Mass Import of Help Topics

[J41]

Is there a way to mass import topics and attach a template to them? Or is it possible to import an Excel spreadsheet and generate help topic shells based on the info in the spreadsheet? e.g. column A = directory, column B = help topic title

Thanks!

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

No way I'm aware of to make that happen.

You are able to import lots of topics at a time by choosing File > Import and selecting many, but that's about the extent of it.

Assigning a template is simple enough. Just select all the topics in the Topic List and right-click. Choose the template from the properties.

Cheers... Rick

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[J41]

Thanks Captiv8r! - I tried what you said and the import works and the apply the template using the Topic List tab works fine, but if I make subsequent adjustments to the template the topics aren't update appropriately. Any reason why?

BTW - I'm using RH7

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

When you update a Template, any topics linked to the template are automatically updated. However, Templates work in two ways.

1. To propagate content across multiple topics
2. To serve as a foundation on which to build topics

In the first way, any changes are seen across all topics associated with the Template. Typically that means headers and footers.

In the second way, amendments to the Template are only seen by any new topics created using the template as a foundation.

Cheers... Rick

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[J41]

Great info! Thanks again.

I created an app that will build the directories, sub directories, topic pages (based on the .HTT template file) along with the appropriate .fpj files from a list in Excel. Once I get my site up and running, I'll post it for others to use. Considering I have 100's of topics for some projects and normally create the topic shells first and populate last, I'm hoping it will save me time by sorta automating the topic creation. Initial tests indicate it will. Maybe it can help others as well.

Thanks!

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

Sounds like an interesting approach. Kind of odd, but interesting.

Cheers... Rick

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[Guest]

Hello. Although this post is three years ago, I was just wondering if RH still is unable to do a mass import of topics with a template attached. I am yet to find a way to do this.

We have many versions of our products, and I use the previous version as the baseline for the new one, so I import the two templates first and then the htm files secondly. But each time, I have to attach a template and re-index. There can be hundreds of htm files in these projects.

I'm using RH 7 HTML, and I don't like copying an existing project and renaming it. When I've done that it seemed to retain some dupicate files, and with SVN version control, it was a bit confusing, so I import the existing htms into a new project.

Thanks for any updates.

Kevin

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Kevin. Things are still the same but as Rick suggested it is dead easy to apply a template to multiple topics. What may make it easier for you is if you create a new folder and import your topics into it. This would make selecting the files to apply the template to a whole lot easier if you have multiple templates. Just have a folder for each set of topics. If you wanted you could always move the topics back to their original position after the template was applied. Also if the index was the same in the previous iteration, you could always copy the content of the old project's .HHK file into the new project's .HHK file. The same goes for the TOC (.hhc file).

[Guest]

Thanks very much. That TOC and index trick alone will save a lot of time. I appreciate the help.