"Global" Editing features with topic templates

Report · Apr 16, 2008

Does anyone know how I can add "globally" add a specific piece of code to all topics in a project? I'm using RH Office X5 on XP and I have a few projects to which I'm using/planning to use ZoomSearch, since the RoboHelp search really stinks. One of the features of this nifty add on (search highlighting) requires that I add a few lines of HTML code to all topics. I suppose I could add it through Dreamweaver, but since I will eventually be turning over my projects to someone else who has less familiarity with RH and since people REALLY like the ability of editing within RH, I would like people to be able to do this through RH.

Right now, using RH X5, I'm copying this code into each topic, which isn't bad for small projects, but it will be a real pain for larger projects. I tried copying it into the existing topic template, saving the project, then regenerating the output, but the changes weren't accepted (very strange).

I even tried making changes to the topic template, copying it out to my desktop, renaming it, reimporting it into the project, then changing the properties on several topics to point to the new template. The topics point to the new template, but the code in each topic does NOT show the code changes I made to the topic.

In the past, when I've updated a footer controlled by a template, RoboHelp asks me if I want to apply the changes to all topics created from that template. I click "Yes", and every topic gets updated.

Is this possible using RH 7? I'm not getting a copy of RH 7 to test until late April or early May.

Thanks,
Jim

Report · Apr 16, 2008

Hi Jim,

Templates in RH7 do offer that option. I'm wondering though if when you make the changes to the Truecode you saved the project BEFORE going back into the WYSIWYG? Sometimes changes to the truecode are not saved unless you save before exiting.

Report · Apr 16, 2008

Hi Jim,

Templates in RH7 do offer that option. I'm wondering though if when you make the changes to the Truecode you saved the project BEFORE going back into the WYSIWYG? Sometimes changes to the truecode are not saved unless you save before exiting.

Report · Apr 16, 2008

Yes, I saved before I went back to WYSIWYG. I'm a "save-a-holic", an old habit I picked up while using Microsoft FrontPage.

Another thing I noticed in RH X5 is that the program doesn't seem to recognize changes to TrueCode in a topic UNLESS I actually make a change in the <--(Body)==========--> section of the topic. When I added some code in the "Links" section and physically changed the <body> HTML tag, then saved the project and republished the output, RH didn't recognize that the topic had changed. When I went back into the topic and changed a word in a paragraph, then saved the project again, then republished the output, I was prompted to overwrite the topic.

Thanks,
Jim

Report · Apr 16, 2008

FAR is the tool of choice for most of us in the forum. It can find and replace multiple lines of code, which should make short work of your needs.

Good luck,
Leon

Report · Apr 16, 2008

Hello Jim -

Check this page from Peter and see if it helps:

http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/zoomsearch/zoomsearch.htm

Regards,
GEWB

Adobe Community

"Global" Editing features with topic templates