### 7.6.2 Understanding how ALinks work

Associative links (ALinks) connect a given topic to one or more other topics that share the same ALink keyword. When you are viewing a topic that contains an ALink jump, you can click the ALink jump hotspot (or related-topics button) to see a list of links to associated topics. The list of links is displayed either in a navigation pane (as in OmniHelp), or in a pop-up menu or dialog (as in WinHelp 4, HTML Help, and Oracle Help for Java).

The following Mif2Go-generated Help systems support ALinks:

WinHelp 4

HTML Help

OmniHelp

Oracle Help for Java

ALink keyword

You insert an ALink keyword in a topic, to accomplish the following:

• assign membership of that topic in an ALink set

• provide a destination for corresponding links from an ALink list, which is accessed from an ALink jump.

The ALink set is identified by the ALink keyword. In effect, you label the topic with an ALink keyword.

ALink jump

In some other topic, you insert an ALink jump that specifies the same ALink keyword; when a user clicks that ALink jump, the corresponding ALink list of links to all topics in the set is displayed.

Bi-directional ALinks

OmniHelp supports a variation: all topics that share the same ALink keyword belong to the same “pool” of topics. When any topic that is a member of a pool is displayed, links to all other members of that pool are automatically listed in the navigation pane when you click Related. See §7.6.4.1 Adding related-topic link keywords via markers.

For a similar approach in HTML Help and Oracle Help for Java, see §7.6.6 Creating target-and-jump ALinks for HTML-based Help.

| 7.6.1 Understanding related-topic links |  | 7.6.3 Understanding how KLinks work |