Getting rid of conditional text

[LynnAtOpenSpan]

Hi. I inhereted an HTML help project that has WAY too many conditional text tags.  The project spans several major releaes and a few Service Pack releases.  What I need to do is get rid of the conditional text and have a clean, whole help project for the next release.  Is there any way of consolidating the conditional text into the project, so we are not working with a project that has 8 conditional text tags?

I'm not even sure where to begin. YIKES!

Thanks for your help!

Lynn

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Lynn. If you delete a Conditional Build tag from the pod it also deletes all the references to it. If you want to reuse some of the existing tags, you could just delete and recreate them.

[LynnAtOpenSpan]

Really, I’m just trying to consolidate the thing. All these conditional text tags are confusing. How does RoboHelp handle a topic that contains say, three conditional text tags. One of the tags is named, “Do not include in build.” But on the same topic, there is text tagged as 5.1, and 5.2. If I delete the Do not include in build tag, will it just delete the text, or will it delete the entire topic? I’m a little nervous doing this.

[RoboColum_n_]

Deleting the tag does not delete the content, just the reference to to the tag. If you are nervous, take a backup first.

The tags work when you generate the output by filtering out content. By the sounds of things you've got content that should never be output and some that is only relevant to a particular build. The expression you use when you generate your output controls what is used.

[LynnAtOpenSpan]

You are exactly right. Unfortunately, I’m not all that fluent in RoboHelp. I understand the expressions used in the project, I’m just not sure how to consolidate the thing. How would you approach this?

I really appreciate your help on this.

Thanks

Lynn

[RoboColum_n_]

It is difficult to say Lynn without knowing why the tags were created and used in the first place. Thankfully the names do appear to be self explanatory. Is there someone there who may know the history of the product (e.g. why the content tagged with "do not Include" is not required)? Maybe there is someone who can explain the differences between version 5.1 and 5.2. Only then can you be sure that they are no longer required.

On an aside I always try to make my CBT names as short as possible. There is a limit of 255 characters in the CBT expression used in a single source layout. I've never come close to that limit but old habits die hard.

[CraigCC]

Hi Lynn,

As Colum says it is hard to know how to tackle this without knowing the history of the project. When I leave a project behind for people to work with I leave very clear instructions about conditional build tags. Removing tags can leave you with heaps of content that should not be included in the project when it is generated. Someone may well have stripped out content using CBTs because they were unsure whether it would be needed in a future release. The only way of consolidating the project is working out why these tags were set up in the first place. Your 5.1 and 5.2 tags may well have been used in thsi way. I'd be very careful about just deleting the CBT, you'll may lose that backtrack of what was marked for which release.

If possible, can you spake to the author who created the project?

And don't forget that you can run a report to see which CBTags have been used in which files. Tools, Report - Conditional Build Tags.

Kind Regards

Craig

[LynnAtOpenSpan]

Thanks Craig!

I really appreciate your response. I just emailed the last writer that was here. He’s a nice guy, and I’m sure he will respond! You totally pegged my problem: not knowing why and what the tags were meant for (and quite frankly, some of them have obscure names). I’m not very fluent in RoboHelp, and I didn’t know about the reports, so I’m doing that now.

Again, thanks so much

Lynn

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

take a backup first & play away - mess anything up & you can always restore it