missing images in RH8 with linked Word files

[Guest]

RH8 HTML and MS Word 2007

The images from linked Word documents are not showing up in my RH8 project.

Here's how the project is set up:

• The RH project is in its standard location: C drive, in a subfolder underneath My RoboHelp Projects.
• All content is included through the Link > Word Document option in RH.
• MS Word source files are in a network location (because several other writers are maintaining the source content). There are about 20 MS Word source files.
• I have an "Images" folder set up on the network at the same level as the source files, and we link the graphics into the MS Word files from there.

Through my forum research, I have found several suggestions that have have made RH recognize the images in my linked files (previously, we were simply inserting the images into the Word source files, so in RH, the image was ignored and there was simply a blank line with no graphic indicator at all). So I am now selecting Insert > Picture > Link to File as the method for building images into the MS Word source file. I have also found the suggestion to ensure that the images are retained in the document, by selecting Office Button > Prepare > Edit Links to Files, and then checking the option for "Save picture in document" for each of the linked pictures.

When I follow those methods, I now see a red-bordered box where the images should be, and the image file name is displayed in the box. However, I get an error message that says the image files used in each of the project htm files are "outside of the current project and will not be shown in Project Manager."

I cannot figure out where to place the images so that RH's Project Manager recognizes them as part of the project. RH does not automatically create an Images folder within Project Manager. I've tried creating one myself and placing images there (and then even linking my source files to the images within the project folder). But still no dice.

I have tried a volume of troubleshooting options--placing the linked source files and graphics within the project folder, leaving the source files on the network and placing copies in the project subfolders that RH creates after I link the source files into the project, etc etc etc. I've looked for a setting in RH that allows me to set a default location for images (never found one).

Ergo, lots of troubleshooting, and still only half a solution here.

I'd greatly appreciate it if anyone can shed some light. I am doing my best to avoid importing the graphics directly through RH because I want the online help to pick up the exact structure & content of the source files. This obviously negates the option for importing the Word content vs linking it in. In older versions of RH, I was at least accustomed to RH importing generically named images into the project regardless of whether they were copied directly into the Word file, but I see that this is not even an option when linking the source files into the project.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Best regards,

Athena

[Peter Grainge]

There have been a number of posts relating to images and Word documents.

After linking and updating so that RH creates the topics, look in Windows Explorer and see if any of the images can be traced.

If that does not reveal anything, I would start by taking a copy of the Word document with the images embedded in it. You have done that and it has not fixed the problem. Would you be willing to share that document with me so that I can try importing it? If yes, get my address from my site and send the document via www.cutesendit.com with a link to this thread.

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[Guest]

Hi Peter,

Thank you for the recommendations. I want to be sure I’m understanding “embedded” the correct way. Do you mean to insert the images directly into the file—i.e., selecting the MS Word option Insert Picture > Insert? Or do you mean to insert them by selecting Insert Picture > Link to File?

Also, could you let me know where in Windows Explorer I should attempt to trace the images? The image source files are stored with the content source files on my company network, in a separate sub-directory for Images (I have tested the build with all the files on my local drive as well). When I link the Word source files into RH and generate the topics, RH does not bring any images into the project folder within the My RoboHelp Projects directory on my local drive.

I have searched through all the project files/directories that RH creates (top-level project folder, as well as subfolders it creates for each Word linked file), and there are no image files (except for one that I placed in my RH master page). I have attached a screenshot of the project folder (MainProjectFolder.png) and one of the linked file sub-folders (LogBookProjectFolder.png).

The problem seems to be that RH is not recognizing an image as an image. RH knows there are supposed to be images in the htm topics because it does have the red box “placeholder” where the images should be, and the image names are displayed in the red boxes (see attached RH_Project.png screenshot). I have gone into the properties for an image and used the Image Name field to manually map to the directory that contains the source image. When I do that, the image then appears in the top-level project folder with the gold & green RH image icon, and it does then appear in the topic. But at that point, if I update the linked Word file, I lose the image again. I have set the topics with images to where they retain the RH image modifications I’ve done, but then the topic shows as broken in my TOC when I update the linked Word file, and those topics do not appear in the build at all when I generate the WebHelp.

Since RH also does not automatically create any kind of Images folder in the project during the process of linking and generating the source files, I have tried copy/pasting the source images into the top-level RH project folder prior to even linking/generating htm topics from the Word source files. But when I go to a topic and view the properties associated with the image placeholder, RH still does not display any of the image files I pasted into the project folder.

I am happy to provide my source file so that you can investigate this further. Please let me know if you need the file with the images inserted directly or if you need it with them linked in (in which case, I’ll send the image files too).

Thanks,

Athena

[Guest]

Sorry, I realized I should also attach a screenshot showing the error I'm receiving each time I update a linked Word file that contains linked graphics. Please see the attached file ImageErrorMsg.png. I receive the notification once for every image that is linked into a Word file.

[Peter Grainge]

I think this is going to take a lot of looking into. I'll be happy to help after I return from holiday. Email me a link to this thread at the beginning of October to remind me.

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[Captiv8r]

Hi Athena

For the future, please avoid using the Attach function for images. Instead, insert them inline directly using the camera icon!

Well, only if you really intend for us to see the images. If you don't care, continue using attach.

Cheers... Rick

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[Guest]

Hi Rick,

Thank you for the information about using the camera icon to attach the screenshots. Here are the screenshots I referenced in my post:

MainProjectFolder:

LogBookProjectFolder:

ImageErrorMsg:

RH_Project:

Thanks,

Athena

[Peter Grainge]

Athena

See http://forums.adobe.com/message/2260981#2260981

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[Peter Grainge]

I have done some investigation into this problem and this is what I found.

If I used the document that Athena sent me, none of my usual tricks would get the images to display, other than inserting it via RH which is not a solution. If I added an image of my own, that also failed to display and that is important.

I then created a new document using my Word template. I inserted one of my images and one of Athena's. Both imported and displayed in RH.

That puts it down to something in Athena's document. If it were anything to do with how her images were added or the linking, that would not affect the image I added.

What the issue with the document is will be more tricky and, with regret, it must await the end of my holiday.

Meantime, Athena and anyone else with this issue, please try creating some Word docs based on your Normal template and see what results you get then. Work in a temporary RH project while testing.

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[Guest]

I did some further testing as Peter suggested, but rather than using the Normal template, I created another customized Word template starting from scratch based off of the Normal template. (I cannot customize the company's Normal template; I must maintain a more customized documentation template that is published on the network and linked to all of our source files.)

With a clean new template, RH is now showing my image files in the help project, both when I copy/paste images into the Word source file and when I select to link the images into the Word file. I did not need to modify my RH css at all during this process, even though I originally based it on the old template.

So my solution here is to create a clean new template from scratch. I then have to copy/paste content from current source files into new documents that are created from the new template. (I originally tried simply attaching the new template to existing source files that were created from the old template, but RH still did not handle the images properly.) Once the new source files are setup, I will delete all old linked Word files out of the RH project and link in the new ones.

With 20/20 hindsight, I'd advise that when working with RH8 and linked files from MS Word 2007, avoid using Word templates that carry a lot of extra baggage. I had created my old template from an old source file that already had text/character formats in place because it was simply easier to save it as a template and create styles based on those formats. But even though I streamlined the template down to minimal styles, Word rarely deletes all the styles and manual formats that I do not need. There was no way for me to know the extent of tweaks that the writers before me had done to that template starter file, so really it's just good practice to start with a clean template that I know for certain contains only the styles that I have created.

Thank you Peter for all your help! I would have honestly never guessed that a problem with images in RH would have been traced back to what appears to be a perfectly good template in MS Word!

Best regards,

Athena Mondello

[Amebr]

Peter doesn't mention what his usual tricks are, but one that was fairly important in the dim, dark past was copy and paste everything in the document except the final paragraph mark (¶) and paste that into a new document.

For some reason a lot of important information was traditionally stored in (after?) the last paragraph mark and leaving that out of the copy/paste process often solved a lot of very odd issues. (I'm not sure if that is still the case in the last couple of versions of Word, but it wouldn't hurt to try either.)

I assume Peter tried this already, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to mention it as it does often solve a lot of problems.

[Peter Grainge]

AMEBR

Thanks for the reminder.

ATHENA

Your problem is resolved.

ANYONE ELSE

Please post if you are still having problems and the solutions posted do not resolve.

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[Chuck64]

I had this same problem, however, the template was not the issue with my installation. I deleted all my templates and let Word recreate a new one, but I still was not able to see the images in RoboHelp after linking a Word document.

The solution I found was to to deselect the "Rely on VML for displaying graphics in browsers" option. Open Tools/Options, select the General tab, click Web Options, and deselect "Rely on VML for displaying graphics in browsers".

Hope that helps someone.

Chuck

[Peter Grainge]

Thanks Chuck. Interesting.

Here's a screenshot of the dialog to which Chuck refers.

I notice there is an option for PNGs. Wonder if that too could be the cause for some people.

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