Reuse Elements from Warehouse Topics

You can reuse content with content references (conref) by copying and pasting elements, dragging and dropping elements, or by using the Content Editor toolbar.

Note:

Per DITA standard, some elements can only be used in a topic once. For example, shortdesc, prereq, result, postreq. If you're trying to reuse such an element, first remove it from your topic, then reuse the element. In the case of shortdesc, you can wrap it in abstract instead, which can contain multiple shortdesc elements.

Create a warehouse topic and add reusable elements. See Add Reusable Elements to Warehouse Topics.

Reuse elements with copy-paste

In the Content Editor, enable the Short Tags, Full Tags, or Full Tags With Attributes mode.
For details, see Tags View Modes.
Open the source and target topics side-by-side in two windows:
1. Open the target topic in which you want to reuse content.
2. Open the warehouse topic with the source content that you want to reuse.
In the warehouse topic, copy a reusable element:
- If you enabled a tags view, in the Content Editor, right-click an element tag and select Copy.
- If you prefer to use the Content Editor footer, click an element and select Copy.
  
  Figure 1. Content Editor footer
In the target topic, place your cursor where you want to reuse the element, paste the element, and from the dialog select Conref.

Note:
If the dialog doesn't appear, in the warehouse topic, go to the Attributes tab and ensure that the element you copied has an ID attribute added. Elements without an ID attribute can't be reused as they can't be identified by the system.

Tip: Instead of copying and pasting elements, you can drag and drop reusable elements from the warehouse topic to the target topic.

Reuse elements by using the Content Editor toolbar

Open a topic and place your cursor where you want to insert a content reference (conref).
In the toolbar, click Reuse.
In the dialog, click Select file, navigate to and select the warehouse topic, and click Link Inside File (Select Target Element).
In the warehouse topic, select the element that you want to reuse:
1. In the Create/Edit Link dialog, click an element and select it from the list that appears.
2. If prompted about an element ID value, click OK and Save.
  
  Tip:
  Heretto CCMS generates ID attribute values automatically, but you can modify them. ID attribute values must be unique. Assigning customized, meaningful values may boost consistency in your documentation.
3. Click the Insert Content button.

You reused an element from a warehouse topic with the content reference (conref) mechanism. In the Content Editor, reused content has gray background. When you click it, you see options to open the warehouse topic (Open), point the conref to a different element (Change), edit reused content in the warehouse topic (Edit Content), and remove the conref (Remove).