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Branching

Branching is designed for creating multiple versions of related content. It is similar to copying, but has more features and gives you more options when working with your content. With a branch, you create a new version of a publication or topic that acts like a copy, but Paligo understands it is related to the original version. This means that the original and the branch can be used separately as parallel versions or be merged back into a single version later. Choose one of Paligo's two branching modes, see Select Branching Mode.

Break the relationship between a branch and its original version, see Convert Branch to Main Branch.

The most common use cases to work with branches:

  • Work during a release - You are working on a version for a specific product that is still in development and being updated. But then the next release of the product is due and you need to start working on the documentation for that version, see Create Branches.

  • Experiment with the content - You are considering some major changes to the documentation and its structure and you want to experiment before abandoning the old version. Merge a branch into another branch, see Merge Branches.

  • Work on major changes that will take some time - You are working on a major change for the documentation that will take some time, but the development team is making many small continuous updates that require updates in the live documentation. So you need to be able to publish intermittently until the major overhaul of the documentation is done.

  • Have two different versions that live concurrently and need changes to be applied easily in both.

  • Work during a translation project - Branching is necessary to be able to work on further developments while content is being translated. Also read Update Content when Translation is Not Finished.

For example, in the following image, the "Acme HomeHub User Guide" has been branched. The original (1) and the branched version (2) both exist as separate publications with separate topics. You could continue to use them as separate versions or merge them together to create one publication.

Two publication structures side-by-side. One is numbered 1 and is the original version. The other is numbered 2 and is the branched version.

1 = Original, 2 = Branched version

Note

When you branch a topic, Paligo will attempt to maintain any content reuse from the original version. It will also continue to use the same image files. For details, see What Happens When You Create a Branch?.

Caution

Branching can be very powerful, if used for the right reasons and with care. It is important to avoid overly complex scenarios.