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First, thanks for taking the time to respond in such detail. I sincerely
appreciate it. Unfortunately, neither of the two options works because
of this fundamental release problem. Let's say I have two topics. One
Map ID (which I incorrectly referred to earlier as Topic ID - sorry
about that) is 100, and the other is 200. However, because of PD issues,
I need 100 to be 150, and I need 200 to be 100. So I change 100 to 150,
but Robo won't let me change 200 to 100 because it says it's already
assigned to a topic (IOW, it's still hanging on to what is now topic
150). How do I get Robo to have 150 let go of the 100 Map ID? If I do a
report of IDs, it doesn't show up, but when I run a Diagnostic Report,
it shows that both Map IDs are assigned to that one topic.
Fortunately, the Word option is already unchecked, so I haven't been hit
by that bug (but it's good to know for future reference!).
Any other thoughts from anyone? Many thanks!
-----Original Message-----
From: Hart, Geoff [mailto:Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA]
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2003 9:41 AM
To: Techwr-L (E-mail); Parcell, Michelle
Subject: RoboHelp Question - I'm desperate!!!
Michelle Parcell reports a RoboHelp problem: <<I have had to reassign a
few
topic IDs within the system. I need to assign one of the "old" IDs
(which
was used for a topic that now has a different ID) to another screen, but
Robo won't release the old one.>>
Two things you may need to do. First, try assigning a temporary new map
ID
number to the old topic whose map ID (let's say it's "50") you want to
use
elsewhere. Pick a number like 9999 so that you won't be overlapping any
other numbers. Now assign the number 50 to the new topic. If you're
lucky,
that's all you need to do, other than picking a more reasonable number
for
the old topic.
If that doesn't work--and it may not--here's step 2: Open the RoboHelp
application itself if it's not already open--that's the one with all the
tabs and directory windows that launches as soon as you open a Word file
created in RoboHelp. It's where you manage your RoboHelp projects.
Navigate
to the Map IDs directory, where you'll see the complete list of topics.
Right-click on the topic that contains the ID number you want to use and
edit its properties so that it has a temporary new number (e.g., 9999).
The
rest of the process is the same. Most likely, you won't have to do this
step
unless the old topic has been deleted and RH simply forgot to delete it
from
the list of map IDs.
<<I've made sure to re-link anything that's directed to the screen that
now
has a new ID, hoping it would help Robo let go of
the old ID, but it didn't seem to make a difference.>>
It's also possible that you're being bitten by a design feature (read
"bug")
that governs how RoboHelp works. By default (version 9.x, leastwise),
the
software assumes that you want to automatically renumber the map IDs for
all
topics each time you compile the help file. This would be a great choice
if
the software never changed and if we never reordered topics in the help
file. Guess what? <g>
In any event, the way to cure this problem (as I discovered yesterday)
is to
work within the RoboHelp application itself (rather than in the Word
file).
Under the Topics directory at the left of the window, expand the
directory
until you see the Word file that is being used to generate the help
file--it
will be at the bottom of the directory tree. Right-click on the file
name to
edit its properties. Deselect the option that says "automatically
renumber
map IDs" (something like that... it'll be obvious when you see it). From
now
on, any map IDs you assign will stick rather than being renumbered each
time
you compile.
--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
(try ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca if you get no response)
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
"It's one thing to see death coming at the hands of your own creation.
That's part of the human epic tradition, after all. Oedipus and his
father.
Baron Frankenstein and his monster. William Henry Gates and Windows
'09."--David Brin, _Kiln People_
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