Applying Master Page Changes to Existing Topics

[LaKisha1]

I have a project in RH9 that uses 1 master page for most topics. I want to make changes to the body of the master page, and I want those changes automatically applied to all existing topics. Is this possible?

It seems to me that RH still doesn't have any 'true' template functionality? Or am I missing something?

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

Nope, sorry.

Well, maybe sort of. It depends on what you want to do and what version of RoboHelp you have.

As you have version 9, if you edit the Master Page you will notice there is a Body placeholder. You are able to enable the Header and Footer and that content *WILL* propagate across all topics associated with the Master Page. But anything inside the Body placeholder will not. It is there to be used if you create a topic based on the Master Page. At that time it is copied to the new topic, but no ongoing relationship occurs.

However, if you look, there are areas above and below the Body placeholder. I call these areas the "no mans' land", as they aren't really the body andthey aren't really the official Header or Footer. Yet, when you insert content into these areas, it DOES seem to get propagated across all topics associated with the Master Page.

Whether this is a bit of a bug and will break at some future point because Adobe "fixes" it remains to be seen. I'm just advising what I have seen with it.

Cheers... Rick

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[LaKisha1]

Hi Rick,

Yep, I knew about the header and footer...however, those don't meet my needs...my layout is 3 columns and what I would want to propagate for each page needs to be within those 3 columns. So I'm successfully propagating what's in the 1st and last columns (because I created a snippet and put it in the Master page)...but I really wish there was a way to propagate some other elements that are placed in the body area...like how Dreamweaver templates work...I don't understand why Adobe hasn't done that yet.