How to combine several modules into one

[ErikJon]

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Hello everybody. I have three volumes of a dictionary (A-D, E-M, N-Z) which I would like to combine into one module. Does anyone know an easy way to do it?
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[JG]

drag-n-drop them

http://www.theword.net/manual/copy_movi ... topics.htm

[ErikJon]

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Jon, why do you always have such simple solutions to complicated problems? Now I feel like a real dummy.

Thanks for the tip!
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[ErikJon]

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Now I have a new question, a bug report, and possibly a suggestion.

After dragging the topics as you told me to do, from one tree on the source module (E-M) to the tree on the new module (which will now be simply an expanded version of A-D), I was greeted with a few error messages, that simply told me that there was an error in the file, and asked me if I wanted to continue copying. At first I clicked NO, so as not to continue. To my surprise, the dialog box closed but TW continued copying. This is my first bug report.

Then, another dialog box appeared, twenty seconds later, to report another error. Again, I clicked NO, but again, TW continued to copy. This happened several times more, in the same way. Finally, I decided to cancel the operation altogether, so as to inspect my "damaged" file. I pressed ESC, hoping it would cancel the operation (as it does when indexing files for searching purposes), but, with this operation it did not help. As I was copying over 500 topics, I was afraid it would go on forever, and yet there was no way to interrupt the operation. I had no choice but to force the whole program to close, using the Task Manager.

My first suggestion, then is to allow any such operation to cease, by the user's pressing ESC.

Finally, after re-starting, I started over from scratch, using a new copy of the original source file. This time, when the error messages appeared, I clicked YES, so the copying continued as expected. Again, each time the error message appeared, I clicked YES, and the copying continued.

After all was done, I had to ask myself how many topics I was now missing. I wanted to go back and check those topics that I had missed, to see which ones they were, to try to copy the content manually, and transfer it.

On any open folder-window in Vista, one can select a group of folders, and the status bar reveals how many folders are selected. I wish that TW would do this for the topics tree, so that the user could compare one file with a possible duplicate, or against his source module (if he is making a new module), to make sure that no topics are missing. My next suggestion, then, is that TW put this information in its own status bar, whenever any quantity of topics is selected.

It would be nice to know which topics were defective, so that I could repair them or re-copy them manually, but it seems that TW is unable to record this information for the user. My next suggestion, then, is that, whenever there is an error message, that TW not report the error so vaguely, but specifically tell the user WHICH topic did not copy correctly, so that he can find the issue and correct it himself. Otherwise he has to search through 500+ topics manually, and may never find the culprit.

(I cannot remember if the same issue occurred when indexing modules for search purposes. Sometimes we get a similar error message, as you known by now, which tells us that there is a defective file, and asks whether the user would like to continue copying. What I don't remember is whether the dialog box reports the specific name of the module that presents the issue, or whether it is just a generic error message. If it is generic, again, I suggest that it be specific, so that the user can look into the source of the problem, isolate the bad file, and fix it somehow.)
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[JG]

I leave Costas to comment on your suggestions and observations.

Could you upload here the source files/or a link to them, you are combining and I will try to spot the problems

[ErikJon]

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Actually, I tried to upload them before I wrote this post, but your bulletin-board program would not allow me to upload files of that extension (nor PDFs either).

If you tell me where to post them online, I will try.
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[JG]

zip the file and it should work

[ErikJon]

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I have just now tried to zip the two files, but phBBB's maximum allowed attachement size is 2 MB, and whether in zip format or in 7z format, neither of them can be reduced to 2 MB.
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[JG]

I dealt with this matter with a private link to OneDrive.

[csterg]

Just a work-around for counting selected topics: right-click and select 'Delete'. A dialog box will appear saying: "Are you sure you want to delete X topics?" The X here is the number of selected topics - of course you will say no, but you have what you are asking

[ErikJon]

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Ha ha ha. That's funny, but useful, yes. Thanks.
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[csterg]

Should I include that 'feature' in the official manual?

[ErikJon]

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Yes, You can call that section "Sneaky tricks and Work-Arounds"
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