More Advanced Procedures > Templates in Help & Manual

A help project template is simply an entire Help & Manual project with all its settings, including all your styles and all the settings and items in the Project Explorer. A project template can include topics with content but it does not have to. If you have topics that you always use (for example terms and conditions, introductions and so on) you may want to include them.

The difference between skins and project templates

Unlike skins, project templates are used as a model for new projects. You can also apply project templates to existing projects but this is a little more complicated (see below).

Skins are applied when you publish and do not affect the settings in your current project, the settings in project templates become an integral part of your project.

This is generally the easiest way to create a project template because then you don't have to go through all the project settings.

1.	Create a backup copy of the project you want to use as a template and open the backup.

2.	Delete all the topics you don't want to include in the template and edit any topics that you do want to include so that they do not contain any unnecessary text or other items.

3.	Select Save As in the Application Menu and save the edited project in a safe place. You don't have to use a special format, a project template is exactly the same as a normal Help & Manual project.

Make a copy of the template project and edit:

Just make a copy of the template project file or project folder (if you are using uncompressed XML format), rename the .hmxz (compressed) or .hmxp (uncompressed) file and start editing. That is all there is to it.

You can also apply project templates to existing projects. However, this cannot be done in one process, you need to choose the parts of the template you want to apply.

Step 1: Apply the template stylesheet

1.	Open the project you want to apply the template to and select Styles > Edit Styles in the Write tab.

2.	Click on the Copy Styles From... and then select the project file you want to copy the stylesheet from.

Note that this will overwrite all the styles in your existing project!

Step 2: Apply the Project Configuration settings

All the other settings in your projects are stored in the Configuration section in the Project Explorer. You must import the properties here section by section:

1.	Select the Configuration section of your project in the Project Explorer.

2.	Select a section that you want to copy and click on the Copy Properties From... button at the bottom of the screen. Then select the project you want to copy the properties from.

You will be asked whether you want to copy the properties from just the current sub-section or from the entire section (for example: just the Image Folders section of Common Properties or the entire Common Properties section).

Note that this will overwrite all the settings in your existing project!

3.	Repeat for all the template sections you want to copy.

If you want to copy the complete template import all the Common Properties and HTML Page Templates sections, plus all the Publishing Options sections for any output formats you are using.

Step 3: Import the Baggage Files

If your original project also contains Baggage Files you should import those to the new project as well.

1.	Select the Baggage Files section in the Project Explorer.

2.	Select Add File > Add New File in Project > Manage Topics and select the Help & Manual project you want to import the Baggage files from.

3.	You will be asked if you want to import the Baggage Files from the selected project. Confirm to import the files.

Do you like the appearance of the Help & Manual help? In case you do we've included a template project containing all the integrated features that you can use for your own projects. It is stored in the Examples\Template for New Projects folder in your My Documents directory (Documents in Vista) and is called HELPMAN.hmxz.

Some sample skin files based on this template are also available, which you can apply to your projects when you compile to HTML-based output formats. These can be found in the \Templates\HTML Skins folder in the Help & Manual program directory.

The project template contains everything you need, including instructions for using it in your own projects and the graphics for the mouseover buttons in the headers, the code for the non-scrolling headers etc.

Using the template for a new project:

Just make a copy of the template project under a different name and start editing (see above).

Applying the template to an existing project:

Follow the instructions for applying project templates to existing projects (see above) and copy the styles, Configuration sections and Baggage files from the template project.

This template project is set up for HTML Help and Webhelp so you need to copy the following sections:

•

Styles

•	Common Properties (entire section)

•	HTML Page Templates (entire section)

•	Publishing Options > HTML Help (entire section)

•	Publishing Options > Webhelp (entire section)