Cannot Generate Word or PDF files

[brianmwise]

I can't seem to export my Robohelp 8 project either as Word or PDF files.

I'm running Windows Vista 64 with Word 2003 as my background user arena.

I reinstalled both Word and Adobe Acrobat. I've not yet removed my user preferences and redone my preferences file, but that is my next step.

It generates the online help, Adobe AIR application, webhelp pro, and flashhelp pro just fine.

PDF and Word docs are not functioning. They're simply not doing the "Generating Output" session bar that online help or the AIR application do when I click "generate".

Any ideas on how to make this work? Any ideas on what might be wrong?

[Peter Grainge]

Welcome to the forum.

Are you trying to generate the PDF and DOC in one go? Try generating just the DOC and then the PDF from there.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[brianmwise]

No, I'm trying to generate a single PDF.

That isn't working.

Then I try to generate a Word doc.

That isn't working either.

I'm not doing a batch generate or anything nearly so spectacular as generating AIR app, Webhelp, and the print versions all in one go.

I'm just trying to get an older version of the current webhelp I'm using back into a Word document format for a customer, and ATSC2 isn't letting me do this function.

I also need to provide PDFs as a downloadable for a customer and I can't get the program to cooperate with me on that either.

In both cases (PDF and Word) generated singly or together, there is no "Generate File" process, as stated above. I click it. I say "Generate". It goes, "okie dokie!" and prompty doesn't do anything.

[Peter Grainge]

So what happens when you go through the print wizard?

Also what is ATSC?

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[brianmwise]

If by "print wizard" you mean the generation wizard, then exactly as described above.

If printing to a PDF with "all in one" capability, the generate dialogue box does not appear in either PDF or Word. PDF+Word doesn't appear. PDF doesn't appear. Word doesn't appear. In both cases the "generate <variable project product here>" box showing pages being printed doesn't show up.

Ergo, it does not print.

Word is installed.

Adobe Acrobat Extended Pro is installed.

ATSC is dyslexic for ATCS2, or Adobe Technical Communicator Suite 2.

[Peter Grainge]

More commonly known as TCS2.

So you get to the end of the wizard, click Finish, that dialog disappears but then nothing.

Have you tried in more than one project? In particular try one of the supplied sample projects.

64 bit is not formally supported but it is believed Windows 7 64 bit will work OK. Not sure about Vista 64 bit. The above may tell something.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[MergeThis]

"I'm just trying to get an older version of the current webhelp I'm using back into a Word document format..."

You didn't import WebHelp output files into a new project, did you? If so, I'm not surprised. Peter, do you still have a "reverse engineering" topic on your site that deals with this issue?

Good luck,

Leon

[brianmwise]

Okay, let me be specific here.

I have:

Adobe Technical Communication Suite 2 fully installed and licensed to this computer.

I also have an older version of Robohelp 7 installed.

Both have all the updates done.

The machine also has:

MS Office 2003

and the updated Adobe Distiller program.

What I want to do is to "print" - IE, generate - a Word document version AND a PDF version of my current Robohelp 8 project.

(Ignore this part, because this is not the issue. The generation of the files is the issue. Nothing else. The block, and the problem is that I cannot get Word or PDF files to generate from Robohelp 8.)

What I will do with this is convert the Word doc BACK to Robohelp 7, AND import the Word doc in FrameMaker.

(But again, we do not care about what I'm going to do with the files. The end result is not important. What is important, again, is:)

I cannot "print" - IE, generate, a Word document AND/OR a PDF version of my current Robohelp 8 project from the generate dialogue box.

I'm hoping that this clarifies the issue, since there are no add-ons to what I'm trying to do here. I'm not dancing the angels around the head of the legacy pin, I'm not trying to open a R8 in R7, I'm not trying to cure cancer or shoot a bulls-eye at 1,200 feet.

I am trying to "print", IE, generate, a Word document OR a PDF from my current Robohelp 8 environment and cannot do so.

(Sorry for the excessive description, but it looked like we were branching off into realms that weren't the problem at all.)

In response to Peter - I did try a sample project, and the same issue occurs. When I click "Printed Documentation" in either of the projects, a popup comes up that says "Parameter is Incorrect". This is an unmodified item that I'm opening - stock off the installation.

[Peter Grainge]

Yes I understand the issue, you get to the end of the wizard and nothing happens.At least, nothing with your project but now we get something if you try the sample projects so we have something more tangible to work with - the parameter is incorrect.

That has been seen before although not in this context. See Snippet 73 on my site. Try that using a copy of one of the samples first, then a copy of your project. I'm not convinced it will work but it's a start.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[brianmwise]

Well, you were right; it didn't work. Parameter is incorrect pops again.

Since I'm currently on hold with Adobe Support (this is getting stupid enough that I'm just not messing around with it any more) I'll see what they have as a solution.

If it's "reinstall your entire computer" that's not a very viable option, but one I did see recommended at one point.

[Peter Grainge]

Well I'm sorry you regard what I've tried as stupid but it's the first time I've encountered getting to the end of the dialog and nothing happening so nothing to go on. Then with the sample projects you got an error so that was the first thing to try.

Uninstalling and reinstalling might have been the next thing but good luck with Support. It would help if you post back the solution in case we run into it again.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Peter Grainge]

By uninstalling and reinstalling, I meantTCS, not rebuilding the whole PC.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[brianmwise]

No no, what you stated wasn't stupid. It's a viable solution to a problem that is not this particular one. The situation of not being able to produce a PDF from an Adobe product is a stupid one. Perhaps I should have worded my frustration more clearly.

[Peter Grainge]

You might find the reinstall quicker than getting through to support.

TCS was installed with admin rights? If not you won't be able to print but I thought that would throw an error.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[brianmwise]

I honestly can't remember if it was installed under Admin rights or not. I will double-check with my IT guy and find out if he enabled the user account as admin for the machine.

Update: Admin rights were provided. I created an Admin account under a different user entirely after getting permissions, gave that Admin user full permissions, etc.

Tech support suggested that I remove the FlexManager applications from being run on the system. That didn't help at all; in point of fact, it broke ALL the Adobe Products, and none of them will now open. Re-enabling those applications made the products all go boom. Again.

Here's the thing that bothers me, though.

I ran into this same issue with the version of Robohelp 7 that I had installed to this machine.

So what I'm seeing and hearing is that, upon finding this error, a user has to:

Cleanse out everything even remotely related to Adobe off their computer to make two of the most basic functions work (printing to PDF and printing to a Word document).

Uninstall EVERYTHING Adobe related, because the computer might throw an error if there's configuration files already in the system.

Create a new user account.

Reinstall the Adobe product suite.

Reinstall all the other products that they use.

Reinstall the system using Adobe products as the first components installed; then go down to all the other components.

And I'll admit that I spent an hour on the phone with support without any kind of resolution to this issue trying to get the thing to work.

<complain/vent on>

I may sound like a reiteration of other threads, but seriously, this is probably the most unwieldly installation process I've ever seen.

<complain/vent off>

[Peter Grainge]

This is now one unholy mess.

You had this problem with RH7 but hadn't mentioned that before. I might have suggested uninstalling TCS2 and RH7 had I known that and I would have suggested using RevoUninstaller as that does a deep uninstall that has fixed several other problems that nothing else fixed.

With the reinstall done with admin rights by your IT guy or you having admin rights, that may well have worked.

Now however you have gone off to support and from what you say they have broken all Adobe apps. Sounds like little option but to clear out the whole mess and start over.

Was TCS2 purchased as an upgrade from RH7? If it was, you were not entitled to leave it installed and I have seen that cause problems too. I cannot be sure if printed output was one but there is a nagging doubt. Too late now though.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[brianmwise]

Unholy mess is right.

To answer the "OMG you upgraded and have no right to Robohelp 7, well, I can understand why that would be an issue, but the answer is no, both are full license versions with neither as an upgrade from any previous version. Both were purchased as full versions.

Robohelp 7 was installed previously as a full version.

ATSC2 was purchased and installed as a full version.

ATSC2 was installed as a nonlicensed version but the license was added after.

That's not a good implication, Peter, though important to note, since I would assume that many individuals with similar problems might be trying to run 7 simultaneously with their upgraded copy.

The issues of both systems have been rolling through. Robo7 would not print, so ATCS2 was purchased to knock out those issues.

Not wanting to get frustrated by this issue any longer, I'm going through the above process, except it's getting a full computer system rebuild on a 32-bit system with a new user.

Said full system rebuild is now in progress. If the issue still exists, I will be happily returning to this thread to kvetch more.

The ONE thing that I could barely see as an issue is that there is an automatic backup of the My Documents folder that occurs every day, though the preferences for ATSC2 were not installed in that suite.

I will say that www.grainge.com was indeed the best place to go for a comprehensive listing of issues regarding this problem.

[Peter Grainge]

I didn't suggest you had no right. I just asked a straight question as to what you had purchased. It's not my problem whether or not it is legal, simply that it may be germain to the problem.

I believe TCS, or even standalone RH, warns if someone is upgrading where they shouldn't but some people have chosen to ignore that warning and then seem surprised. I have no way of knowing whether or not you fell into that group so I had to ask.

The ONE thing that I could barely see as an issue is that there is an automatic backup of the My Documents folder that occurs every day, though the preferences for ATSC2 were not installed in that suite.

Not following that.

One other thing to ask is whether you were generating the DOC and PDF to a local drive?

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[MergeThis]

If the IT folks are "managing" everyone's My Documents folder, RoboHelp often considers that environment to be a virtual network, and therefore coughs up hair balls.

May I suggest:

1. Create a new WebHelp project in C:\Test, and import a few topics.
2. Generate the default WebHelp layout to its project's !SSL location.
3. Generate the default Printed Documentation layout to its project's !SSL location.

Success?

Good luck,

Leon