Outside Source Control and Word docs

[Guest]

Hello,

My apologize ahead of time if I sound like I do not know exactly what I am doing - 'cause I don't .  I have been a part-timer using RH V5 for a few years.  I have just updated to RH8 and am embarking on a more  involved project. I am running RH8 HTML version on a 32 bit Vista machine.

The new help project will have multiple authors.  All of us working on this help project work in different locations.  We are using Surround SCM for our source control and Word to create the help source docs.  I will be handling the RH end of the project.  We will be using multiple output types.

What I want to be able to do is to check out and import/update the linked source docs (Word files) directly from Surround (the outside source control) into my RH project.  But I am not sure how to do that.  From reading the RH help it seems that I should be able to.  But honestly - I have not been able to make that happen yet.  Do I need to check out the source docs and locate them on my on-site computer then import/update them?  Or??

Thanks for any help!!

Sincerely,

Cindy

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Cindy.

First of all let me add that I am totally nonconverant with Surround SCM so I can't help you woth that but RoboHelp can work with any source control application that uses the Microsoft Source Code Control API. Whether Surround SCM does, I don't know.

As for your requirement for updating RoboHelp, you can indeed link your Word source files to a RoboHelp 8 project. This allows you to update your RoboHelp content based on the changes made to your Word documents.

For source control you'd need to apply this at two levels. At one level you'd apply source control to the users who'll be updating the Word documents. This is completely seperate to RoboHelp. At the second level you'd have source control for the users who'll be updating the RoboHelp project. These do not need source control for the Word files, just access to them. They wouldn't be changing the content of the Word files so source control would not be needed.

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The RoboColum(n)

@robocolumn

Colum McAndrew

[Guest]

Colum,

Thank you for your reply!  That gives me a better place to start!

Cindy

[Guest]

My advice: don't. Regardless of source control, I'm afraid that using linked Word documents in RoboHelp projects causes more problems than it solves. I tried to set up such a system for exactly the reason you're describing (supporting multiple authors). I described my main problem here: http://forums.adobe.com/message/2633785

While Adobe did assign a bug number to my linking problem months ago, according to their support staff the engineers haven't worked on it at all since then. Recently, I ran into another problem with the search box: The CHM stubbornly displays the file names instead of the renamed topic titles. As before, my co-worker and I attempted every solution possible from within RoboHelp. He finally solved the problem for this release by editing the HTML files directly, but naturally all this work will disappear the moment I update the files from Word.

I'm sorry to hijack your topic, but I've been struggling with these problems for half a year and I don't want to see anyone else go through it. It boils down to this: The feature does not work as documented. If you're determined to try linked Word documents, I strongly suggest you build a fully-featured test project first and check the results with a fine-toothed comb. You may save yourself a lot of trouble and nasty surprises down the road.

[Guest]

Susie,

Thanks so much for words of warning!!  I am just now creating a test project as you suggested.  Also, I suppose I will have to add in hyper links after the Word doc has been updated within RH.

Again thanks for the heads up!!!

Cindy