General Properties

Every Author-it object has a General tab. This tab contains properties which:

• Are common across all objects.
• Uniquely identify an object.
• Are used within Author-it, rather than the output formats.

Object Code

Unique identifier for the object, which you cannot change. This number can be used for linking topics when you're producing context-sensitive Help. The number does not change if you create versions of the object.

Object Description

Defines a descriptive name for the object. This description will be displayed as the name of the object throughout Author-it.

Note: You should enter a description that will make your objects easy to identify and find. In some object types, the description is copied to other properties when you first create the object. For example, in the Topic object the text is copied to the Print Heading, Help Heading, and the Web Heading properties.

Make Template

Determines if this object is an object template. If you check this property, the object becomes a template.

Note: You can only set this property when the object is first created, and if you have the required security access.

Based On

Allows you to choose the template on which the object will be based. The names that appear in this list are derived from the Description property of an object template. The object templates that appear may depend on your security access.

Include Object In

Determines the published outputs the object will be included in.

• Print: applies to Word and PDF
• Help: applies to Windows Help
• Web: applies to HTML Pages, XHTML Pages, HTML Help, JavaHelp, and Oracle Help for Java.

Object Version

Contains a read-only unique version number for each version of an object. The Object Code will not change from one version of an object to another.

Object Status

A read-only text property that contains the current status of the version of the object. A version of an object can move through several different states during its life cycle.

View Edit History

Opens View Edit History window which shows a list of the changes made to this object.