This is a long post, but you can ignore the last half if you're not interested in why I need to do what I need to do...
Im seeking advice on a challenging conversion project.
Here are the details:
I have a single Word document, nearly 1000 pages long.
Throughout this document are hyperlinks that link to bookmarks (not headings) throughout this same document.
I need to break this document into separate documents, based upon headers (e.g., begin a new document with each Heading 1) so that I end up with 500 or so separate Word documents, all in one directory. And the most important part is that these existing hyperlinks need to still be present and function properly (that is, each hyperlink still goes to the same destination, causing the appropriate document to open, if necessary, when I click on a hyperlink).
Here are some restrictions/parameters:
-I only need to do this one time to my single Word document
-I have a couple of weeks to figure out how to do it, but the final process needs to be doable in about one day, two days at the most
-whatever I do cannot depend on creating a Master Document, as my final use for these docs prohibits this
Any thoughts on how to do this? Manually breaking the document into separate docs would be a pain, but I could do it if I had to. The biggest issue is that I cannot possibly re-create these hyperlinks manually. There are hundreds upon hundreds of them and during this splitting process, I must ensure that the hyperlinks intact and function across the separate Word docs.
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If you are interested in what Im doing and why, keep reading. If what i need this for doesnt interest you, you can ignore the rest of this post.
What am I doing? Currently, our massive help system is in Adobe RoboHelp and we are switching help system development tools from RoboHelp to Quadralays WebWorks Publisher. We currently create content from within RoboHelp but using the new system we will author in Word and WebWorks will parse those Word documents and create a compiled help system. Any time we need to make changes in the help system, well simply change the Word document for the affected topics and regenerate a compiled help file.
The problem is, to convert from RoboHelp to Word, we are limited to what format and content we can export from RoboHelp. RoboHelp can export as separate Word docs, but when doing so it strips out the hyperlinks. If we want to retain our hyperlinks, we must have RoboHelp export a single, massive, Word document, which it does with hyperlinks intact, and then we need to split that massive Word document into separate files, one document per help topic. (We need one help topic per Word document so that multiple authors can maintain the project without getting in one anothers way.)
If I can take this single Word document and split it into separate documents, based upon a unique header that defines the start of each topic, and have my hyperlinks still functioning, then Im 99% of the way towards having a set of Word documents that WebWorks can use to generate a compiled help system.
The reason that I have a couple of weeks to figure this out but only a couple of days to do it is simple: we cant stop developing the help system while Im converting. Once Ive got the process nailed down, I can get everyone to work on other things for a day or two while the conversion happens, but we cant hold everything up for any longer than that.
Sorry for the long post. I know that some folks like to see much detail and some only want the most crucial pieces.
Im seeking advice on a challenging conversion project.
Here are the details:
I have a single Word document, nearly 1000 pages long.
Throughout this document are hyperlinks that link to bookmarks (not headings) throughout this same document.
I need to break this document into separate documents, based upon headers (e.g., begin a new document with each Heading 1) so that I end up with 500 or so separate Word documents, all in one directory. And the most important part is that these existing hyperlinks need to still be present and function properly (that is, each hyperlink still goes to the same destination, causing the appropriate document to open, if necessary, when I click on a hyperlink).
Here are some restrictions/parameters:
-I only need to do this one time to my single Word document
-I have a couple of weeks to figure out how to do it, but the final process needs to be doable in about one day, two days at the most
-whatever I do cannot depend on creating a Master Document, as my final use for these docs prohibits this
Any thoughts on how to do this? Manually breaking the document into separate docs would be a pain, but I could do it if I had to. The biggest issue is that I cannot possibly re-create these hyperlinks manually. There are hundreds upon hundreds of them and during this splitting process, I must ensure that the hyperlinks intact and function across the separate Word docs.
---------------
If you are interested in what Im doing and why, keep reading. If what i need this for doesnt interest you, you can ignore the rest of this post.
What am I doing? Currently, our massive help system is in Adobe RoboHelp and we are switching help system development tools from RoboHelp to Quadralays WebWorks Publisher. We currently create content from within RoboHelp but using the new system we will author in Word and WebWorks will parse those Word documents and create a compiled help system. Any time we need to make changes in the help system, well simply change the Word document for the affected topics and regenerate a compiled help file.
The problem is, to convert from RoboHelp to Word, we are limited to what format and content we can export from RoboHelp. RoboHelp can export as separate Word docs, but when doing so it strips out the hyperlinks. If we want to retain our hyperlinks, we must have RoboHelp export a single, massive, Word document, which it does with hyperlinks intact, and then we need to split that massive Word document into separate files, one document per help topic. (We need one help topic per Word document so that multiple authors can maintain the project without getting in one anothers way.)
If I can take this single Word document and split it into separate documents, based upon a unique header that defines the start of each topic, and have my hyperlinks still functioning, then Im 99% of the way towards having a set of Word documents that WebWorks can use to generate a compiled help system.
The reason that I have a couple of weeks to figure this out but only a couple of days to do it is simple: we cant stop developing the help system while Im converting. Once Ive got the process nailed down, I can get everyone to work on other things for a day or two while the conversion happens, but we cant hold everything up for any longer than that.
Sorry for the long post. I know that some folks like to see much detail and some only want the most crucial pieces.
