RH8 Linked Word 2007 docx ->not all hyperlinks convert

[DebbieE]

I'm brand new to RoboHelp. I'm linking Word docs instead of importing, and some Word cross-references are not turning into RH hyperlinks. Most of them work just fine. The ones that don't work look like hyperlinks; they are blue and bold (picking up the correct style from Word) but when I check the HTML, there is no code for a link. All the links in Word were created the same way: cross-references to Headers. Many, but not all, of the dead links have the first letter underlined. Some functional links have the first letter or word underlined too, as well as the whole link underlined.

Do only certain levels of headers convert to links (e.g. H1 and H2 only) or is there a maximum number of links allowed per Word docx? Why are only fragments of the links underlined?  I saw a few related questions in forums about hyperlinks not converting at all, but most of mine did convert. If none of them had, I'd know I was missing a switch somewhere, but since most of them work, and they were all created the same way, I'm not sure how to fix.

The Word documents were created by converting FrameMaker 7 documents to FrameMaker 9, then exported as RTF (the export from Frame 7 was not really usable). I created a Word template, created new documentx from it, then copied the RTF text. The cross-references all had to be redone, as the links in Frame were not to headers, but to manually created bookmarks.

I'd really like to keep the source docs in Word, so that I don't have to make all the future updates myself (the coders already use Word; they have no time to learn RoboHelp). Any suggestion would be much appreciated.

Thak you, Debbie @ Tronia Systems

[DebbieE]

I discovered that the previous author had inserted {xe ...} entries in the middle of headers in the Word docx. I moved the index entries to the beginning of the paragraph and updated in RH. It did not fix the links. In desperation, I deleted the whole project and recreated a new one with the same documents and surprise! All links are active. A waste of 4 hours trying to solve, but all's good in the end.

-Debbie @ Tronia Systems

[Guest]

Hello Debbie,

I am trying to build the same type of project and also having no success creating links between topics. I've tried creating new Word files and projects and nothing seems to work. I had asked about it here, but since then my company has sorted out their support contract and I'm trying to get an answer from Adobe themselves. (Sorry for the change in username, my accounts have been scrambled.) Adobe engineers have been going over the files and so far, they don't have any answer for me either. Basically, I'm getting the impression they've never seen this kind of problem before, so I'm glad you've documented your experience! Is there anything you can think of that you changed between creating your first project and creating the second one? This is really a blocking issue for me.

Thanks,

Susie

Edited to add: I didn't make any changes in the header files, so I don't think that's what's causing the problem.

[DebbieE]

Hi Susie,

I've been pulling my hair out for two days over these darn links that won't convert

I have Headings level 1-5 in my Word docx. The project settings in RoboHelp specify to create new HTML pages for Headers 1, 2, and 3. It is some, but not all, of the Header level 4 and 5’s that are not converting to links in RH. I don’t know if that has anything to do with it or not. That's the frustrating part – if ALL the Header 4 and Header 5’s didn’t convert, that indicates one kind of problem. But most of them DID convert. And they were all created the same way!

In Word 2007, creating cross-references to headers was the easiest way to create my links, so I created all of them that way. For the stubborn ones that just wouldn't convert to RoboHelp, I tried every other way I could think of to create links. This is the only way I could get them to work:

From the Insert ribbon, click Hyperlink instead of Cross-Reference
Link to: Place in this document
Select place: pick the header destination

It takes much longer this way, but it works. If you come up with a more streamlined solution, please feel free to share

-Debbie

[Guest]

Hi Debbie,

I think we've got two slightly different types of links on our hands: intra-topic and inter-topic. The ones within each single document I have work exactly as you've described.  I've been building my hyperlinks the same way as you, except that I've been using anchors I've inserted instead of the headings themselves.(I haven't found a shorter way either, sorry.) It's when I try to link to another document (aka another topic) that things break down. My links between documents work beautifully in Word, but as you describe, no hyperlink code (a href="") is generated when I generate the Help.

Thanks for your input! I will certainly let you know what Adobe has to say when they get back to me. It seems ridiculous to me that such a simple function doesn't work.

Take care,

Susie

[DebbieE]

I read somewhere that to link from one Word docx to another, you need to setup a Master Document in Word and create the links from there, then link to the Master Document in RH. But I'm not that far along in my project yet so I haven't tested it.

Something else to try would be to manually create the links in RH, but then I think you'd have to recreate them everytime you updated the source docx. Unless there's a way to update content without overwriting the RH link (today is only my fourth day of using the software - I'm still at the RoboHelp for Dummies stage).

-Debbie

[Guest]

The Master Document idea seemed promising, so I tried it. I created a new Master Document, imported each of my Word files into it, then deleted and re-added all the Word docs (including the Master) into my RoboHelp project. Unfortunately, nothing changed and the links are still non-functional. Thanks anyway, it did seem like a good idea!

Take care,

Susie

PS The project's going to have hundreds of links, so I really don't want to create them manually... I hope Adobe gets in touch with me soon!

[Guest]

Hello, here's my update: Adobe got back to me and confirmed that the inter-document/inter-topic link issue is an actual RH

bug. I'll check back in here when I have more news.