Question regarding modular help systems

[Ilona Drezek]

Hello,

I couldn't find appropriate topic so I decided to create that topic. I would like to create modular help and I want to know if there is an "intelligent" way to merge different projects.
Here is example:
I would like to have 2 projects : A and B. Each will have the same structure, I mean:

Project A
1. Forms
1.1 Form A1
1.2. Form A2
2. Processes
1.1 Process A1
1.2. Process A2
3. Interfaces

Project B
1. Forms
1.1 Form B1
1.2. Form B2
2. Processes
1.1 Process B1
1.2. Process B2
3. Interfaces

Each topic in the project will have different sub-topics. Then, I would like to publish these two projects and create one TOC, but with the following structure:
1. Forms
1.1 Form A1
1.2. Form A2
1.3 Form B1
1.4. Form B2
2. Processes
1.1 Process B1
1.2. Process B2
1.3 Process B1
1.4. Process B2
3. Interfaces

Is it possible to make it automatically? Thanks in advance for any suggestion.

[Tim Green]

Hi Ilona,

When you combine projects as modules, each project is a single block in the combined TOC. So you get all the topics of module A first, and then all the topics of module B. You can't put parts of module B's TOC inside the TOC of module A, or vice versa. You can create additional TOCs in Help & Manual 7, but that TOC can currently only contain topics from the current project. You can't add topics from other modules.

If you want to avoid the additional work and restrictions of physically combining the projects to create a new project, what you need to do here is create a new project that inserts the topics from the other projects as dynamic links. Then you still edit the topics in the original projects and there is just one copy of them. This requires that all the projects be stored in the uncompressed HMXP format, because you need to access the topic files directly. This format is also strongly recommended for all ongoing work.

In the new project, which you should create as a copy of the original project so that you have all the styles etc. in place (then delete the topics), you use this procedure for adding topics:

1. Create a new empty topic.
2. Click in the topic and select the Snippet tool in Write > Insert
3. Select From File, Snippet is Linked and Snippet Begins a New Paragraph
4. Click on [..] and select the topic file you want to insert from the other project, from the /Topics folder of the other project, and click on OK to insert

An uneditable copy of the topic will be displayed with a shaded background. The topic still only exists in the other project and can only be edited there, but when you publish it will be exactly the same as publishing with a topic that belongs to the project directly.

You can also enter additional content above and below the snippet, or even other snippets. When you enter entire topics like this their index keywords are also imported. You have to be careful with things like hyperlinks, however, because they can't be changed in the new location.