An important tool to manage problems with map IDs is the Map ID report, located under Tools, then Reports, and about halfway down the list that appears. After selecting Map ID, a dialog box appears with a list of all map IDs for the project. The map ID numbers are organized alphabetically according to the name of the help topic to which the map ID belongs. In addition, the list includes the name of the document in which the help topic is located.
At the top of the dialog box is a series of tabs. Select Duplicate Map IDs. This report contains two main groups of information: a list of duplicate map strings, and a list of duplicate map ID numbers. A map string is literally the characters that make up the help topic title, with the words separated by underscores. For example, the map string for the help topic Running Map ID Reports is Running_Map_ID_Reports. The information in the first group relates to map strings that are duplicated, and therefore are located in more than one .HH file. The map IDs for the map string may be different in the various .HH in which they are located. The first entry that describes the location of the duplicate map string is the .HH file that Robohelp treats as the default location for searching for the map ID. The map ID contained in the first entry is the same map ID that is shown in the Map ID report.
The second group of information concerns duplicate map IDs. This information shows map IDs that are located in more than one .HH file. Note that a map ID may correspond to more than one help topic in the various .HH files. As in the first group, Robohelp will treat the first entry as the default .HH file in which to look for the map ID, regardless whether the title of the .HH file is the same as the main document in which the help topic text is located. For example, many map IDs are generated for Lessons.HH in addition to the .HH for the document in which the text is located, such as, say, Display for Standalone Version.
The way to resolve duplicate map IDs and strings is relatively easy: just delete the extraneous map ID or string. Yet the solution is only deceptively simple, because the question of which map ID or string is extraneous depends on which ID or string is in use in the program. Deleting the non-extraneous ID or string will likely cause problems for the user in accessing the proper topic in the Help system. A good rule of the thumb is to only start deleting map IDs or string if there is a problem with accessing the proper help topic in the IFs program. In other words, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
However, if there is a problem in accessing the help topic while using the corresponding feature in IFs, then closely studying the Duplicate Map ID report is a good place to begin addressing the problem. If the map ID is duplicated, the solution may be to delete the map ID in the .HH file that does not correspond to the document in which the help topic is located. For example, many duplicate map IDs are located in Lessons.HH in addition to their main .HH file.
The most important step is to document all the changes made, so that if a mistake occurs, its resolution may be easier than if one has to rely on memory alone. Another good procedure is to save the .HH before it is modified, in case the modifications create unforeseen problems.