Flare Tip: Using Multiple Master Pages in a Help Target

Following is a brief article I wrote for the Madcap Software knowledge base in November 2006. It tells you how you can use multiple master pages in a project.

Summary:

Users can select one master page per target; however, more than one master pages can be applied to the help topics in a single target using stylesheets. For example, what if there are 6 major topic groups and the user wanted to give each group a different master page with a unique header?

Solution:

1. Create a main stylesheet either by adding a new stylesheet (Project > Add Stylesheet) or editing an existing stylesheet (open it from the Content Explorer).
2. Decide how many master pages to be included in the projects; and then, create additional stylesheets that are identical to the main one so that there is one stylesheet for every master page.  Note that every stylesheet should have a different name.
3. Create the master pages to be used in the project (Project > Add Master Page).
4. Select File > Save All.
5. Close the stylesheets, if they are still open. Note: The Save All does not seem to update the open stylesheets with any recently created master pages.
6. Open the stylesheet and select the html style. If the Assorted Relevant Properties is selected on the right of the Stylesheet Editor, then there should be an mc-master-page property there. Otherwise, it’s under the Unclassified property group.
7. Click in the field to the right of the mc-master-page property and select the master page to be used for the current stylesheet.
8. Apply the stylesheet to the topic(s) that are going to be associated with the stylesheet's master page.
9. Repeat Steps 7-9 for each stylesheet/master page combination that is needed.