Merged Project

[Judy Bragg]

Art wrote: "This probably isn't the kind of advice that you're hoping to get, but
the way that you're setting stuff up is so far from the standard way
that FM and RH work that you're way off the edge.
"As you probably know, the normal way to work, and the way the programs
work best, is to build a book in FM that contains all the chapter
files. IF... it really "takes forever" to update files and that's your
reason for not using a standard workflow, that would tell me that
there's something wrong with your setup. I know that I'm working on
several books with 500-600 pages and all the files are on a server...
and it takes maybe 2-3 minutes to update all insets, graphics, and
generate the TOC and Index. Which I can live with.
"Your note that the system fails when you try to work correctly is
another key that you've got basic system or configuration problems.
Normal work doesn't cause systems to fail.
"So the right direction would be to find and fix the underlying
problem, rather than look for additional kludges. Which would involve
supplying a lot more details about your system, RAM, free space,
network config and so on..."I have no idea what is "standard" for setting up FM. It makes sense to me,
but if I need to change it somehow I'll be glad to know what the proper way is!  Here's what I've done:StructuredFM-Ch1
            -Ch2
            -Ch3...etc
            -Graphics-Ch1
                     -ch2
                     -Ch3            -TextInsets (Sub-files by subject matter)
            -Books
 
The Books folder contains all books--Full Manual, as well as the smaller chapter books--and their TOC and IX files.There is no network involved anywhere.  I'm a lone writer so everything remains on my laptop.My system: Windows XP SP3, Intel Core Duo CPU (2GHz) and 3.49Gb RAM.  
I have almost 73Gb of free HD space and the current size of that whole StructuredFM folder is only 4.6Gb.
My full manual is about 1350 pgs.Also, it's not updating the books' TOC, IX, Xrefs, etc that takes so long.  It's updating their references in RH that takes forever.I look forward to hearing your suggestions.  Thanks so much for your willingness to help.Judy