Editing topics without publishing

[perrin319]

I am currently working in Robohelp 10, and I work with another tech writer in my department who is also on Robohelp 10. We use SharePoint as our central version control, and then publish to a production server when content is ready.

Here is our current problem:

We are using an "exclude" tag on topics that we are creating or editing so that those topics don't get published until we're ready.

The problem with using "exclude" tags is that if a topic has already been published to production in the past, and then we need to make changes to said topic, so we put the "exclude" tag back on that file so that Robohelp will not publish the changes until we're ready - but when we do that, Robohelp removes links to said topic in other articles.

but this is not how we need it to work. We need those links to stay in production so that people can still get to the old articles until we have updated to the new changes.

What's the best way to go about this?

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

I might think the easiest approach would be to create a copy of the topics in question. Then simply apply the tag to the copy so it isn't included anywhere. Have a note somewhere that advises where the ultimate topic is so you can easily find it later and perform a copy/paste of the new information to overwrite the older information when you are ready to release. At that point you would then simply delete the copy of the topic.

Cheers... Rick

[perrin319]

Wow, that seems like a crazy workaround for something that should be simple, no?

Anyway, thanks for replying!

[Captiv8r]

Sorry, but I'm not seeing how it's "simple". You have information you want to keep, yet change. (not unlike having your cake and eating it too)

If you (or others) can think of a better or more simple way, I'm all ears. I'd love to know about it as I'd learn something new!

Cheers... Rick

[perrin319]

Well, it certainly COULD be simple...

Robohelp could have an "Edit" tag or mode, where I could be editing a topic (or topics) for several days, and if someone else in my group publishes to production while I'm editing, Robohelp doesn't publish my changes, yet still retains the links to the old article out in production...

[RoboColum_n_]

That approach may work for you but I'm sure it wouldn't for others.

[Amebr]

Another option, rather than excluding the entire topic, is to just exclude the specific new content in the topic. It would require a bit more work to finalise for a release, but would mean your existing content would go out in any new builds in the meantime.

Scenario 1: add new text

1. Type a name.

2. Click Save. <exclude>A confirmation message displays.</exclude>

--When ready, remove the condition tag.

Scenario 2: change some text in a sentence

1. Type a name..

2. Click Save<exclude>Commit</exclude>

--when ready, delete the old text and remove the condition tag.

Scenario 3: add additional steps

1.  Type a name.

<exclude>2. Type a description.

3. Type a nickname.</exclude>

4. Click Save.

* this may require some hacking, depending  on the html and css setup of the project. If it's using "proper" html and css, it should just work. If it's using html and css from an older version of RH (definitely pre-7, but possibly 7 as well), then some fairly serious hacking of the html will probably be needed.

** alternatively, the entire procedure could be duplicated and tagged.

--when ready, remove the condition tag. **or delete the older procedure and remove the condition tag from the new one.

Amber

[rebrooks21]

I often encounter this situation at work, as a workaround we leave the topic checked out from version control (RoboSource Control) so that the specific topic does not get updated when publishing.

It may be worth trying.