New TOC, based on existing, still points to previous dir.

[Matt O]

Good morning all,

I'm using Flare v6.1.0 on medium sized software documentation project, PDF output only. I have a question for the Forum, I imagine i'm not the first to encounter this. A scan of existing posts cannot find this issue.

In summary (detail at the base, if interested)
I have a situation where, for our new software release version, i copy an existing information set into a new directory. I also create a new TOC but the new TOC is based on the old TOC (multiple TOCs, all large and complex) so all the links in the new TOC point to the old directory.

How to update all those TOC links to the new \v5 dir?

Poss solution
I could close Flare, open the XYZv5.fltoc in a text viewer and run a find/replace to input the new \v5 directory info but:
a. i have quite a few TOCs to do
b. this type of behind the scenes approach can sometimes bite one later

Questions
- Have others come across this?
- Am i missing something obvious?
- Any suggestions?

All contributions much appreciated. I shall update this post as i progress.

In detail, if interested
Once a version release of our software is complete I need to branch the information set.

For example, version 4 is finished. I want to maintain a working version of the v4 information set. I create a new directory, \v5 and copy all of the v4 information set into the new \v5 directory. The \v5 directory is now my working information set.

I need a new TOC and Target for v5; the old one will point to the old \v4 directory. I create a new TOC and choose to copy from the existing v4 TOC BUT, all the topics in the new v5 TOC will still point to the old v\4 directory. (Internal Related inter-topic links seem to be OK as these are automatically created as relative links '../../path/topic' (i think this is how one expresses this)).

[LTinker68]

Why not just create a copy of the entire project folder, but rename the flprj file to reflect whichever version you're on? For instance, if your project folder is at C:\HelpProjects\Helpv4, then copy the Helpv4 folder and rename it Helpv5. Then open that folder and rename helpv4.flprj to helpv5.flprj. When you double-click on that file or open it from within Flare, you're now working with the new project. No need to update links because they're all relative to the project you're in. You can now zip the Helpv4 and keep it for archiving purposes. The only thing you'd have to do (other than update the content, of course) is to modify any variables or other text you have to identify it as version 5 instead of version 4.

[Matt O]

Lisa

This is just the sort of answer i was after. Not only does putting it out to the forum set fresh eyes and minds on the issue but it utilises the knowledge pool from experienced users like yourself. Your answer is much appreciated as it also helps me to straighten out the project in a deeper, wider surgical way than the itty-bitty bandaid approach i had in mind.

Your experience and willingness to share is appreciated, thanks. I shall post how i get on in case others experience this.

Matt