See Also Button - Duplicates in Popup

Report · Jan 21, 2009

Hi,

RoboHelp V7 compiling to HTML Help.

I am trying to simplify navigation by using the See Also button and See Also keywords. The problem is that after I generate the .chm file and test the button, it pops up two of all of the topics that it is supposed to. One of each of the duplicates is a bad link and one is good.

I checked the See Also pod and everything looks normal. ???

Any ideas?

Mark

Report · Jan 21, 2009

Hi, Mark,

Do you also get duplicate results when you conduct a search? If so, the likelihood is that you have inadvertently compiled multiple copies of the topic files into your .chm file. Here are two recent threads where other users have reported similar problems:

"Multiple/broken/repeated listings in Search results"
"Double-entry Search results!"

So, the proposed solutions are:

1) Make a backup of your project. Then rename the .cpd file and reenter your project.

2) Try creating a new single source layout.

3) Check the hyperlinks in your topics for any that inadvertently point to target topics that are above the root folder of the help project.

Pete

Report · Jan 27, 2009

I have tried all of the solutions in the posts above without success. Compiling the chm file to any location other than the project root (where it has always successfully compiled to) prevents a successful compile.

Deleting the .cpd file does not seem to help.

Report · Jan 27, 2009

Hi Mark

Are you able to duplicate this in a totally new project?

When you say "prevents a successful compile" do you mean the compiler just dies and doesn't produce a working CHM? Or do you mean that you see double entries per the original report?

Cheers... Rick

Report · Jan 27, 2009

I will try to duplicate in a new project. FYI, this project used to be a X5 project.

I mean RoboHelp fails to compile a viable chm file. Everything seems fine until the following sequence (the HHC4006 errors are due to a style sheet that I am no longer using but can't figure out how to get rid of):

Updating Working_with_Projects/Working_with_InfoSWMM_Projects.htm...

C:\Documents and Settings\xxxxxxxx\My Documents\My xxxxxxxx Projects\Help Files\InfoSWMM\Deliverables\!chm_tmp_folder_0\InfoSWMM.hhp
Microsoft HTML Help Compiler 4.74.8702

Compiling c:\Documents and Settings\xxxxxx\My Documents\My xxxxxxxx Projects\Help Files\InfoSWMM\Deliverables\InfoSWMM.chm

HHC4006: Warning:
The file "backdrop.jpg" is already listed in the [FILES] section of the project file.

InfoSWMM.hhc

Fatal Error: Unexpected error from Microsoft HTML compiler.
Finished compiling HTMLHELP in 22 sec(s)

Compilation complete.

Thanks for any help in advance.

Mark

Report · Jan 27, 2009

I tried to create a new project with three of the topics that were issues with the old project. I had no troubles with duplicates in the new project, either in the See Also popup or after a search. I allowed the default chm storage location down in the !ssl folder.

Report · Jan 28, 2009

I decided to go with a fresh start and build a new project and import each of the topics from the old project. Now I am still getting the compile error and am not getting a viable chm file again.

Any ideas?

Report · Mar 20, 2009

I'm getting similar warnings for about 20 or 30 images:
HHC4006: Warning:
The file "odbc_systemdsn_image1.jpg" is already listed in the [FILES] section of the project file.

Were you able to resolve the issue, and if so how? I can't get my .chm to build either....

Thanks,
Trevor

Report · Mar 20, 2009

I got frustrated and decided to just rebuild my project by starting a new project and importing the old topics. This sounds kid of crazy but the other advantage was it helped me organize the project better than it was before.

I have not completed it yet since I had to start a new higher priority project so I don't know quite how it will turn out yet. I am going on the assumption that a "clean" project should work and that if it does not then someone should be able to help me fix it.

Stay tuned.

Report · Jun 10, 2009

I finished rebuilding my project. All of my problems went away except the duplicates in Popup issue. I searched through the forum and finally found the answer that worked.

http://forums.adobe.com/message/244894#244894

I had to compile to a folder higher than the project folder. This is weird since I have many other projects where I compile to a folder internal to the project without any problems.

Report · Jun 10, 2009

Hi all

For starters there should never be a need to compile "upstream" or in any other location than RoboHelp is suggesting. Actually, I've seen instances where compiling a CHM file in the project root caused huge issues with duplicates.

The fact that you say compiling to the new location corrects the issue is indicative of a deeper rooted issue with your project. It means you have somehow managed to specify content that is not part of your project. There are different ways of doing this. Likely you were creating some sort of link and RoboHelp warned you with a dialog indicating that "Thus and such topic is outside the current project and will not be shown in the Project Manager". Often folks see this dialog and they dismiss it.

The really unfortunate part is that they don't just dismiss it. They fail to understand its meaning and they grow weary of seeing it. So the click to place a check mark in the "Don't show me this again" check box RoboHelp offers. And they never see the pesky dialog again. Then they become confused when things don't behave quite as they would expect.

The bottom line here is that I'm guessing you have other project issues to resolve. The fact that things seem to be fine once you moved the project is like handling a funny engine noise when you have a rental car. You crank up the radio and no longer hear the annoying noise. But something is still wrong.

Cheers... Rick

Report · Jun 10, 2009

Rick,

Respectfully, I would say that I don't see how that could be. I spent about 4 days reviewing all of my 600 topics for references outside of the project since I did import 95% of the new project from an older project.

I tried using the Restore link functionality but just could not figure it out so I changed the folder name of the old project to eliminate any apparent good links to the old project. Then I opened each topic and checked all of the links. Links that were broken, I referenced to the correct spot in the new project.

So, with all of the topics imported and the links fixed, I compiled and still had the duplicates in the See Also popup until I compiled to an upstream folder.

As a sidenote, I checked all of the other ideas I found in the forums like:

Checking the .hhp file for duplicates
Delete .cpd file
And a few others that I can't recall

I also checked all project and layout settings that I could think of for clues... nothing. Also, some topics that show up in the See Also popup only show up once while others multiple times. I tried checking their HTML code side by side (multiples vs. non-multiples) and no difference.

The bottom line is that I have to compile to an upstream folder to get rid of the problem. Let me know if you think I have left a stone unturned.

Mark

Report · Jun 10, 2009

Hi again

Probably the easiest way to check things would be to first ensure that you are seeing the dialog that should appear when a topic is outside the confines of the project. My guess is that this has been disabled.

Assuming the dialog has not been disabled via the "Don't show me this again", you should be able to easily check this by performing the following steps.

Edit a topic in your project root.
Create a hyperlink that looks like this: ../../sometopic.htm.
Upon clicking the OK button to dismiss the dialog, you should see a dialog similar to below:

Click Yes and allow the link to be created.
Close the topic and you should see a dialog similar to below:

If you don't see either dialog, it means that someone at some point has clicked to choose the "Don't notify me again" option.

Do you get either of these dialogs when you perform these steps?

Cheers... Rick

Report · Jun 10, 2009

Hi,

Yes, I disabled the notification since I was importing such a large amount of topics. I did this mass import to reorganize the topics since they were hard to find in the existing project folder structure that someone else created. There were also a lot of other misc. files such as Copy of xxxtopic in a lot of folders. I was also having problems with the compilation itself. I figured if I just started with a fresh project that although a pain in the butt, it would be worth it in the end. Thus I ended up disabling the notification since I knew it would be a long process.

I have seen the thread talking about editing the registry to get the warning back. I guess I should do that now that I have imported all of the topics.

Report · Jun 10, 2009

Hi again

Indeed you want to edit the registry and enable it again.

As an aside, I'd love to recruit you and others to bombard Adobe with suggestions that they provide a dialog inside RoboHelp that allows us to re-enable these notifications. We shouldn't have to hack our registries to get them back.

Click here to visit the Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form

I'm thinking that if you re-enable the notification, you will then pretty much immediately discover at least one and possibly several topics that cause it to be issued. Noting the files listed will assist in fixing things so the duplicates aren't there.

Cheers... Rick

Report · Jun 10, 2009

Sorry to bother you again Rick,

Do you have the link to the thread on editing the registry to get the notification back? I tried searching for it and could not find it. If not do you know off hand which item it is in the registry?

Report · Jun 10, 2009

Hello again

Not a problem. Hop over to fellow Adobe Community Expert Peter Grainge's site by clicking this magickal link to transport you there. You are interested in lucky Snippet number 13.

Or heck, why send you there when I've got it open and can copy/paste here and save you the trouble.

If you create a link to an external topic, RoboHelp displays a dialog box to warn you. There is a check box giving you the option of not displaying the warning again. Trouble is, if you tick that, there is no way that you can reinstate it via RoboHelp.

Thanks go to Rick Stone who discovered that when you tick that check box, RoboHelp creates the registry key below. So if you are comfortable with editing the registry and have taken all the usual precautions, just delete the key.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\eHelp\RoboHTML\13.00\Common\DontShowFileLinkWarnin

(No, I have not misspelled "Warning". RoboHelp did that!)

If you don't want to edit the registry, uninstall RoboHelp and reinstall it!

Cheers... Rick

Report · Jun 10, 2009

Hey again,

I renamed the key (to keep a copy of the original) and reopened RH. The key was recreated and I got the warning back.

The part of the project that I keep looking at as a test actually does not have any hyperlinks at all (i.e. the only navigation is See Also). So what we have been talking about does not seem to apply (at least in this instance).

Any other ideas?

Thanks for your time.

Mark