Creating Meta Information Topics

The meta information section is primarily intended for information about information. Similar to providing a "Notice" page in a book, this section includes information such as the volume title, copyright, trademark, and other notices.

A secondary use of the meta information section is to enter general help topics that are not part of the normal topic hierarchy. These topics are useful for creating custom definition links that pop-up a topic in a quick help dialog.

To create a meta information section

Enter the <metainfo> tag to start the section, and enter the required subelements <title> and <copyright> as shown:

   <metainfo>



   <title>Volume Title Here



   <copyright>

   Body of copyright topic here.



       .

       .

       .

Enter any of the optional elements as shown:

   <abstract>

   Body of the abstract topic here.

   Do not use any HelpTag markup within the abstract!

Enter the <\metainfo> end tag to end the section.
. . . <\metainfo>




	Notes: Some elements in the meta information section require a `<head>` tag before the topic heading. The `<abstract>` section is recommended.Applications that access help volumes may use the abstract to present a brief description of the volume. Because the abstract might be displayed in plain text windows (that are not capable of multi-font or graphics formatting), you should avoid including any HelpTag markup in the abstract.

Example. Here's a typical meta information section:



   <metainfo>



     <title> Report Master, Version 1.0



     <copyright>

       <otherhead>Report Master



       <image>

       Version 1.0

       &copy; Copyright Hewlett-Packard Company 1992

       All rights reserved.

       <\image>



     <abstract>

       This is the online help for the mythical Report Master

       application.  This help includes a self-guided tutorial,

       a summary of common tasks, general concepts, and quick

       reference summaries.



   <\metainfo>

The <image> element is used to preserve the author's line breaks. The © entity inserts the copyright symbol.

See Also.

“To link to a meta information topic”

To add a non-hierarchical topic

Add the topic just before the end of your meta information section using the <otherfront> element as follows:
<otherfront id=id><head> Topic Title Body of topic.

The ID parameter and <head> tag are required.

You may add as many <otherfront> topics as you want. They may be in any order, but they must be the last topics in the <metainfo> ... <\metainfo> section.

Example. This partial help volume shows how a general topic is added to the meta information section. The topic's title is "Popup!" and its ID is my-popup-topic.

   <metainfo>

     <title>My Help

     <copyright>

        This is My Help, Version 1.0.  &copy; 1992.



           .

           .

           .



     <otherfront id=my-popup-topic><head>Popup!



     This is a popup topic, displayed via a definition link

     somewhere in my help volume.



   <\metainfo>



   <hometopic> Welcome to My Help



       .

       .

       .

Presumably, within some other topic in the help volume, there's a definition link to display this topic. The link might look like this:

   Here's a sample of a pop-up 

   <link my-popup-topic Definition>definition link<\link>.

The words "definition link" become the active hyperlink and will be displayed with a dashed underline. Selecting the link displays the "Popup!" topic in a quick help dialog.

See Also.

“Creating Hyperlinks”

Creating Meta Information Topics

Technical documentation

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To create a meta information section

To add a non-hierarchical topic