Rearranging Topic Files Subfolders (minor)

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Rainer Oehry
Posts: 102
Joined: Sun Dec 10, 2017 12:47 pm

Rearranging Topic Files Subfolders (minor)

Unread post by Rainer Oehry »

Under Project Files → Topic Files, I have several additional topic subfolders besides the standard Topics folder. I would like to rearrange their order in the project explorer.

The up/down arrows in the "Manage Topics" ribbon section are not available, and also with drag and drop I had no luck—it seems that I cannot move those folders. The horizontal blue line appears and follows the cursor, but I am nowhere allowed to drop the folder, the "forbidden" cursor does not change.

Is there a way to do that?
Regards,

Rainer
Head of Technical Writing & Knowledge Management
TIG Technische Informationssysteme GmbH, Rankweil, Austria
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Tim Green
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Re: Rearranging Topic Files Subfolders (minor)

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Rainer,

You can't rearrange these folders because they are real folders on your computer, even if they are hidden inside a HMXZ file. You can see this more clearly in an uncompressed HMXP project. If you look in the Topics folder inside the project folder you will see the actual sub-folders inside it. It would only be possible to add sorting options like those in Windows Explorer, but that is not currently supported from within Help+Manual.

However, you can influence the display order by choosing appropriate names for the folders that will affect their standard sorting order. (Note that new folders are initially shown at the bottom of the list but they will appear sorted the next time you open the project.) You can't rename folders from within Help+Manual, however. Also: DON'T try to rename, create, delete etc. topic folders outside Help+Manual! That will cause internal errors in the project.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Rainer Oehry
Posts: 102
Joined: Sun Dec 10, 2017 12:47 pm

Re: Rearranging Topic Files Subfolders (minor)

Unread post by Rainer Oehry »

Thank you, Tim.

If I understand you correctly, once created, I can neither rename topic folders in H&M nor on the operating system level, and therefore the names – and the resulting sorting order – are a "one-time shot".

I could, I suppose, create a new topic folder with a better name for the desired folder sorting order, move all individual topics from the "wrong" folder into the new folder and delete the no longer used old folder?

Anyway, this is not required on a regular basis, and now that I am aware of this limitation, I can choose appropriate topic folder names right from the beginning.
Regards,

Rainer
Head of Technical Writing & Knowledge Management
TIG Technische Informationssysteme GmbH, Rankweil, Austria
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Tim Green
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Re: Rearranging Topic Files Subfolders (minor)

Unread post by Tim Green »

Rainer Oehry wrote:I could, I suppose, create a new topic folder with a better name for the desired folder sorting order, move all individual topics from the "wrong" folder into the new folder and delete the no longer used old folder?
That is currently the way you would have to do it, yes. :?
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
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