The Snippets tool inserts topics, H+M XML snippet files, HTML files, Markdown files and PDF files into your current topic at the cursor position. These files can be inserted in Copy mode or Link mode. In Link mode the snippet content updates automatically when the source topic or XML file is edited.

See Re-using content with snippets for full details on using the Snippets tool and managing your snippets.

You can load entire topics from external files. Unlike snippets, loading a topic from a file replaces the entire current topic with the external file. You can load topics from Help+Manual XML, RTF, HTML, Markdown, plain text and RVF files.

1.Select the topic you want to overwrite in the Project Explorer (TOC or Topic Files), or create a new empty topic.

2.Select File > Load Topic from File in Project > Manage Topics and select the file you want to load. This will overwrite the current topic with the contents of the selected file!

See Content templates for topics for information on using Help+Manual XML topic files as content templates for topics.

Important: This feature is now deprecated for inserting formatted content, because it only supports HTML output formats. The Snippets tool now supports HTML, Markdown and PDF files as well as Help+Manual topics and XML snippets, and these snippets can be used in all output formats.

In HTML-based output formats you can also use the Insert HTML Code tool to merge the contents of external HTML files into your topics when you publish your project. These files can be local or accessed via an http URL. This enables you to maintain external files for information that may change and insert the latest version automatically every time you publish.

See Merging HTML files into topics for full details and instructions.

1.Open both projects in the Project Explorer. Alternatively you can open Help+Manual a second time and open one project in on instance of the program and the other project in the other. This can make it easier to switch between projects.

2.Select the source and target positions in both projects so that you can see them clearly.

3.Use the Copy, Cut and Paste tools in the Ribbon Toolbar to copy and paste topics or chapters. These Clipboard tools are available in both the Write and Project tabs.

If the pasted topics have the same IDs as topics in the target project H+M will change them automatically. It's advisable to open the Topic Options tab on the left of the main editor window and check the IDs of all pasted topics after importing them.