Merging two projects

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Rob Davis
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Merging two projects

Unread post by Rob Davis »

HI
(There's a lot of background, but I'll start with just a simple question)
If we want to combine two old projects into one new larger one, then duplicate topic names are going to be a danger. Is there any convenient way to do a global rename of topics (such as adding an 'x' to all topic names in one of the projects) before merging them?
And . . is it possible to copy all topics from one project into another without doing it one topic at a time?
Thanks
Rob
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Tim Green
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Re: Merging two projects

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Rob,
Rob Davis wrote:Is there any convenient way to do a global rename of topics (such as adding an 'x' to all topic names in one of the projects) before merging them?

You can't do this from within Help+Manual itself because it's quite a complex operation. It involves changing the topic IDs, renaming the topic files, changing the references to the topic IDs in the TOC file(s) and also updating all references and links to the topics within the project. However, the Toolbox power tools utility included with the Premium Pack has a function that does exactly this, in the Tools menu. You can use it to both add and remove prefixes globally to your topic IDs in a project, and it will perform all the above operations automatically while doing it.
And . . is it possible to copy all topics from one project into another without doing it one topic at a time?
You can do this with copy/paste between the projects' TOCs. Select all the topics you want to copy with CTRL+Click an SHIFT+Click, press CTRL+C to copy, then click in the TOC of the target project and press CTRL+V to paste.

However, the question is whether you really need to merge the projects. If you insert both projects in a master project as modules you get exactly the same results as if you had merged them, with the added benefit that you still have them separate if you ever need that again. You do need to sort out the topic ID conflicts first, but apart from that there are no problems with doing it this way.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Rob Davis
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Re: Merging two projects

Unread post by Rob Davis »

Thanks for the (as always) detailed and helpful reply.
Our reason for merging the projects is that we had a Help file and a separate 'User Guide' in the days when people actually printed out their manuals. But they have grown apart over the last 5 years, however still with wide areas of overlap, a lot of duplicated information, duplicated graphics etc. The whole thing defies the idea of single-sourcing, and I want to do a major clean-up - shared graphics, shared tables of parameters, all sorts of stuff. I'm thinking of a large project, and two (or more) ToCs.
But I'll think about your suggestion for organizing the content - there is still a lot of planning ahead.
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Rob Davis
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Re: Merging two projects

Unread post by Rob Davis »

HI
I am trying to use the Toolbox to add Topic prefixes, and I am clearly dong something wrong.
It goes like this:
1. I copy the project to a new folder.
2. Open the project using the Toolbox file explorer (using the dropdown to change the Search criteria to include 'Projects'.
- Premium Pack Toolbox 3.45.1 window shows the selected project. Signals that there are 85 duplicate files in search paths ( . . part of the reason I am doing this cleanup)
3. I select 'Tools/Add/Remove Topic Prefixes.
At this point, whether I try to Add a prefix, (or delete the instance of an apparent prefix which was just a name I had chosen), the following happens:
The Toolbox appears to 'process' the file - (I see the green progress bar compete it's path), and then the Toolbox closes.

Upon re-opening the project file, nothing has changed.
The project has not been updated.
I do not find any reference to another file.

Where is the new, updated file?

Please help!

Thanks
Rob
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Tim Green
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Re: Merging two projects

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Rob,
The Toolbox appears to 'process' the file - (I see the green progress bar compete it's path), and then the Toolbox closes.
That sounds like a silent crash, which would be very unusual. You should be getting a confirmation dialog that shows you how many prefixes have been added or deleted, and Toolbox will definitely stay open. So, question time:

First check the project filename, are there any funky characters in it? Is the project you are processing stored in an unusual place or on an unusual path? If so, try changing the name and/or moving it to a local folder before processing. It also needs to be in a folder where your account has full read/write permissions, of course... 8)

Does the project actually contain duplicate topic IDs? That would be difficult to achieve, but theoretically possible if you were working on an uncompressed project and adding topic files manually to a sub-folder of the \Topics\ folder. That would definitely cause all kinds of mischief, because a project with duplicate IDs is fundamentally invalid.

Please do mail me the project at support AT ec-software.com (replace the AT with @), because whatever the cause it shouldn't be happening. I need to know what in your project is triggering the problem before the 3.46 maintenance update is released.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Rob Davis
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Re: Merging two projects

Unread post by Rob Davis »

Received an update on the Toolbox (which Tim says will also be in the upcoming Maintenance Release)
Problem fixed!
Much thanks to TIm for turning around the problem so quickly!
Rob
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