About branching
When you branch a map and its components, the system creates new copies of all these documents and automatically takes care of external references.
When a published map is branched, a copy of the map is created in the Authoring cycle and given the status Authoring:work (or its equivalent in your workflow). Initially, the new map is identical to the published map. The new map references the same published content as the original map. The sub-maps, topics, and other content in the map remain in the published cycle.
If you want to modify the content of any of the documents within the branched map, you will have to branch them as well. This includes all sub-maps and their children.
Modifying a document within a branched map
Once you have branched a map, you can branch the documents it contains (topics, sub-maps, images, conrefs, etc.).
When a document is branched, a copy of the originally published document is created in the Authoring cycle. This new document, with its own unique ID, can be edited in the same manner as any other document in the Authoring cycle, without affecting the original published version of the document.
Document references within a branched map
When you branch a document, the system automatically finds all topics and maps within the branched map that reference the document and updates their references. If any topics or maps containing a reference to the branched document are still in the Published cycle, then they are automatically branched as well.
This does not affect documents from outside a branched map’s hierarchy. Such topics or maps are left unchanged, and will continue to reference the original published version of the document.
You cannot branch a document unless it's in a state that permits branching, For example, if you try to branch a document and the documents that reference it are locked by another user, then the document cannot be branched. You'll have to wait until the documents are released in order to proceed with the branching.
Branching a topic across multiple maps within the same branch
If multiple maps reference the same topic within a branch (that is, the maps have the same branch tag), then when the topic is branched in the maps, the maps will use the same branched topic. (In previous releases, a new copy of the topic was created every time a topic was branched, even if the same topic was reused in multiple maps within the same branch).For example, consider two maps, Map1 and Map2, which reference the same topic (Topic1). Both Map1 and Map2 are branched using the tag Branch1. When Topic1 is branched in Map1, a new version of Topic1 is created in Authoring, and the branched Map1 references this new version. The branched Map2 still references the Topic1 in Published. When Topic1 is branched in Map2, then both Map1 and Map2 reference the same branched topic in Authoring.