An orphaned alias is an alias that no longer has a map number.
How does an alias become an orphan? Usually, aliases are automatically updated when you make changes to them in the program. For example, you remove or rename a window-level Help topic.
Aliases are not updated under the following circumstances:
You remove a map file from the project but do not unassign the aliases.
You replace a map file with another copy that does not include the necessary map numbers. The context-sensitive Help will not work properly without the map numbers because they are directly linked to the topic IDs that you match to your context-sensitive Help topics.
As far as your Help system is concerned, these aliases still exist. In reality, they are now orphans.
Click the Project tab.
From the File menu, select Aliases. The Edit Map IDs dialog opens.
From Map
File, click and select <Aliases>.
All the topic IDs that are used in the alias file are listed.
Blue icons identify topics that have valid aliases in the project.
The corresponding map numbers are listed at the right side. If you pause
the mouse over a blue icon, a popup displays the name of the .HTM file
(window-level Help topic) matched to the topic ID.
Gray icons identify topic IDs that do not have map numbers. These are
the orphaned aliases you should remove the project. If you pause the mouse
over a gray icon, a popup displays the name of the .HTM file (window-level
Help topic) matched to the topic ID. These topics will no longer work in
the application because they do not have map numbers.
Select the invalid topic ID. (Notice how the Topic ID field displays the alias, but the map # field is dimmed and blank.)
Click Unassign. The orphaned alias is removed from the alias file.
Repeat steps 4 – 5 until all of the orphaned aliases are removed from your project.
Compile your project to update the .CHM file.
WARNING! If you plan to replace the map file with a new copy that uses the original map numbers and matching topic IDs, do not remove orphaned aliases. After you update the map file and save your project, all of the aliases will work.