Promote and Demote Headings

Promote Headings · Demote Headings

Cleanup ⚡ tab → Styling group

Shifts every heading in the active topic one level up or down in one click — useful after splitting or merging topics, or when imported content arrived one heading level off.

• Promote Headings: h2 becomes h1, h3 becomes h2, and so on.
• Demote Headings: h1 becomes h2, h2 becomes h3, and so on.

To promote or demote headings

1. Open the topic (unsaved edits are saved first, so they are included).
2. Click Promote Headings or Demote Headings in the Styling group.
3. Confirm. The topic is backed up, transformed, saved, and reloaded in the editor.
4. A message reports how many headings were shifted.

Guard rails

• Existing h1 headings never promote past h1, and existing h6 headings never demote past h6 — they stay where they are. When that would merge two levels (for example promoting h2 into a topic that already has h1), the confirmation dialog warns you first.
• If the topic has no headings at all, or contains invalid XML, you get a clear message and nothing is changed.

Notes

• The commands work on the whole active topic — every h1–h6, not just a selection. Click twice to shift two levels.
• Headings inside snippets referenced by the topic are not touched — open the snippet and run the command there.
• The single-file backup is your undo; restore it with Backup and Restore.