Wish List Item: Snippet properties

[Ed Dressel]

I work with snippets quite a bit--putting the same content in different parts of the help file. They save me a lot of time and they are great.

When I do this, I often need to have links that go do different sections for each place I would be put the snippet. This means I create several snippets for the same page, just so the link can go to the correct location.

For example, here is how it works now:

For one section I
[Snippet A 1]
A Link to Local Item
[Snippet A 2]
Another link to a local item
[Snippet A 3]

It is because these links go to local sections, rather than always to the same section, that I have to break a page into 3 snippets.

It would be nice if I could right-click over the snippet, select "Properties" and override any links that are entered in the snippet.

Does that make sense?

Ed Dressel

[Tim Green]

Hi Ed,

It would be nice if I could right-click over the snippet, select "Properties" and override any links that are entered in the snippet. Does that make sense?

It does in the sense of something that would be nice to have, but it wouldn't be practical. It would mean defining a whole parser module to change things in snippets before they are inserted, because a snippet is really just a topic or topic file from another location.

What you can do is use variables for your links in the original snippets and define those variables in all the projects in which you want to use the snippets. You can also do this in snippet files that are just saved as HTML. Just type in the the variable name in the format <%VARIABLE_NAME%> in the body of your text. That will also work -- inserting variables with the Variable tool is really just a convenience.

[Ed Dressel]

Tim:

Thank you for responding.

The problem with your method is that the snippets I am using are used in the same project--I don't' think I can have different variable names for different topics in the same project? I have two calculators that are fairly similar, with many of the same calculation pages--and they are ~100 pages long each. The content is 60% the same, but I cannot have links going from one calculator to another for a couple of reasons: it would be cumbersome going back to the page they were on, and not all companies purchase both calculators and if they don't include the non-relevant part of the help file).

I know you aren't a fan of my solution (I still like it ) but I still would like a solution for this.

Ed Dressel

[Tim Green]

Hi Ed,

I don't' think I can have different variable names for different topics in the same project?

You're right, actually, but for a different reason than what you think here: You can't put active links in variables, I wasn't thinking about that when I suggested it.

Unfortunately, the fact is that you cannot change links inside snippets with variables. What you can do is use conditional text tags around the variables. For example [IF_BUILD1>Link 1<END][IF_BUILD2>Link 2<END]. That will work in combination with using the corresponding build options for your different versions.

[Ed Dressel]

Tim:

For clarity: I use snippets multiple times in the same project. Having to break them apart for links makes for a lot more work.

Ed Dressel