By default, Help+Manual will automatically check your topics out of the Visual SourceSafe (VSS) repository when you edit them and check them back in when you save and move on to another project.
If you wish, however, you can also configure your project for manual check-out and check-in. Then your project will be displayed in read-only mode when you open it and you will have to check out your topics manually in order to edit them. You must also remember to check your topics back in again when you finish your work, otherwise other users will not be able to check them out for editing.
 Key Information
When you are working in a team all the team members should use the same check-out mode. Manual mode provides maximum security because then the TOC is also protected against editing conflicts.
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This is the default mode for VSS projects. In this mode you don't need to change the way you work at all. The only difference you will notice is the icon on your project name in the Project Explorer indicating that the project is linked to a VSS repository.
As soon as you start editing a topic it is automatically checked out of the VSS repository and locked for all other users. Topics that are checked out are identified with additional icons in the Project Explorer. You will see green check icons for topics that you have checked out and red check icons for topics checked out by other users.
In multi-user editing mode everything works just as it does when multiple users are editing a project that is not linked to a VSS repository. See Multi-User Editing for more details.
When you save your project your topic files are automatically checked back into the VSS repository and unlocked for other users to access. The check icons will then be cleared from the topics in the Project Explorer. Here too, you don't have to do anything yourself.
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You can only activate manual check-out/check-in for your entire project. To turn it on go to and activate the check box by Manually check out and check in topics. Then save your project to apply the setting.
This will automatically switch all the topics in your project to read-only mode (they will be grayed out in the Project Explorer). To edit a topic you must now check it out manually:
1.Select the topic you want to edit in the TOC or Topic Files section.
2.Select or right click on the topic in the Project Explorer and select in the context menu.
3.The topic name will be displayed with a green checked-out icon in the Explorer and you can now edit it normally.
4.When you have finished editing, save your changes. Then select Check In in the Project tab or the context menu. This checks the topic with your changes back into the VSS repository and the topic is switched back to read-only in the Project Explorer.
That is really all there is to it. Everything else is exactly the same as editing a normal project. You just have to remember to check in your open topics before you close your project, otherwise you and other users will see a conflict resolution dialog from your VSS the next time you access the project because it will see that there are topic files checked out.
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When you are working in manual mode the Table of Contents is protected against simultaneous editing by multiple users. To make any changes (new topic, delete topic, move topic, edit topic caption) you need to check out the Table of Contents, which you do in the same way as for a normal topic:
1.Select the Table of Contents heading in the Project Explorer.
2.Select or right click on the topic in the Project Explorer and select in the context menu.
The Table of Contents header will be marked with a green "checked out" icon and will be locked for other users. When you have finished editing save your project and check the TOC back in again. You and the other users should use the Refresh tool after doing this.
See the chapter on Multi-User Editing for more details.
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See also:
Multi-User Editing
