Working with Style Repositories

[ka_rexroth]

We are working with a centralized style repository in H&M9 and have two questions for that:

• the connection to the style repository is a program setting as we understood. Is that connection then stored somewhere in a format we could share between our users? (we install H&M via a tool distribution system and would like to share that setting also so not everyone has to make that setup manually)
• we are also struggling to understand WHY this is a program setting at all - assume I am working with two projects with intentionally different style repos (e.g. for different brands of our company) - how would I set that up?

[Tim Green]

Hi Ka,

Every user does need to use the repository manager tool in the file menu to add repositories to Help+Manual. So the repositories should be included in a location where all users have access. And if you are using version control, then the style repository should be under version control and each user should have a local working copy of it.

The logic is that you can add any number of repositories to the program settings, and then use them for multiple projects.

[ka_rexroth]

Hi,

Thanks. That the repository should be in an accessible & central location is clear.
Question was more: can we share the program configuration on how to access this central config? So not every user has to add it manually?

(motivation is less the 5 clicks for that but more users forgetting to do so and editing - which leads to local style definitions in the H&M XML - which are hard to remove afterwards).

PS: If I add multiple repositories the styles inside would have to have distinct names right? (so something like Heading1_BlueBrand and Heading1_RedBrand) right?

[Tim Green]

(motivation is less the 5 clicks for that but more users forgetting to do so and editing - which leads to local style definitions in the H&M XML - which are hard to remove afterwards).

That doesn't happen with a shared project because the styles are already imported from the style repository and locked, so the user can't edit them. They appear in Edit Styles with a red lock icon on each style name. They can only be edited in the repository project. Users can add new local styles, but that is all.

The only time this can be an issue is when a user is creating a completely new project. Then they do have to add the style repository manually. The way around this would be to create a "template project" with a few placeholder topics and the style repository already linked. Then you could require that users copy this to make new projects.

[ka_rexroth]

Thanks!

Ah, so adding the style repository is only necessary if I set up a new project, NOT if I just open an existing project with the styles already included?

Still not totally convinced why the connection to the style repo is a program and not a project setting, but I take that as workaround.

regards, Karsten

[Tim Green]

Ah, so adding the style repository is only necessary if I set up a new project, NOT if I just open an existing project with the styles already included?

The link to the repository is a project setting, but the user does also need to have the repository registered in their copy of Help+Manual. But if they're using the same repository for multiple projects, which would be the norm, then that only needs to be done once.