Moving Existing RoboHelp Project Content into a New Project

[Transmute70]

Hola everyone out there in RoboHelp Online Forum World!

I am currently authoring webhelp (In RoboHelp's latest edition) to accompany a piece of software my company creates. I have just finished the help for Version 1.0 of the software, and am expected to start Version 1.1 later this week. The powers that be at my company would like to keep the help files for Version 1.0 if at all possible.

So, this means I cannot just build off of the Version 1.0 RoboHelp project, I have to create a new project for Version 1.1. My problem is however, the fact that Version 1.1 will contain 90% of the content from Version 1.0. Is there a way I can copy the content of Version 1.0 to a new project?

I tried a simple copy and paste, but RoboHelp does not appreciate that kind of move. When I have tried this method in other instances, in order for any of the graphics to show up I had to recreate them. Currently I capture screen shots and make minor alterations with SnagIt.

Does anyone know a way around this? Can I save an alternate copy of Version 1.0 and rename it? Is is possible to rename an exisiting project?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Diane

[Peter Grainge]

Copying and pasting the whole project is the way to do it. Why do you say RH does not appreciate that kind of move? What went wrong?

After doing that you should be able to open the project and continue on your way.

You are working off your hard disk and not a network drive I hope.

UPDATE: Your graphics are within the project I assume in which case that should not be a problem either.

[Transmute70]

Hola Peter, and thanks for your quick response!

I would have expected that a copy and paste would do the trick too, but it doesn't. In the previous instance where I tried to copy content from one RoboHelp project into another, the copy/paste worked just fine, but when I generated the webhelp, all my graphics, including those that come in the RoboHelp gallery by default, showed up as white boxes with red x's in them. As a note, I am working off the hard disk.

Be aware that I am not talking about copying a whole project from one location into another, but actually opening up a project and copying the content, or even just certain parts of the content into an entirely new project.

Hopefully this clarifies my problem a little more.
Diane

[Peter Grainge]

I'm confused.

Your question was "Is there a way I can copy the content of Version 1.0 to a new project?"

Now you say "Be aware that I am not talking about copying a whole project from one location into another, but actually opening up a project and copying the content, or even just certain parts of the content into an entirely new project." Isn't the first part of that the same thing?

If your start point is the old project, why not copy and paste that project and then trash what you don't need?

[Transmute70]

Let me calrify my second paragraph: the copy and paste function worked just fine; meaning all the content, inclufing graphics, appeared in the WYSIWYG panel. However, it was when I generated the webhelp that I learned that all my graphics were non-existant, save for the white boxes with red x's. To fix this, the only method I found was recreating the images and placing them back into RoboHelp.

[Peter Grainge]

Sorry but if your project is say
C:\version_one_project
and you copy and paste that folder, you will have
C:\copy_of_version_one_project

If you then rename that say version_two_project, and double click the xpj file you are working off a complete clone and it cannot fail to generate exactly what version one generated unless you have some source control that you have not mentioned.

Try this out with a small test project first. Also try it again with your main project. Maybe whatever problem you had has gone away.

Post back if it still fails.

[Transmute70]

I apparently, am not being as clear with my problem as I'd like to be, but thanks for putting up with me!

Ok, firstly, we both understand that I want to take the content from an old project, Version 1.0, in this case, into an entirely new project, Version 1.1.

So, I created a new RoboHelp project, and named it Version 1.1. I opened the old RoboHelp project, Version 1.0, copied the content I wanted and then attempted to paste it into Version 1.1. When I did this, it appeared as though everything was fine. All of my formatting and images were in place. However, when I generated the webhelp, none of the graphics appeared.

I am asking if this method described above--opening a project, selecting content, copying it and then attempting to paste it into another open RoboHelp project is the way to go.

From what you said, Peter, "If your start point is the old project, why not copy and paste that project and then trash what you don't need," are you implying that I can/should just copy the old project in its entirety, in this case Version 1.0, and then paste the whole project somewhere new, rename it version 1.1, and trash what I do not need?

Hopefully I am making a little more sense!

[Transmute70]

Ok, ok, I see what you mean, I think we were confused on which methods the other was taking when copying and pasting. I tried what you mentioned in you last post, and it worked just fine.

Thanks for all your patience and help!
Diane

P.S.
A long time ago (not the one that is on the main forum page still today) I created a post about custom RoboHelp Skins. You replied with a link to your site that I found helpful. When I tried to return to that link, I learned you changed your site.

Sorry I can't be more descriptive about what page of your site I am referring to, but, if possible, could you send me/post links to what information on creating webehlp and flashelp skins you have?

Thanks again.

[Peter Grainge]

All the topics are still there. Try the search function on my site and if that does not work, mail me offline as it is not relevant to this post. Let me have some idea of the problem and I will see what I can track down.

Also you can use the search function on the forum to find all your own posts.

[RoboWizard]

Hi Peter and Diane

May I suggest an alternate method?

Try right clicking the HTML Files (Topics) folder and selecting Import... from the context menu. Browse to and select the topics you wish to add. This should import them into the project as well as copy any related images.

I suspect when you are performing the copy/paste, somehow absolute paths are being created to the images in question.

Hopefully this helps... Rick

[Peter Grainge]

Hi Rick

This thread is one where things are out of chronological order. Diane has got it working using normal copy and paste of the full project thus saving having to manually recreate all the folders etc.

[Transmute70]

Howdy Rick,

Thanks for your suggestion. I tried your method on a test project and it worked just was well!

For an application as complex as RoboHelp, you'd think Macromedia (when it was Macromedia) would have at least explained some of these intricacies somewhere, espcially concerning stuff like not working on network drives.

I'm glad you and Peter and everyone else on the forum is available to help the novices out.

Diane

[Kathy_T_Casey]

Diane

Like Rick, I would lean towards importing the topic into the new project.

Regards

[Peter Grainge]

Kathy

The original question indicated that the new project required 90% of the old one. Importing means creating all the folders first and you would be limited on each import to what is in one folder. If the poster has ten folders, that means ten imports. Then you would have to recreate the TOC and index, or cheat them in.

If we were talking about one file, yes importing would be better but when we are talking about 90% of the project, I would have thought it better to just copy and paste.

So why do you lean towards importing? What's the advantage in this case?