Re-importing word document into existing project

[Guest]

2. I imported a Word (Windows XP) doc to create my robohelp project.
I am new to RoboHelp, so please bear with me...

I had imported a word document into a project for HTML Help. I had mapped some IDs to create context sensitive help to work with our application. When the word doc is updated and I re-import it, the topics are duplicated in the TOC. (I normally get updates of this document from another department and we need to convert it to HMTL help for our application).

How do I fix this or prevent this from happening? (Other than delete the old project, create a new project, and import updated word document since I would have to remap all the IDs again.)

Thank you for your help.

[Guest]

Hi,
In order to create an HTML help project in RH I would create it in RH, not create a word doc then import it. (For a legacy situation I might import once.) If the document is created and maintained in RH then you engineer out the problems of duplicate IDs....

[Guest]

Hi,

Thank your for your response.

Unfortunately, this is not an option.

The document is created by another department which does not take kindly to learning and using new tools when old tools suffice for their goals (which is documentation) and new tools only serve to help the software people. (Software people get no respect 😞 )

Any other suggestions?

[MergeThis]

Use the Track Changes feature in Word, which will identify the specific edits/deletes made by this other department. Then manually make the changes in your RH HTML project, instead of importing over and over.


Good luck,
Leon

[Guest]

Thank you for your reply.

That will work with small updates to the document. With large amounts of updates, it will probably be more work than to just import the doc into a new project and just remap the IDs.

(Normally, we only get the document after it has gone through all the approval process; i.e. all changes are accepted. But, we can request the doc with changes still intacted.)

If you have any other suggestions, it would be appreciated.

Thank you for your help.

[MergeThis]

Sorry, I have to disagree with your estimate, for the main reason that all those reviewers will be manipulating the Word document with their own formatting quirks, which will only serve to corrupt the doc file and make its repeated importation increasingly problematic.

Remember, you're looking to convert a binary file with tons of macros into HTML code, essentially a flat text file. I suspect that remapping the IDs will end up being the least of your problems as you go further into repeated review cycles.


Good luck,
Leon