Hi Collum and Dhiren: Thank you for your assistance so far.
Update: Not all of our help projects' XPJ files get checked
out -- only this one project. Also, it appears that the problem
with our tags not sync'ing is related to the XPJ being checked out
by the first person to launch the project.
Specifics:
We actually have three help projects, one of which we all
work in regularly (hereafter called "Project Bad"), and two others
that only one or the other us works in regularly. I noticed that
the other help project I work in does NOT check out the XPJ file
when I open it (hereafter called "Project Good."). With Project
Good, I never get a message saying that it's checking the XPJ file
back in, and the VSS never shows that the XPJ file is checked out
when one of us is in it, although VSS always shows the correct
modified date when it was last modified. This a.m., I had one of my
co-authors test Project Good with me. We both opened it, created
new conditional build tags, applied tags to text, check things in
and out and in again, and not once did either of us get a message
about the XPJ file being checked out, nor did we have any problems
with our conditional build tags. Everything updated beautifully,
and yet, the topics are checking out correctly. Also, we don't have
"allow multiple check-out" selected for Project Good.
So, now I wonder if the settings are different between the
two projects, but I looked at the Properties for both projects and
XPJ files, and I see no differences between them.
One thing that does come to mind: Regularly, one of us gets a
VSS error message when working in Project Bad. I don't usually get
it, but the others do. I didn't realize how common it was until one
of the authors just told me. The message reads: "SourceSafe has
detected that a previous operation against the 'XYZ' database was
unexpectedly terminated. To remove from the failure, please ask
your SourceSafe Administrator to run the Analyze Utility." Might
this have something to do with the problem? This message is
referencing our entire database where all three help projects
reside, though, and the problem is only with one of the help
projects, so I'm not sure this is part of the problem. I will try
running the Analyze Utility today just in case, but I tried to do
it months ago and it failed. I gave up and didn't try again.
Does anyone have any ideas about this problem based on these
latest developments? I welcome any and all input.
Thanks,
Lisa