Is it possible to change a topic type without having to create a new topic?

Hi,

I recently migrated to SDL and XMetal tools and DITA writing from the previous unstructured writing. The migration was automated and this resulted in a lot of topics being migrated as a wrong topic type. For example, a task topic was migrated as a concept topic. The cause for this issue is that the content was not written following DITA standards.

It takes a lot of time to change the topic type in SDL because right now, I have to create a new topic with the correct topic type and then copy the content from the incorrect topic and rewrite it. Is there a way where you could change the topic type even if it results in a invalid structure? After the topic type is changed, I would check it out and rewrite the content.

Basically, I want to avoid creating a new topic every time I need to change the topic type and then move the content and delete the old topic.

  • There's a reason why people generally advise rewriting your content before migration. You can do this, but you shouldn't. The element set is slightly different, depending on topic type. Changing a topic type is a risky, complex procedure that requires you to check out the topic in a text editor, modify each instance of the document type declaration in the source code, and carry out a lot of other source code edits to make your source code match the new topic type (for example, change <conbody> to <taskbody>). If you don't like the difficulty of rewriting the topic, then I think you really won't like the idea of changing the topic type.

    You can speed the process by creating a new topic, and cutting and pasting in HTML from your existing topic output. Often, that content pastes in directly, though you'll have problems with strict task topics. As you populate the new topic, that is your chance to implement the semantic topic elements in your topic that you should want to use.

    I wouldn't say "you must" or "you shall," but that's what I would do--indeed, have done.

  • Thank you for your reply. I figured it would be a lot of changes to the topic source code and unless we find a foolproof way to automate it - like an intelligent script that does it, I guess rewriting topics is the way to go.