How do I undo merged project?

[Guest]

... so I wound up with folders I neither wanted nor needed, deleted them, and in the process somehow deleted just about everything I'd added over the past two weeks. The files, etc., still exist, but they're not in the Help project. I'm sure I can import them into the original project and continue as before.

However, I'll need to disengage the merged Help project. How can I safely do this?

thanx!
Lon

[MergeThis]

Good God, Lon, what have you done?

Actually, I really mean that...just exactly what have you done? If you deleted files outside of RH, such as with Win Explorer, and you still have them elsewhere, just import them back in.

It's unclear what "the merged Help project" has to do with this. Come back with more details.


Good luck,
Leon

[Guest]

Hi, Leon!

What have I done? is exactly the question I asked myself when I saw that all the books and folders were missing. As basic as I can be, this was the situation:

I had created a project (let's call it Secondary) to merge into a pre-existing (Primary) project. A few snags, but they were overcome; we decided that maybe, for the time being, we could live with separate Tables of Contents for the Context-Sensitive Help situations.

However, I used a couple of images in the Primary project by linking to them in the Secondary; this apparently created the folders (in the Secondary) I mentioned. I didn't want the folders, so I went through the steps to delete them from RoboHelp (not from Explorer). I think it might have been my linking to the old images that was the problem -- I only used about two or three in a couple of topics; I have no idea, however, why nearly ALL the books and topics would have disappeared. I didn't use any old images in them.

I hope that's enough detail to get the picture.

Lon

[Peter Grainge]

Each project is self contained. You cannot link an image in one project to a topic in another.

If the folders are still in Windows Explorer but not showing in Project Manager, try recreating the folder in PM and you might find it shows all the files in it.

You also refer to having decided that you could live with separate TOCs. I thought I pointed you to the topics on my site that how that is not necessary. You can call a child project topic with the full TOC.

[Guest]

Hi, Peter!

Thanks for your help. I have only a little basic programming experience and I may seem to be a little dense on occation, so please bear with me.

First, I did go to your site and printed out the instructions you directed me to. I consulted with out lead programmer, who grimaced when he read them. "This means we'll have to insert this code into every topic in the Help project." Well, Peter, if that's true, we're talking about a LOT of topics (about 14.5kb worth), enough to be too time-consuming to be worth the effort. Plus, we concluded that further, unanticipated, problems down the line might not be worth the gamble.

However, if we've misunderstood or misinterpreted the instructions, please let us know.

Also, I tried re-creating the folders, as you mentioned -- one main folder holding seven sub-folders, for a total of 48 topics (and we're just getting started....). I now have seven empty folders...

thanx,
Lon

[Guest]

Hi Peter

As I said: limited programming experience. So I COMPILED the Secondary project, et voila -- topics (albeit without images on any of them...).

Lon

[Guest]

... wait a minute -- the topics appeared in the compiled version, all right; the Project tab still shows empty folders...

lr

[Peter Grainge]

Like Leon, I really don't know what you have done. Also I don't understand the developer's response. What code in each topic?

I'm not on top of the world right now so this will have to wait.