Open child projects read-only:

This protects child projects merged into the TOC of the current project against accidental editing. This is the default setting.

See Working with Modular Help Systems for more information on editing merged child projects.

Topic ID Prefix:

Any text you enter here is automatically added as a prefix to the suggested topic ID when you create a new topic. Note that this function can only be used for new topics; you cannot automatically change existing topic IDs.

Automatically create: /
Start with: /
Increment by:

If you activate this function help context numbers will be assigned to new topics automatically, starting with the Start with number. Each new number will be generated by incrementing the last number assigned by the Increment by setting.

This function can only be used for new topics. You can add, delete and change the context numbers of existing topics with the Help Context Tool.

Apply to topic anchors:

This setting will also automatically generate help context numbers for new topic anchors so that anchors can also be used for calls to help topics from applications.

Version Control System: Manually check out and check in topics

This option is only relevant if you have a version control system like Microsoft Visual SourceSafe installed on your computer.

By default file check-out and check-in is handled automatically for projects linked to a VCS – Help & Manual automatically checks topics out of the VCS database when you edit them and checks them back in when you save your project and move on to a different topic.

Setting manual check-out/check-in switches this automatic feature off and sets all the topics in your project to read-only. To edit a topic you must then first check it out manually, either with Project > File > Check Out in the Ribbon, or with Version Control System > Check Out in the context menu displayed when you right-click on the topic in the Project Explorer.

After editing a topic you must also check it in manually with the Check In menu options in the same locations. Other users will not be able to edit the topic until you do this – even if you close your project. (This allows you to leave a topic checked out even when you are not working on a project.)