Using the Project Merge Tool /

Collaborative Work on a Help Project

How to Use Project Merge for Collaborative Work

You can use the Project Merge tool (File|Merge) to work on a help project by a team of technical writers.

This implies that each writer will work on their own sub-project containing a specific set of topics, which will be imported into the main help project.

When a writer has added new topics to their sub-project, you can import these topics into the main help project by using the Add as New merge mode. If a writer has modified existing topics in their sub-project, you can update these topics in the main help project by using the Replace by Context merge mode.

Use Different Ranges of Context Values

If you use the Project Merge tool for collaborative work, it is recommended to use different ranges of Context values for topics in each of the sub-projects (for example: from 10 to 1000 in one sub-project, from 1010 to 2000 in another sub-project, and so on). This will help you avoid collisions between the Context values when importing topics from a sub-project into the main help project.

If necessary, you can use the Context Tool to renumber the Context values of existing topics in a sub-project.

Use a Version Control System as Alternative Solution

While the Project Merge tool allows you to work on a help project collaboratively, you can also consider using the .HSMP format, and a full-featured version control system (for example: Git, Subversion, etc.) as alternative solution, which allows multiple users to:

•Edit and merge the same help project's files (including the Table of Contents, topics, settings, etc.).

•Track any changes made to the help project's files.

•Recover a previous version of the help project's files.

•Create branches of the help project.

•And so on.