Can I use a central glossary file across several projects?

[Guest]

Hi everyone, hope you are all well.

I have started a major project which needs a major glossary covering the companies definitions of various measures. These definitions will be needed by several other projects in the future. Is there a way of each project referencing one file which we can update as necessary rather than having to go and update each project's glossary file in turn?

Look forward to your responses.

Nick.

[RoboColum_n_ · Accepted solution]

Hi Nick.

Yes it is but not from within RH. The glossary definitions are stored in the projectname.glo file which can be copied from one project to another and renamed accordingly in Windows Explorer. Then just open the project and lo and behold, your glossary appears!

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[RoboColum_n_]

BTW you may also want to submit a feature request to Adobe for this. You can do so via this link.

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[Willam_van_Weelden]

Hi,

In addition to what Column suggested, you can also use a database program (I use MS Access) to store all definitions and terms and any other data you need. Then use a report/script/program to output the *.glo files and save the files in the desired folders. (In RH8, .glo is just an XML-file with a different extension.)

Greet,

Willam

[Guest]

Hi

Thanks for the quick and helpful reponses. I was trying to avoid having to replace each .glo file in future projects but if I cant get around it then it will be have to handled manually.

Now have to figure a way of getting 280 definitions into a glossary file. I dont have Access at work unfortunately, can I use Excel or Word? You can fit my XML knowledge onto a grain of rice btw. I see that there are 2 tags, glossterm and glossentry that I need to create for each term.

Regards and thanks again.

Nick.

[StanSamuels]

Nick,

You've probably already moved past this point, but re: Using Excel or Word to build glossary file. I have used Word to create content for similar files and then saved as text only. Just have to be sure that all beginning/ending tag pairs are in the right places and that you don't accidentally remove any RH-specific code.

Cheers,

Stan

[StanSamuels]

Depending on number of entries and how tightly you want the glossary integrated into the content (for example, term definitions displayed as expanding text), you might consider other options, too.

One option might be to set the glossary up as its own (very simple) project rather than using the built-in RH glossary feature. Other projects could then display the glossary in a separate window. You could add/delete navigation features as needed. For example, each term could be in its own topic and you could have an alphabetical list of the terms in the TOC pane. Or all terms (or alphabetical subset) could be in long topic with TOC links scrolling to bookmarked terms.

Another option might be to set up the glossary as a PDF file that is displayed in a separate window. 

[Guest]

Hi Stan

Thanks for the response - some good ideas there - we are creating a sep project file for a larger version of the glossary which covers examples and calculations and will incorporate this into all the projects eventually - in the short term I just wanted a one liner expanding text glossary item within our projects. I think having a separate PDF is a good idea though - the clients can then have it to hand when looking at reports.

Regards

Nick.

[StanSamuels]

Hey, Nick.

Sounds like you've got some interesting possibilities. After you mentioned that they might use the glossary in deciphering reports, it occurred to me that you might also look at output options for mobile devices if company can support and users are receptive. Haven't worked with the smaller screens myself, but apparently Adobe does have readers available for several of them (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrmobiledevices.html).

Regards,

Stan