Using the Document Manager

The Document Manager is a window in ePublisher Pro that allows you to organize the content within your project. The Document Manager provides you with a means of viewing and editing the organizational flow of the content within your project. With the Document Manager, you can add, remove, and rearrange groups and source documents.

In ePublisher Pro, groups are essentially containers that hold your source documents and allow you to create the organizational structure for your output.When you first create a new project, ePublisher Pro will automatically create a new group based on the project name and add it to the Document Manager. In ePublisher Pro, groups are broken into two categories: first-level groups and subgroups.

A first-level group is the primary container that holds all of your source documents and subgroups, and it is the main group under which the entry-point file will be created. The entry-point file is composed of all the generated output files contained within the first-level group, and it is the file that launches your entire Help set. Since each first-level group generates its own entry-point file, these groups are particularly important when merging multiple Help sets. If you are creating multivolume help, first-level groups serve as the primary volume under which all of your TOC levels are contained.

First-level groups allow you to break your Help set into multiple and separate volumes; for example, if you want to create a Help set that contains a User’s Guide and a Developer’s Guide, then you would need to create two first-level groups called User’s Guide and Developer’s Guide. Once you have created your first-level groups, you can then create subgroups.

Unlike first-level groups, subgroups do not create a generated entry-point file. Instead, subgroups are virtual folders that provide you with a way of organizing the source documents within first-level groups. These subgroups serve as a visual aid for you so that you are able to organize your source documents within their respective first-level groups. Subgroups are merely a means of arranging and categorizing source documents within first-level groups and do not represent an actual volume or TOC level in a generated Help set.

Within the next few sections, we will cover how to add, remove, and rearrange groups and how to add, remove, rearrange, and relink source documents.

Adding, Removing, and Rearranging Groups

Groups are virtual containers that hold your source documents and allow you to manage the organizational flow of your content. By default, when you first create a new project, a new group based on the project name will be added to the Document Manager. A group can either be a first-level group or a subgroup. If the group will be the primary container for all of the source documents and organizational levels within your output, then it will be a first-level group. If the source documents within a first-level group need to be further organized, then subgroups need to be created. Subgroups are simply virtual folders that allow you to organize your source documents into a more visibly coherent layout in the Document Manager.

Adding Groups

In order to add source documents to a project, there must always be at least one group in the Document Manager. By default, a group based on the project’s name will be added to the Document Manager when you first create a project; therefore, you will be able to add source documents to your project. However, if you remove that group from the Document Designer, you will need to add new groups; otherwise, the ability to add source documents to your project will be disabled.

To add a group to your project:

Adding Subgroups

You can add subgroups, or groups within other groups, to your project to organize the source documents in your project into a hierarchy, perhaps representing the folder hierarchy where the original source documents are stored. Subgroups are basically virtual folders that allow you to rearrange the source documents in your project; by rearranging your source documents into subgroups, you can organize how the source documents are displayed in the Document Manager.

To add a subgroup to your project:

Renaming Groups

If you want an existing group to have a different name, you can rename it. For example, by default, when you create a new project, ePublisher Pro will create a new group based on the project name. Oftentimes, you will want to change the default name of the group that is added to your project.

To rename a group:

Removing Groups

If a group is no longer being used, you can remove the group from the Document Manager. When you remove a group from your project, any documents associated with that group will also be removed from your project. The documents are not deleted from your computer but are removed from the current project.

To remove a group:

Adding, Removing, Rearranging, and Relinking Source Documents

Source documents are one of the most crucial parts of a project; without source documents, ePublisher Pro would not be able to populate style information, and there would be no content to generate output with. By using the Document Manager, you can add or remove source documents from groups, rearrange the order of source documents within groups, and relink source documents with broken file paths.

Adding Source Documents to a Project

When you create a new project, a first-level group is automatically placed in the Document Manager, and if you opted to add source documents, then the group will contain all of the source documents that you initially added to the project. If you need to add more source documents, there are multiple ways to do so. The New Project wizard is only one of several methods that will allow you to add a document to your project.

To add a document to your project:

Rearranging Source Documents in a Project

Once you have added source documents to the groups within the Document Manager, you can rearrange and move the source documents within the same group or move them to a new group.

To change the order of documents within a group:

To move a document into a different group:

Opening Source Documents from the Document Manager

If you need to edit any content or information within your source documents, you will need to open the source document.When you add source documents to the groups within the project, the source documents listed in the Document Manager serve as a link to the original source document. When you double-click on a source document in the Document Manager, the source document will open.

Relinking Documents

Sometimes, the link to a particular source document’s original location path may get broken. This could be because the document was moved to another location, deleted, or somehow became corrupt. When this happens, ePublisher Pro will display a Broken Link icon next to the document in the Output Explorer and in the Document Manager.

To relink your source documents:

Removing Documents

You can remove documents from a ePublisher Pro project if you no longer want to include their content in your online output; however, any styles that are associated with that specific source document will still remain in the Style Designer. For example, if UserManualTitle is only specific to one particular document in your project, and you remove that document from the project, the style name UserManualTitle and its style information will stilll remain in the Style Designer.

To remove a document from a project:

ePublisher Pro displays the following dialog:

If you have set properties or options for any styles in your project that are only found in the document you are removing, those styles and settings will be removed from your project when you remove the document.

Removing FrameMaker Book Source Files from a Project

When a book is added to your project, the source documents contained within the book file will be added to the project after the book has been scanned. ePublisher Pro updates the content within your project whenever the FrameMaker book is scanned. Any changes you have made to your book will be picked up by ePublisher Pro; for example, if you have removed source files from the FrameMaker book, then ePublisher Pro will update your project with this change after it has scanned your book.

ePublisher Pro will display all of the source documents contained within your FrameMaker book in your project; therefore, the only way to remove FrameMaker source documents is to remove them from your book file. You cannot remove individual source files that are contained within a book from a project. This allows you to manage your source files from within your book file.

Adding FrameMaker Books

When a FrameMaker book is added to a project, the FrameMaker source documents contained within the book will be added to the project after the book has been scanned. In ePublisher Pro, the FrameMaker book essentially serves as its own virtual container within the Document Manager. Any FrameMaker documents that are contained within the book will always be part of the project. Whenever you make changes to the FrameMaker book, such as adding or removing source documents from the book, ePublisher Pro will update the contents of the book in the project after you scan the book. If you have made any changes to the contents within the books, you will need to scan the books so that you are able to generate output with your project.

To add a FrameMaker book to a project:

 

The Log Window

When you first open a project in ePublisher Pro, one of the default windows that will be visible is the Log Window. When you generate output for your project, ePublisher Pro will display its progress in the Log Window. If any errors occur, an error message will display in the Log Window. When an error occurs, please consult the Log Window for a detailed description of the issue.

If you do not see the Log Window, you will need to choose it from the View menu so that it will display in the user interface.

To view the Log Window:

When you generate output for your project, the Log Window shows you the progress and status of the generation process. The Log Window allows you to identify where errors occur when generating output files. When you generate output for a project, ePublisher Pro will create an external log file. If you need to submit support requests, you can send this log file to the support team at Quadralay.

To access the log file:

To save your own log file:

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