadcrumbs, the order of content in the PDF now matches what we publish online.
Anna McDonald
I submitted a request for this one on March 16, 2023 and received a "works as designed" type of response, because articles and categories export in the order in which they are created. It is useless to export articles out of sequence! My team is relegated to putting an entire user guide on one page, instead of breaking it down into articles and categories. This creates a very long table of contents and lots of scrolling for our readers - a poor user experience.
Gabriele Pincelli
Please refer to support ticket #131883 for more details
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