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ych1
ych1
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Is there an easy way to unlink a Project?

Apr 23, 2010 8:30 AM

I am trying to unlink our files so as to continue working directly in RH only.  What is the best way to unlink a project?  I tried recreating the project and importing the HTML files generated but I am not able to import the index and TOC from the linked project. The index is quite large so it will represent a lot of work to re-create it in RH.  Importing the FM files to the new RH project also seems like a lot of work given all the "prep" work required. It would be nice to just be able to unlink the existing project files.  Does anybody know if this is possible?

938 Views   14 Replies   Latest reply: techpubsmistress, Apr 15, 2011 1:52 PM
 
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  • Peter Grainge
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    1. Peter Grainge,
    Apr 23, 2010 9:54 AM   in reply to ych1
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    Wouldn't unlinking mean that next time you update you will have no topics? I don't work with FM but from what I have seen of linking to FM or Word, that is what would happen.

     

    That turns to importing but you have seen the problems with that.

     

    This might not be perfect but how about generating a CHM and then reverse engineering that to see if that gives you a good enough starter? It wouldn't take long to try it out.

     

    See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

     

    @petergrainge

     
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  • roundpegmatt
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    2. roundpegmatt,
    Apr 23, 2010 10:40 AM   in reply to Peter Grainge
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    No need to unlink, really.

     

    If you never update your FM source, you'll never need to update the link. If you delete the FM files from RH project, you should retain the topics, indexes, and toc's already processed. Is this not what's been happening?

     
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  • Peter Grainge
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    3. Peter Grainge,
    Apr 23, 2010 10:50 AM   in reply to roundpegmatt
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    Won't FM prompt to update the topics which would cancel out the changes made in RH? I was think it would be safer to make the break rather than rely on no one ever "updating". More your area Matt but that was my thinking.

     

    See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

     

    @petergrainge

     
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  • Daggins
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    4. Daggins,
    Apr 23, 2010 10:51 AM   in reply to ych1
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    Yes, you can break the link of specific topics between RH and FM. The next time you run a Force Update command, the RH topics will not be updated by any changes made to the FM files. To do this:

     

    1. From RH Project Manager, right-click over the FM file and select Properties.
    2. Select the File Update Settings tab.
    3. Select the files that will have all modifications preserved the next time you run a Force Update command.
     
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  • mattrsullivan
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    5. mattrsullivan,
    Apr 23, 2010 11:06 AM   in reply to Peter Grainge
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    Yes, I would either remove from the RH project or simply move the location

    of the FM source files.

     

    I'm just pointing out that after linking, you're not ever forced to rely on

    the FM files again. In fact, the Force Update and Force Update All options

    exist in case you err and edit the RH files directly by mistake.

     

     

     

     

    -Matt

     
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  • ych1
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    6. ych1,
    Apr 23, 2010 1:50 PM   in reply to ych1
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    I changed the file update settings for all the FM files so as to preserve all RH modifications and it worked fine.  I tried deleting and/or moving the FM files to break up the link, but after doing that, the topics were not longer accesible.

     
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  • grammatophile
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    7. grammatophile,
    Apr 28, 2010 9:44 AM   in reply to ych1
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    You should simply be able to move the RH project to another folder, location.

     

    This breaks the link with the book. Then you can modify the files as needed. This works in TCS1 anyway.

     
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  • ych1
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    8. ych1,
    Apr 28, 2010 10:31 AM   in reply to grammatophile
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    When I deleted the FM book from Robohelp, the topics were no longer available. However, after I tried deleting or moving the topics through Explorer, the topics were still available in RH and they were no longer linked, but the TOC needed fixing as the topics were appearing as books with no topics inside.

     
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  • techpubsmistress
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    9. techpubsmistress,
    Apr 15, 2011 6:57 AM   in reply to ych1
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    Did you ever get this to work?

     

    I'd like to import the FM books and trash the "seemless single-sourcing" (ha ha, seemless!).

     
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  • grammatophile
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    10. grammatophile,
    Apr 15, 2011 7:04 AM   in reply to techpubsmistress
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    Hi, You can import books directly into RH from FM, but not sure why you'd

    want to do this.

     

    Charles Miller

     
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  • Jeff_Coatsworth
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    11. Jeff_Coatsworth,
    Apr 15, 2011 7:05 AM   in reply to techpubsmistress
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    If you just import the FM books into a RH project, there's no lasting link created. I do it every time I create a new build of our help because of issues with linking that I ran into.

     
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  • Jeff_Coatsworth
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    12. Jeff_Coatsworth,
    Apr 15, 2011 7:10 AM   in reply to grammatophile
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    I have to do it that way because if you the FM feature of a book of books (1 master book, lots of sub-books), linking falls apart.

     
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  • ych1
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    13. ych1,
    Apr 15, 2011 7:18 AM   in reply to techpubsmistress
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    I unlinked the files using a combination of the  methods suggested (I don't remember the exact procedure I followed).  However, we decided later on to re-create the project and re-import the topics, index, TOC, etc. as there were some issues with the unlinked files (for example, we could not modify the name of the topics created in FM).

     
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  • techpubsmistress
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    14. techpubsmistress,
    Apr 15, 2011 1:52 PM   in reply to grammatophile
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    When LINKING the FM books in RH, there were too many things that didn't work seamlessly. All images had to be re-formatted. Tables didn't really reflect the properties entered into RH. Word spacing is weird sometimes. Links extend to the ends of sentences. HTML code that was displayed wasn't what was represented in the WebHelp. Much CSS work was needed to override the HTML so it would look right. The search and index in RH output doesn't produce helpful output...dare I go on?

     

    I feel if I could DIRECTLY edit the content in RH, maybe I won't commit homicide or suicide trying to figure out what sacrifice to offer the RH gods so it will do what it says it will. I understand that the tag mapping that I have already done and saved in the settings.isf cannot be used on IMPORTED books, but that you have to define each one individually. (Why this is, I have no idea.) So, I thought I could attempt to break the link after applying the settings so I could edit the content in RH.

     

    I still haven't seen a good workflow or for FM to RH in TCS2. We aren't willing to dish over another $700 to get TCS3 for the minor fixes Adobe has made. PDF output from RH is ugly too.

     

     

    Missy

     
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