If you copy elements, such as steps, numbered lines or bulleted lines and paste them within the same topic, you need to change or remove the ID of the element when you paste it. When you copy an element, the ID is copied also. And unless you change the ID, duplicate IDs will exist when you paste the copy.
If you attempt to reuse an element that has a duplicate ID with the same topic, errors might occur. For example, the conref might display text from the incorrect element. Duplicate IDs within the same topic is invalid XML and might produce various types of errors.
Important:
When you copy a topic, the topic is assigned a new ID but the elements will have the same IDs as in the original topic. However, this will not cause any issues because the topic ID is always included in the references. Therefore, all references are unique.
If you are copying an element, pasting it, and not modifying the text, set up a conref rather than copy. If you are copying an element, pasting it, and modifying the text, be sure that you change the ID of the pasted element.
