Imported topics keep their old Master Pages settings

[AlanFisk]

I imported some topics from another Flare project. Even after compilation, they ignore the Master Page in my current project, and show what was in the Master Page in their former project. How can I get them to obey a new Master Page?

[KevinDAmery]

Check the topic properties and make sure that a master page isn't being specified there. It would be in the Topic Style Class pulldown if it's there. Also make sure that they are pointing to the correct stylesheet.

[AlanFisk]

Yes, Kevin, the topics were pointing to the wrong style sheet. Once I'd directed them to the right style sheet, they showed the settings from the Master Page as well. Thank you for your help.

[AlanFisk]

Do I really have to manually edit every one of thousands of topics? I'm trying to create a new help system, but I'd like to start with the old Flare project and update it. Isn't there some way of forcing all imported topics to adopt the new stylesheet and conform to the new master page?

[KevinDAmery]

Do I really have to manually edit every one of thousands of topics? I'm trying to create a new help system, but I'd like to start with the old Flare project and update it. Isn't there some way of forcing all imported topics to adopt the new stylesheet and conform to the new master page?

You can open multiple topics at once by using Show Files in the content explorer or by opening the file list (which I think is ctrl+shift+j, but don't quote me--I don't have Flare open at the mo'). Select the topics you want to change, right click on one, and change the properties to point to the correct master page / class.

One warning though, there is a long standing bug where Flare will freeze when updating large numbers of files. The update does complete correctly, but you usually have to kill Flare in task manager then reopen it. Soooo make sure you save anything you're working on before doing it. (Why they haven't fixed this bug is anyone's guess... it's been there since at least 2.0 and we've all complained about it at one point or another

[AlanFisk]

I created a new project, and then followed the instructions to "merge projects" in order to bring in everything from the old one. The build gives me the error "Skipping Sub-Entries: TOC entry is linking to a project file". I had followed the instructions for merging projects:

"Do one of the following:
Click Browse for Project. Then click Project File and find/select a Flare project to which you want to link.

OR
Click Select Recent Project. Then select a recently opened Flare project from the list on the right.
From the Select Target field, choose a specific target in the Flare project. Make sure you select a target that uses the same output type (DotNet Help, HTML Help, WebHelp) as the target that you will build in the current project.
Click OK.
In the Properties dialog, click OK.
Build the output for the target in your "master" project."

[KevinDAmery]

Ok, "Merge Projects" is something else: you do that if you want to build two separate help systems and have them link together after the fact (for example, having links from one CHM file to a second CHM file). A common application for this is if your company offers multiple products that interconnect if they are installed on the same system: this way, you could make a separate help system for each product, and if the customer installs two or more of them the help systems can link together without you having to make different help systems for all of the combinations.

If you're bringing topics from one Flare project into a second Flare project, you don't have to do that: all you have to do is add the new topics to your TOC and make a build.