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Red Ink Writes
Red Ink Writes
Inspiring
July 17, 2007
Answered

Glossary Not Updating Expanding Text

  • July 17, 2007
  • 2 replies
  • 686 views
Hi -

I'm working on a WebHelp project in X6 that contains @ 600 topics. I have a bunch of terms in my Glossary, which I have applied throughout the help system topics using the "expanding text" feature.

Recently I've made some changes to the existing Glossary topic definitions, but am finding that those changes are not being made to the expanding text; the hundred of existing hotspots are keeping the old Glossary definitions.

I tried using the Glossary Hotspot Wizard to see if there was a way to update each term automatically. It identifies those topics that contain a different definition in the Glossary than was applied in the expanding text, but does not give me an option to update it.

Is there a way to update my expanding text items without having to remove/re-apply each one individually (and manually)?

Thanks in advance for your help!
This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Red Ink Writes
Thanks much Harvey and Colum.

I've submitted a feature request.

FYI - After I wrote this I looked at the RoboHelp help that came with the application. Supposedly when you run the Glossary Hotspot Wizard and receive the message that the current expanding text doesn't match the current Glossary entry, Robo will replace the old with the new. I did this, but the results were inconsistent.

2 replies

H
HKabaker
Inspiring
July 17, 2007
Red,

When you see the message that they don't match, the checkbox is grayed out, with a checkmark.

If you leave it that way, the wizard leaves the topic as it is.

If you clear the checkbox, the wizard deletes the expanding hotspot.

If you ungray the checkmark, the wizard changes the expanding text to agree with the latest definition in the Glossary pane.

It seems consistent to me.

Until Adobe creates a global delete, you have this option:

Instead of deleting the Glossary term, change it and run the wizard.
Clear the checkbox for every hotspot it finds for this term and, of course, don't check any new ones. The expanding text will disappear.

Now you can delete the term from the project Glossary, and it won't show up in the final output Glossary list.

The RH online help is not very clear about how the check-uncheck-graycheck options work. In my feature request I also suggested improving the RH help topic.

Harvey
H
HKabaker
Inspiring
July 17, 2007
Red,

RH does not update expanding text for Glossary terms.

Background:

It's not a link from the topic to a glossary database, as one might expect.
When you insert a glossary definition, RH inserts the text for that term into the topic's html code. When you change the definition in the Glossary, the old text remains in the topic source until you revise it. Safest way is to remove the old expanding text and redo the Glossary insert.

Same goes for terms you delete from the Glossary. Definitions remain in topics until you remove them.

Maybe Adobe will consider a new feature, a global Glossary update that you can run from time to time if you make a lot of changes. You can suggest it yourself (sorry, I don't have the link -- colleagues?), and I can run it through the RH 7 prerelease program as well.

Harvey

RoboColum_n_
RoboColum_n_
Legend
July 17, 2007
You can submit a feature request using this link.
Red Ink Writes
Red Ink WritesAuthorCorrect answer
Inspiring
July 17, 2007
Thanks much Harvey and Colum.

I've submitted a feature request.

FYI - After I wrote this I looked at the RoboHelp help that came with the application. Supposedly when you run the Glossary Hotspot Wizard and receive the message that the current expanding text doesn't match the current Glossary entry, Robo will replace the old with the new. I did this, but the results were inconsistent.
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