I just had a horrible realization. I recently opened the Morrowind.ini file and noticed these lines:

MaintainImportedDialogueOrder=0

ExportDialogueWithHyperlinks=0

UseExistingTempFile=0

CanMoveInfosWhileFiltered=0

I have recently been exporting dialogue data, editing it, then re-importing it with these values set at default. How much danger is there of breaking dialogue like this?

(neither UESP Wiki nor Yacoby's tutorial offer suggestions)

Thanks.

Edit: I did find a documented version claiming that these lines pertain only to the journal. If that's the case, am I okay?

the one worth changing may be only
MaintainImportedDialogueOrder=0

IIRC if you set it to 1, when you re-import your dialog from the spreadsheet-compatible txt export, dialog order (topic info lines included) will not be reversed.

Are you referring to what PrinceShroob posted 2 years ago?

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1507220-irritating-issue-dialogue-ordering/

Not really, he was shuffling directly in CS the order of a lot of standard dialog, something I think would cause big compatibility problems

IIRC the problem with export/import dialog with MaintainImportedDialogueOrder=0 is that after fixing/spell-checking dialog in a spreadsheet, dialog is re-imported in reversed topic info order by default, not only journal IIRC
But my memory may fail, needs testing with export/import a couple topics

[EDIT]my idea about this default is:
Beth wrote new dialog using a spreadsheet, made the reverse-import order option for easier/faster dialog filtering, but forgot to set the Morrowind.ini MaintainImportedDialogueOrder by default to 1 for maintenance of already done dialog

Yeah, Leonardo, I'm not actively trying to reorder anything. But that's a good link, though; thank you for providing that. Most of the work centers on the renaming of variables or ref i.d.'s after combining plugins.

My fear is probably more along the lines of what you're describing abot. I think I'll go ahead and change that line in the .ini file then and keep an eye open. Thank you.