RH detaches template from topics when editing. RH7, RH6 and possibly RH5 too

Question

Just in case anybody has had this problem that I have lived with for years.
I've reported it as a bug.
Concise problem statement:
In many Help projects, I confine the contents of each topic to a table of about 750px wide, so that the appearance looks reasonable on some of these modern very large, wide-screen monitors. (This avoids having a line of text nearly two feet long!)
It also keeps the positioning of floating images in their correct place, and maintains the good appearance of the topis.
The problem is that, when editing these topics and saving them, they often detach the Template. This also often happens if I go into Topic Properties to change the topic name and file name.
A message box pops up, asking me if I want to make template changes to just this topic, or to all topics.
You have to be VERY careful to select 'Just this topic', and then re-attach the template again afterwards. If you get it wrong and select 'All Topics', then on earlier versions of RH it would strip the template off ALL topics and then DELETE THE TEMPLATE!
Fortunately, I haven't made this mistake on version 7, but I think the risk is still there.
Steps to reproduce bug:
1. Create a new topic template and insert a table (mine have invisible borders) of, say, 750px wide.
2. Save the template.
3. Create several topics with a reasonable amount of content (copy and paste something from a Word doc, for example.)
4. Try editing a few topics.
5. Or try changing the Topic Properties Topic Title and/or File Name and click OK a few times.
Results: It shouldn't be long before it starts to misbehave.
Expected results: The template should NOT be detached.
Note: I have had this problem on every Help Project since I started using RH years ago. But it wasn't till I built one recently that didn't use a table for the content, that I discovered that it was then stable because ther was no table for the content.
Hope this is helpful.
Philip Tory

Answer 1

Hi Phillip
I had a look at your video. RoboHelp is  not losing the connection to the template. What is happening (at least  according to the video you presented) is that for some reason it is  sensing a change has been made to the Header or Footer. Because the  topic is associated with the Template (or Master Page in RoboHelp 8) it  is asking you how it should proceed. When you choose the option to apply  the modification to the topic, you are instructing RoboHelp to break  the connection to the template.
What you need to be  investigating is exactly why it is sensing you have made a change to the  Header or Footer. Once you solve that mystery you should not encounter  the message that causes you to sever the connection between the  Template/Master Page and the Topic.
Cheers... Rick
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