Basic usage question: Deleting objects that are referenced by other objects

I inadvertently created an entire duplicate set of topics and images for my doc when I was using D2T. I'm trying to delete the extraneous objects but I'm finding it difficult to do. I cannot delete objects that are referenced by other objects, but some of my objects reference each other (via cross references), so I can't delete any of them. I've been able to move the duplicates to separate folders, and I tried to bulk delete them all at once, but that won't work either. The only options I can think of are to either edit each object and manually remove the cross references or move everything into the Trash folder to live there forever. Has anyone experienced this or have any advice? Thanks!

  • Hi Lorian. Try deleting your objects in the following order and see if this works for you. Delete the main DITA Map first. Delete any DITA map submaps second. Delete the topics third. Delete the images last. If I remember correctly, the top-down approach should work.

    Pam Noreault | Knowledge Center Solutions Architect

  • Hi Pam thanks for the suggestions. I have actually done that and was able to delete the maps, but I the topics are the problem. Since the topics reference each other, it's a Catch 22.
  • Hi Lorian. I missed that there were inline links between the topics that referenced on another. Since you don't care about these topics, you could do a global search for the links and replace them with nothing and then delete. Oxygen will require you to check out the topics first because it controls how the search and replace is done. XMetal 9 or 10 will do the search and replace and will do the checkout when you do the replace. Not ideal, but better than manually deleting.

    Pam Noreault | Knowledge Center Solutions Architect