Synchronize projects a second time?

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Rob Beginner
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Joined: Tue Mar 14, 2017 11:34 am

Synchronize projects a second time?

Unread post by Rob Beginner »

Hi,

I synchronized two projects with the wrong settings. I checked "Do not overwrite, just flag changes" instead of "Simply overwrite with new content". When I run the process a second time (with correct settings), nothing changes in the sibling project. I assume that's because, technically, the projects have already been synchronized and there are no differences anymore (none that H&M can detect).

Is there a way I can fix this and get the new content into the changed topics of the sibling project or do I have to do it manually now? If possible, I'd like to avoid reverting the sibling to a backup copy.
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Tim Green
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Re: Synchronize projects a second time?

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Rob,

I'm checking with our developers on this, but you should find that there are changes after the overwrite operation. You may only see them if you look at the individual topics. Are you still seeing the same change highlights in the table of contents? Was "Highlight changed topics" checked?

Generally, I would only ever recommend using the default option of "Keep old and new text" because that is the only way you can compare the differences. Synchronize can't do a text-level compare, because you can't compare text in two languages. It can only tell you which topics have been edited on the basis of the last edit date, compared to the last edit date in the translated sibling. Only if you keep the old and new text do you have the means of comparing, because the new original is inserted above the old translation with a dividing line between the two.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Rob Beginner
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Mar 14, 2017 11:34 am

Re: Synchronize projects a second time?

Unread post by Rob Beginner »

Hi Tim, thanks for your quick response. I checked again and there are no changes in individual topics. "Highlight changed topics" was checked but not all changed topics are highlighted either...

Two examples:
  • I added a new topic to the original project. That topic was added to the sibling and highlighted. Due to my wrong settings, there is no content in it. Running the sync process another time does not change that.
  • I changed the content of an existing topic of the original project. In the sibling project, the topic is neither highlighted nor did the content change in any way. It should have been overwritten with the new content. When I open the version history of both, the original and sibling topic, the time stamp shows that the original is newer. However, the sync does not cause the highlighting/changes to show up in the sibling.
I am assuming that's because when I synced it the first time, I did so with the "only flag changes" setting and now H&M thinks everything is already synced. If that is how syncing works, I would suggest adding a warning note to the "flag changes only" option, explaining you will not be able to sync the same (unchanged) topics again with different settings.
Rob Beginner
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Mar 14, 2017 11:34 am

Re: Synchronize projects a second time?

Unread post by Rob Beginner »

Ok, so a workaround would be to add an empty comment to all the altered/new topics in the original project and sync the two projects again. H&M finally admits that there are never-synced-before changes in the original topics and puts them into the sibling copy.
Rob Beginner
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Mar 14, 2017 11:34 am

Re: Synchronize projects a second time?

Unread post by Rob Beginner »

Sorry, the missing highlighting in the example above was my mistake too. I closed and reopened the sibling project after the sync and now the highlighting is there.
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Tim Green
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Re: Synchronize projects a second time?

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Rob,

Yes, I checked this and in a situation like that you need to close and re-open the project before synchronizing again. Then it should work normally. You shouldn't need to introduce changes to the updated project for this to work if you re-open. :)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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