Replicate topic files

[jasona66572020]

Company is using RH 2015, and we would like to take the existing Help Content for one topic and duplicate it into another area, then tweak minor bits to account for slight variations in the product types.

Is there an easy way to do this and keep the source content (text, images, glossary terms, etc.) intact?

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

In your Project Manager pod, right-click and choose Duplicate.

Cheers... Rick

[jasona66572020]

Hi Captiv8r,

Thanks for the reply - perhaps I didn't phrase my question properly...I would like to duplicate multiple pages all at once rather than individually.  In essence, it'd be like cloning a topic in its entirety.  Make sense?

[Captiv8r]

Perhaps it's just terminology. What I've always understood a "topic" to be is a single HTML page. At least, when talking about RoboHelp and the way it operates. It would seem that maybe to you a topic is more along the lines of a "theme", where you have several HTML pages that are focused on one theme?

Unfortunately, there simply isn't an avenue in RoboHelp that allows duplicating several HTML pages at the same time. But it doesn't mean you can't make it happen fairly easily. You will just have to think outside the box a bit.

If I were doing this on my own setup, I'd likely take the following approach.

Right-click the Project Manager pod and choose Explore. That would get me into the Windows file system.

Select the HTML pages you want to copy and copy them.

Paste them, then ensure the file names are adjusted to be different.

Back inside RoboHelp HTML, right-click the folder and choose to Import. Then point at the new duplicates.

Cheers... Rick

[Peter Grainge]

Would importing the topic work? It would bring in the style sheet and the images but then you can make your amendments. Without testing I don't think it will bring in any glossary terms and there could be some other similar misses. You would need to test that and see how well it works for you.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[jasona66572020]

Thanks to Captiv8r and Peter,

You're right, I mis-used the word topic...it's a collection of HTML pages.  Duplicating each page as a one off seemed a bit tedious, but going down the road that Peter suggested would have likely created more problems than it solved.  I ended up duplicating each page and re-naming for the new "theme".

For further clarity, the help files are reference materials for a program that includes an Outlook plugin, and standalone programs for Windows, OSX, iOS and Android.  Since there is so much similarity across each of them, I wanted to just duplicate the folder of topics, then rename the folder and subsequent topics (pages) after the fact according to each standalone program.  There are two companion programs that can be used in network environments (Program 2 and Program 3 for sample purposes here), so I am trying to structure the Project files accordingly:

Folder 1 - ReadMe

Folder 2 - Outlook Plugin

Folder 3 - Windows

Folder 4 - OSX

Folder 5 - iOS

Folder 6 - Android

Folder 7 - Program 2

Folder 8 - Program 3

The previous Technical Writer here had Folders 1, 2, 3, 7, and 8.  Rather than re-creating the wheel, I wanted to copy/clone/duplicate (pick your semantics 🙂 ) the content from folder 3 to folders 4, 5, and 6....it's done now though, albeit more tediously than I'd have preferred! LOL

[Peter Grainge · Accepted solution]

It's sounding like you are talking about duplicating within a project. I had thought you were duplicating stuff in another project or source. All is well as long as you have got what you wanted.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Captiv8r]

All's well that ends well, eh?

[jasona66572020]

The difference between the Project Files structure and the TOC structure is driving me dippy.  There's so much duplicate content, and it's a nightmare making heads or tails of it.  There's FAQ pages for each app variation, when there should only be ONE FAQ page and just published multiple times in the TOC -

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

While it's quite possible to have a matching structure in both panes, one is of the file system and the other is of the TOC and how you want it presented. It's unlikely that the two views would really ever totally match. One is an organizational view for you, the RoboHelp Author. And the other (the TOC) is an organizational view for your viewers.

Perhaps it will help to think of the TOC as simply being a web page full of links that point to topics?

Cheers... Rick