Questions - Map File & Multi file find & replace

Report · Jul 18, 2007

Hello,

I am using RH6 I am trying to use the multi file find and replace, it has worked fine in some instances for example I did a find for
"appears" and replaced it with "displays" - if found and replaced 907 instances. However the company has changed a program area from "Reviews & Performance" to "Performance Management". It is in hundreds of files but the system keeps saying 0 instances found. The only differences of course is that it has mutiple words and they used the ampersand symbol, it is also bolded in a lot of the instances. Is there a trick to getting the find/replace to work with these conditions?

A general question on importing a map file - I am told that a map file has been imported to this project in the past and I can see Map Id / Screen Id #s in some files, however there are hundreds more that are not mapped as they are newly created. Will it hurt anything to import again? What impact will there be to files with map info already in them? Is there any really good documentaiton on importing map files and any issues that I might encounter. Also, does anyone know how long this takes? This project has about 2000 pages.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.
Kate

Report · Jul 18, 2007

Hi Kate.

As far as a find and replace tool is concerned, most of us here prefer using some tool such as FAR or BkReplacem as they offer more features to help in this kind of scenario. The simple answer is however that these tools, as indeed does the inbuilt tool, bases it's search on the HTML. Therefore if there are specific instances of HTML strings you will have to analyse carefully them before you replace anything. It sounds like you are already some down down this line. Take a backup of your project and test out your theory.

As far as your map file question is concerned, you can safely reimport your map file PROVIDED that no changes have been made to the mapids in the meantime. Personally I wouldn't do this unless you are 100% sure of this. If it is a case of having 100s of topics that are not mapped and never have been but could be, I'd just create a new map file and map away.

Report · Jul 18, 2007

Are you using RoboHelp HTML? IF so, ampersand (&) is a special character that is represented by "&" (minus quotes) in HTML. Did you try searching for "Reviews & Performance" (minus quotes)?

Report · Jul 18, 2007

Another issue is that the RH tool won't cross multiple lines in its search, whereas FAR does.

Good luck,
Leon