Help context number - internal contradiction

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Winsteps
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Help context number - internal contradiction

Unread post by Winsteps »

According the H&M Help: "The help context number is a second unique identifier for topics. Like the topic ID it must be unique ..."
But the same topic is assigned two ids in my HM4 file. See the attachment. The topic has two ids: 320 and 428. 320 is the correct topic Id. 428 is spurious.

And now I've discovered when this happens ... when I do demotion of a block of topics using the "cut and paste" method! Any suggestions how to repair the HM4 file?
(Later: repairing was easy using the Help Context Tool and a backup copy of the HM4 file.)
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Last edited by Winsteps on Tue Sep 18, 2007 12:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Tim Green
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Unread post by Tim Green »

You can only have one topic ID but you can have multiple help context numbers, you add them by separating them by commas (this is also described in the help). They must still be unique, i.e. each of them can only be used in one topic in your project.

However, in your screenshots this does not seem to be the case because the topic in question only has one number assigned to it. The number shown in the left list may be an old number that was deleted. You probably just need to refresh and purge the internal database in your project file. To do this select the Repair & Recover function in the Tools menu.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Winsteps
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Unread post by Winsteps »

Thanks, Tim. I misunderstood "unique". But I don't want new topic ids when I "cut and paste" topics. Can I "cut and paste" a topic and keep its old Help Context Number?
Last edited by Winsteps on Wed Sep 19, 2007 9:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Tim Green
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Winsteps wrote:Thanks, Tim. I misunderstood "unique". But I don't want new topic ids when I "cut and paste" topics. Can I "cut and paste" a topic and keep its old topic number?
No, absolutely not. If you did that your help would crash, it is physically impossible to have duplicate context numbers in a single project.
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Winsteps
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Unread post by Winsteps »

OK - thanks. So "The Help Context Number changes whenever you cut-and-paste a Topic" - That's a pain ... Wish the Help Context Number could stay the same for the first paste after a cut - just like the Topic ID does. Obviously Help Context Number must change the second time a Topic is pasted, as the Topic ID already does.
Last edited by Winsteps on Wed Sep 19, 2007 9:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Dean Whitlock
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Unread post by Dean Whitlock »

Hi Winsteps and Tim,

I'm confused. I just used cut-and-paste to move a topic within the same project, and the topic ID did not change. Are we talking about the same thing here? Select topic, use Edit > Cut, click on another topic, use Edit > Paste? (I assume that Ctrl-x and Ctrl-v would do the same thing.)

Dean
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Winsteps
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Unread post by Winsteps »

Dean ... Thanks for your concern. Take a careful look at what happens when you cut-and-paste a topic:
The Topic ID does not change, but the Help Context Number does.
It would be great if the Help Context Number changes automatically only when the Topic ID does.
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Tim Green
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Winsteps wrote:Take a careful look at what happens when you cut-and-paste a topic:
The Topic ID does not change, but the Help Context Number does.
Hmm... this does look like a glitch. I've asked the developers to have a look at it. :?
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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