double dash converted to "&endash;" in published doc

[mcbritt]

Greetings,

Does anyone know why a double dash -- which appears as a solid long hyphen in RoboHelp -- would be converted to text "&endash;" in published output?

I am using RH7's WebHelp to generate the published doc.  It's a nasty, recent development.

Thanks
Marcye Britt

[SamDavidson]

I was having this problem a while ago. I think one of the patches adobe put out fixed it. Did you try downloading those?

[mcbritt]

Thanks Sam~

I downloaded an update this morning; now I'm running RH 7.01.001 but the output in my published project still

substitutes &endash; for a double dash.

Marcye Britt

[RoboWizard]

Hi there

Unfortunately applying the update after you have upgraded a project will have no effect. What needs to happen is that you apply all updates. Then using the backup copy that you were wise to make before upgrading (you did do this, didn't you? ) you would upgrade the project again. But this time the HTML entities would properly convert.

If by chance you didn't make a backup copy (lesson learned?) you are faced with locating all instances of the HTML entities and manually correcting them. You might have some success with using RoboHelp's Find and Replace utility.

Cheers... Rick

Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7 within the day - $24.95! Click here for Adobe Authorized Captivate and RoboHelp HTML Training Click here for the SorcerStone Blog Click here for RoboHelp and Captivate eBooks

[Guest]

Hi Marcye,

The fix in the patch applies only if you have upgraded a project after installing the patch.  In other words, you would have to install the patch and then open a project from an earlier version of RH, and that would resolve the "&endash;" problem.

Do you have a backup copy of your project that hasn't been opened in RH7?

By the way, I suggest you also install the 7.02 and 7.03 patches.

Ben

GryphonMountain.net

[Guest]

Let me see if I understand this. I installed RH7, brought my project in, worked on it for quite a while, published it, saw the &endash problem and NOW I have to revert back to the original project because of this &endash issue? That makes absolutely no sense. Yes I have a backup, but it has none of my changes. The changes are all in RH7. WOW.

[RoboWizard]

Hi there

Yes, unfortunately you understand it right. One of the issues the patches addressed was a conversion glitch resulting in the HTML entities showing and not converting properly. Unfortunately the only way to have RoboHelp fix it is to perform the process again of upgrading. This causes the conversion to occur again (properly this time through).

Cheers... Rick

Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7 within the day - $24.95! Click here for Adobe Authorized Captivate and RoboHelp HTML Training Click here for the SorcerStone Blog Click here for RoboHelp and Captivate eBooks

[Guest]

If the patch is applied and we do a search and replace, will that fix them? It won't come back to haunt us? Do we just replace them with the double-dash each topic?

Just a thought, if we upgrade to RoboHelp 8, this issue automatically goes away, right?

Thanks,

[cconnearney]

HockeyTime: Did you get a response from your question "If the patch is applied and we do a search and replace, will that fix them? It won't come back to haunt us? ". Instead of having to pull the backuup, upgrade it to v7, and then redo all the changes made....

[Guest]

No. I never got an answer.

[Peter Grainge]

If you apply the patch and upgrade again, that will fix the existing issues and nobody has reported seeing the problem recurring.

If you manually fix the changes you will be OK and as far as anyone knows, the problem does not occur with new code. But why would you not apply the patch even if you do it that way.

In short, apply the patch, fix it whichever way you want, and you should be OK but I don't give guarantees.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[Guest]

I've been dinged by too many "gottchas" to take any thing for granted with RoboHelp.

[NL_Derek-GsBV5a]

I used the Printed Documentation SSL to generate a PDF of the entire project. Formatting was a mess but that doesn't matter. Then I searched in the PDF for the ampersand "&" character. That enabled me to find all of the corrupted symbols. Finally I fixed each and every one by hand. It wasn't too bad, but I don't know any easier way.

--- Derek

[Guest]

Now THAT is a good idea. Thanks.

[mcbritt]

Thanks for all responses.  Since you've all referred to a potential conversion issue, I queried our consultant who recently rebuilt the project after myriad problems with check-ins and outs of RSC.  I'm waiting to hear from him as to what version he worked in for the new build...but I think I'm getting warm.

M Britt

[Peter Grainge]

I assume you meant all the changes are in RH8.

Try upgrading again and then importing just one of the updated topics from the previous RH8 project that has your updates. I am hoping that importing into a project created in the patched RH will address the problem.

If you can identify a topic that had the problem, that would be one to import.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips