Sections can also be used to create topics. In a technical writing context, the term topic identifies a single page of an online help (e.g. a Compiled HTML file, or CHM). Topics should generally be:

• self-contained, in the sense that they should make sense on their own, ideally without the need to be read in sequence
• be used for either concepts, tasks or references
• be divided into meaningful sections like Introduction, Procedure, Result

Glyph does not formally enforce the correctness of topic composition and usage, but it does enable authors to create them as a sort of external sections. Consider the following Glyph code:

section[
  @title[My First Topic]
  @id[first_topic]
  @src[test/first_topic.glyph]
]

This is an ordinary section with a title and an explicit ID, but it has no contents. Instead, its @src attribute references an external file. If you are generating a single-file document, like a standalone HTML file or a PDF file, the code snippet above is exactly the same as the following:

section[
  @title[My First Topic]
  @id[first_topic]
  include[test/first_topic.glyph]
]

On the other hand, if you are planning on producing a document comprised of multiple files (see Web/Web5 Output), the @src attribute tells Glyph to create a topic for the section. In this case:

• The @title attribute must be specified and is used as the topic title
• The body of the topic is constituted by the contents of the file referenced by the @src attribute.
• The topic file is rendered according to a specific layout.
• The location of the topic is the same as the location of the included file, mirrored in the output folder.
• Glyph takes care of changing the file extensions and resolving links automatically, regardless of the output target.