Wrapped around the axle re: combining projects

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Dave Gehman
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Wrapped around the axle re: combining projects

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

Question from a shared project, floating licensed newbie.

Excecutive summary: We need to merge two H+M projects. "Merge" in this case means "bring in some 30+ topics from one independent H+M project into a second H+M project." There is no duplication of topics between the two -- the added 30+ donor topics are all new to the recipient project.

The background:
Until recently, I've been the sole author of our company's online Webhelp documentation. We were able to recruit a really good and technically savvy 2nd author. He took to H+M immediately, but....

We've gotten ourselves into a tangle.

I failed to make clear to the 2nd author that we should be working in a single shared project using H+M's Floating license. Let's call that single project, the "primary project." He has been doing his authoring in an entirely separate project.

We need to move some 30+ topics from this separate project, our 2nd author's project, into the primary project.

The questions
1. Is this simply a matter of copying or loading the 2nd project topics into the primary project?
2. If so, what happens to the 2nd project Maps, Topics, Baggage, _history content? How do we move the applicable parts of those as well?
3. The 2nd project was set up with an Images folder, but it's separate from the primary project's Images folder... can we simply copy the 2nd project images there?
4. If so, what happens to the 2nd project's internal links to those images?

It looks as though this is covered at least in part in "Importing and Copying topics and XML files" under the "Loading entire topics from external files." -- https://www.helpandmanual.com/help/hm_n ... nd+copying -- Right?

If so, is there a way batch the process, or do we need to manually load single topics one by one via File > Load Topic from File?
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Martin Wynne
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Re: Wrapped around the axle re: combining projects

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Hi Dave,

No doubt Tim will provide chapter & verse on the official method shortly.

However, a quick method which I have used in the past is to publish to CHM from the donor project, and then import the CHM into the recipient project:

hm_import_chm.png

You get all the topic text, images, most baggage files, etc. The topics may need some rework to the styles and formatting.

Any omitted baggage files can just be copied across -- you can put anything you like in an H&M project's Baggage folder without reference to H&M. Just re-open the project and it will find them.

Worth a try, you can always delete the topics if no good.

cheers,

Martin.
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Dave Gehman
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Re: Wrapped around the axle re: combining projects

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

Martin, thanks. Your suggestion is a surprise -- never would have thought of anything like this.

The last computer I owned that had the Microsoft CHM compiler on it has long ago crumbled to silicone dust. I'll have to reacquaint myself with the compiling prerequisites and processes. After that, I'll try your suggestion.

One thing we would like to preserve is the image file names. If the CHM import is anything like pasting from Word, the graphics end up being either an identifier assigned by H+M or a manually-entered name. It would be mind-boggling to look up each graphic's name and enter it manually as there are hundreds of graphics...

Anyway, as always, thanks for opening a new avenue of thinking for us.
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Martin Wynne
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Re: Wrapped around the axle re: combining projects

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Hi Dave,

Just try publishing to CHM - H&M will provide download links for obtaining the CHM compiler if it's not already installed. It would probably be better not to use any CHM skin.

The image file names will be preserved and the images appear normally. They are saved into the first folder in your Search paths, so take care not to overwrite any existing image files having the same name. You might want to add an additional folder to your Search paths, and move it to the top.

There is an option on the import to ignore the styles in the import and use the recipient project styles. More info: https://www.helpandmanual.com/help/hm_w ... tings.html

Bear in mind that H&M is importing its own CHM, so it should be able to make full sense of it. CHM's from elsewhere can be more iffy.

cheers,

Martin.
Last edited by Martin Wynne on Tue Jun 02, 2020 2:40 am, edited 3 times in total.
Dave Gehman
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Re: Wrapped around the axle re: combining projects

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

Again, thanks. I'll try it in the (U.S.) morning.
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Tim Green
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Re: Wrapped around the axle re: combining projects

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Dave,

While Martin's suggestion works to a certain extent, the problems and side-effects it would cause make it a solution that you should really only use in an emergency when you don't have the original project. If you have the original project it couldn't be simpler:
  1. Open Help+Manual twice with the source and target projects.
  2. Select all the topics you want to import in the source project'ts TOC using SHIFT+CLICK and CTRL+CLICK and then press CTRL+C to copy.
  3. Click in the target project and press CTRL+V to paste.
  4. Move any images used in the source project to the image folders of the target project. If you need to create new image folders for any reason, add entries for them to the project search path of the target project (Configuration > Common Properties > Project Search Path)
That's it. 8)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Dave Gehman
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Re: Wrapped around the axle re: combining projects

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

Tim Green wrote: Tue Jun 02, 2020 6:56 am If you have the original project it couldn't be simpler:
Ah - as we Americans say*, yee-haa. You have lifted a great weight from me: many thanks (once again).

EDIT: how does the solution work vis-a-vis our floating licenses? We have two; will the 2nd author, John, be using both our licenses in order to do this?

_______________________________
*Actually, we here in Massachusetts don't, unless we're playing Texans for some reason.
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Tim Green
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Re: Wrapped around the axle re: combining projects

Unread post by Tim Green »

Dave Gehman wrote: Tue Jun 02, 2020 10:08 amEDIT: how does the solution work vis-a-vis our floating licenses? We have two; will the 2nd author, John, be using both our licenses in order to do this?
No, you can open the program as many times as you like on the same computer. It will still only use one license slot there. 8)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Dave Gehman
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Re: Wrapped around the axle re: combining projects

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

And again, many thanks.
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Martin Wynne
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Re: Wrapped around the axle re: combining projects

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Hi Tim,

Can you clarify a bit more about what happens when copying and pasting topics between separate instances of H&M? What happens about several of the project settings in the donor project -- such as the styles, text variables, custom page templates? Does any of that get pasted/combined, or does it all get modified to the recipient project settings, as for an import?

cheers,

Martin.
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Tim Green
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Re: Wrapped around the axle re: combining projects

Unread post by Tim Green »

Martin Wynne wrote: Tue Jun 02, 2020 12:42 pmCan you clarify a bit more about what happens when copying and pasting topics between separate instances of H&M? What happens about several of the project settings in the donor project -- such as the styles, text variables, custom page templates? Does any of that get pasted/combined, or does it all get modified to the recipient project settings, as for an import?
The variable references and style references in the text in the topics get copied over, of course, because they are part of the topic XML. Everything else is stored in the main settings file (.hmxp) so you would have to import those sections separately. The variables section can be merged. The styles section only does a full overwrite, so that is generally not such a good idea -- that's another good reason to use style repositories. Custom page content templates are separate XML files; you just need to copy those from one project folder to another. HTML page templates are effectively non-functional in projects now, since you would pretty much never not use a skin.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Martin Wynne
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Re: Wrapped around the axle re: combining projects

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Thanks Tim.

p.s. I'm not using skins these days. It's just so much simpler to have everything in one place in the project, and edit the HTML templates directly. I can use multiple topic page templates, add any scripting I like without fear of it conflicting with a skin, and bolt on any bits of Meccano that come to hand. I also use the old-style frameset layout which works great on wide screens nowadays. I use HM8 as if it's still HM3 (which did have overwrite mode in the old RTF editor). :)

cheers,

Martin.
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