Script for changing a topic's status

[greg_sutton]

I am using RoboHelp 2015 Release 3. I am looking for a script that will change a topic's status from "In Progress" to "Ready for Review" if a change was made to the topic.

My thought is to have the script search each topic in the project for "rh-track-start." If found, the script would change the "topic-status" meta tag value to "Ready for Review," and then save the topic.@

Someone may have done this already or may know a better way of doing this. I am open for suggestions. Any and all help is appreciated.

[Peter Grainge]

You don't need a script. Set the Topic List to include Status and then sort by that column. Select all the topics with the status to be changed and then right click. Mass change the topics to the required status.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring information

@petergrainge

[greg_sutton]

Thanks for the suggestion, but that would require me to remember which topics I had changed. I could also change the status to Ready for Review as I changed each topic, but that again requires manual intervention.

What I want to do is:

1. Open a project with Track Changes turned on.
2. Make my changes as required.
3. Click a button that runs a script that automatically changes any topic that was changed to Ready for Review. The script would search the source code for "<?rh-track_start ".
4. Create a PDF for review copy that contains only the topics whose status is Read for Review.

I have to account for each change in a project no matter how small. The script approach is more efficient and less prone to errors of omission.

[prhmusic2]

I have two thoughts.

1) Sort the list of topics by Modified Date with the Status column next to it. Then you wouldn't have to remember which topics you changed. If you made changes to 3 topics and sorted the topic list like that, those 3 topics would be at the top. Here's an example from my project:

2) Just curious about your requirement boundaries. Say you change a single sentence in a topic that has 1000 words, for example, you change this sentence - "The hard drive size must be 1 TB" - to - "The hard drive size must be 2 TB". Is your requirement to produce a PDF for review that has the entire 1000 words in that topic or is it possible to comply with the requirement by producing a document that has the actual sentence you changed? If you can provide the actual sentences that were changed, I may have some other suggestions.

[greg_sutton]

Thanks. Your suggestion definitely is an improvement over changing the topic status one topic at a time. I will try doing as you say. I just have to be disciplined enough to change the status each day or at least at regular intervals.

In response to your second thought, we print out the entire topic for review even if one line of text changes. That is why the more automated my process is, the more confident my reviewers will be that I included everything.