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Hundreds of broken links. Instantly. Irreversibly?

New Here ,
Jul 09, 2009 Jul 09, 2009

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I'm using RoboHelp 8 on Windows XP, working off my local C: drive. I'm generating WebHelp from a legacy RH7 project that I'm adapting for a product update. For a couple of weeks, I've been happily updating, adding topics, generating perfectly serviceable builds. Until yesterday.

I do not know what happened, or what I did wrong if anything.

I was attempting to add a new topic to a Browse sequence. RoboHelp starts grinding away for almost a minute, and when the page refreshes, almost all of my 750 topics are gone from the Project Manager HTML Files (Topics) folder. Not all. Almost all.

The Broken Links folder, previously empty, now contains over 750 broken topic links. The Table of Contents is similarly borked.

The files haven't moved. The TOC didn't move. But my only apparent recourse seems to be right-clicking over 750 broken links one by one to manually Restore them to RoboHelp's satisfaction. That will cost me a (nother) day I do not have with my deadline approaching.  While I clearly have discovered RoboHelp's undocumented Break All Links feature, I've yet to find the Restore All Links feature.

I have no guarantee that a day spent doing manual link restores will actually fix the problem without creating more new ones. And not knowing what caused it in the first place, I have no confidence it will not happen again five minutes later.

Here's the best part. I restored a backup from the day before the catastrophe. Looks good. First topic I click on....RoboHelp grinds away for almost a minute -- and now my backup is hosed in exactly the same way. Like an infection. And yes, I did a virus scan.

Maybe the problem and solution are obvious? But not to me. I'm going home to drink and weep. Tomorrow I'm going to try reinstalling to see if I can purge the cached evil. If that doesn't work, then I guess I start manually restoring links while figuring out how to lower my client's expectations. Because I'm sure not getting much writing and editing done in the meantime.

I plead to the collective minds of this forum for an alternative.

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , Jul 09, 2009 Jul 09, 2009

I have seen the same thing happen in RH8. In my case it was after renaming a project. Using Restore did correct the problem and it did not come back. Alternatively, you could create a new project and import the content but that will likely take even longer.

In my case, Rick's suggestion did not fix the problem but it is definitely worth a try. Personally when I do use the new check box, I clear it after use.


See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

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LEGEND ,
Jul 09, 2009 Jul 09, 2009

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Hi there

Before trying to meticulously restore link after link, try clicking Tools > Options... > General tab and enabling the option to Clear project cache. Then close and restart RoboHelp and open the project again. You might find yourself pleasantly surprised with the outcome.

tmp1.png

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links

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Community Expert ,
Jul 09, 2009 Jul 09, 2009

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I have seen the same thing happen in RH8. In my case it was after renaming a project. Using Restore did correct the problem and it did not come back. Alternatively, you could create a new project and import the content but that will likely take even longer.

In my case, Rick's suggestion did not fix the problem but it is definitely worth a try. Personally when I do use the new check box, I clear it after use.


See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

Help others by clicking Correct Answer if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.

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New Here ,
Jul 10, 2009 Jul 10, 2009

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As it turned out, restoring the links manually was my only solution. It didn't take quite the entire day, and by frequently trading off my mouse hand from right to left,  I didn't go completely carpal on either wrist in the process.

Although this was not the answer I was hoping for, it at least helped me resign myself to my fate, and that did help.

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New Here ,
Jul 10, 2009 Jul 10, 2009

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Thanks for the suggestion. Seems like a plausible solution, and I'll try using that setting going forward. Sadly, it did not help me with this project.

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