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Andrea5FAB
Inspiring
October 1, 2021
Question

Working with different projects

  • October 1, 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 303 views

Hello there, hope you're all ok!

 

I'm asking for your help regarding a pretty simple scenario. I searched in the forum but couldn't find any answer.

 

I'm currently writing the user manual of software that, of course, gets updated on a regular bases and new features are added an so forth.

 

So, starting from a "base" manual version, I should produce different versions of it with all necessary modifications for each software version (adding new stuff, basically, as the software gets refined).

 

I tried the dynamic content filter but it's not suitable for my case.

 

How can I manage something like this? Do I have to manually duplicate projects and publish them in different folder of the help site? In this case I'd have to set up a "global" home page to redirect users to the right sub-site, each one with its own toc, topics, etc.., right?
(see attached file. I'd like to obtain a similar output)

 

Is there any smarter way to manage all of this via RoboHelp? (I am using RoboHelp 2020.6.76)
Thank you!

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    3 replies

    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 1, 2021

    What goes into an output in 2020 is determined by the TOC, as described in the About RoboHelp sample project.

     

    Simply create a different TOC for each user type. You can either change that in one preset every time you generate but the output path would also need to change. Easier to create different presets as well.

    ________________________________________________________
    See www.grainge.org for free Authoring and RoboHelp Information

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    A
    Andrea5FABAuthor
    Inspiring
    October 4, 2021

    Hi @Peter Grainge and thank you very much.

     

    Ok, different TOCs is the way to go. Got it.

     

    What about topics, though?I mean, since the majority of my topics is common to all versions with some minor changes for every software version, do I need to duplicate all topics or is there a way to use one file and show/hide pieces of content at will?

     

    I wanted to use condition expressions, but I  see that i can only choose one for each output preset...

     

    Thank you very much for your help 🙂

    A
    Andrea5FABAuthor
    Inspiring
    October 11, 2021

    up!

     

    I tried to figure it out using condition tag, but in time every topic would begin to look like a rainbow as I add new "include" conditions...

    Is there another way beside "cloning" my initial project and merge/import the clone into the main project?

     

    Thank you for your help guys 🙂

    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 1, 2021

    I'm reading that as you want different outputs for different users and they only need to see what is for them.

     

    @Jeff_Coatsworth is right that they could select their filter and see just what is relevant. If you want separate outputs though you don't need to duplicate the project. According to which version of RoboHelp you are using, you can generate separate outputs for each target audience from one project.

     

    How you do that depends on your version. You haven't said which version of RoboHelp you are using. Please always start a thread with this information.

    • Please go to Help > About and include the full version number.
    • If you are using 2019 also state whether it is 2019 Classic or 2019 New UI.

    ________________________________________________________
    See www.grainge.org for free Authoring and RoboHelp Information

     

     

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    A
    Andrea5FABAuthor
    Inspiring
    October 1, 2021

    Hi all and thank you for you super quick answers.

     

    @Jeff_Coatsworth Yep, in theory that's what should be used but I don't want users to select anything. It's exactly as @Peter Grainge wrote in his answer I need separate outputs with different topics or different versions of a "base" topic.

     

    @Peter Grainge I've included my RoboHelp version in the last line of my post (ok, next time I'll include it at the beginning 😉 ) It's RoboHelp 2020.6.76

    Jeff_Coatsworth
    Community Expert
    Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 1, 2021

    That looks like Dynamic Content to me - you pick your version & it filters to show all applicable topics for that version.

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