Hi All

I'm a newbie (currently evaluating HelpStudio 2011). Looks like a great product. I have a few questions about structuring my project(s).

We develop and suite of applications (MIS system), so somewhat akin to MS Office, we have multiple apps (liek office has Word, Excel, Access, etc). Because they are tighlty integrated, what you do in one module (say, Order Management) has a significant impact on otter modules (e.g. Scheduling and Invoicing). So, I have some questions about whether it's better to create one huge project where each application is a topic category, or one project per application.

Some Considerations:

1. My "See Also" links, I need to be able to link to other applications. Can i create links to other Projects?

2. I'd like to have a project template that has peoperties such as AppName, ExeName, LgoinScreen, SplashScreen, so that the content refers to these properties to insert images and strings. Then if we change something in a future version, all we need to do is update the relevant file (splash screen, icon, etc) and everything will update.

3. Further, I created a snippet called login, which is something like:

   To Launch %AppName%, click on the %ExeName% icon in  the Applications folder, or click the %icon% in the dashboard. This will show the login screen below: <img src="%LoginScreen%">

   This way I can reuse that content in every app, and if we change the login process, I update the snippet and all apps get updated.

 Any help appreciated

Thank you for taking the time to evaluate HelpStudio.

1. Yes, you can. The link format will depend on how you are intending to deploy your help - if it's in plain html web help format, then the links will just be a relative url pointing to the topic in the other project. If you are deploying as compiled .CHM files then use the specific page in the link designer to create the link. Let me know if you get stuck.

2. You can create a project template from the currently open project using the "Save as Project Type" from the application menu (the menu that is shown when you click the top left button on the ribbon).

3. You can use the Content Snippets window for this exact purpose - create your Content Snippet using the "New Content Snippet" toolbar button and you can then include it in any topic from the Context Menu in the topic editor.

Let me know if you need any further information at all.

Thanks Richard

Looks like creating seperate projects may be the easiest thing

So I created a snippet in one project (login procedure), then created a new project, but can't see the snippet. Is there a way to have "Global Snippets"

Regards

mark

You can create a project type so that your new projects will inherit the snippet. You can also use Project Import to import a snippet into another project.

If you have a lot of duplication (i.e. not just the odd snippet) then you could considering using build flags and build profiles to create multiple outputs from a single project.

Thanks for reply Richard. I'm assuming if I do that, the snippet will not be updated in the new projects derived from the project type, if I update the master.

 

Regarding my original question, what would you recommend for a suite of applications: a single project or multiple projects?

Richard Sloggett (Innovasys):

You can create a project type so that your new projects will inherit the snippet.

Hi Richard, Can you point to where how to do this is explained, or give a brief explanation? If those snippets are inherited by multiple projects, if the original is edited will that be reflected across all projects subsequently built after that edit? If you edit the snippet in any project, will it then be also reflected across all projects subsequently built? Thanks.