How do I incorporate translated htm files into an existing project?

[blukshaw]

I am working with RoboHelp HTML 7.03 and have inherited a webhelp project that was created with an earlier version (RoboHelp for Word 5.0 or earlier). Even before I had a chance to get my feet wet and never having used RoboHelp before, I was asked to send the project out for translation into French. Not knowing which files to send, I zipped up everything and sent it. The translation company returned the htm, hhc, and hhk files.

My problem now is how do I get these translated files into my project so that I can generate an Online Help system that I can give to my developers?

I have read Ben Minson's article and have tried to follow it with the project I was left with. No Luck! I have also read elsewhere where people have just made copies of their project and just dropped the translated files in place of the English files. I haven't tried this because I am not exactly sure how to copy the project: copy everything to a new location or create a new project and copy specific files from the old project?

I would greatly appreciate any help or advice I can get on this problem.

Thanks in advance,

Bill

[Captiv8r]

Hi Bill

The first step will be to examine the files and see if what they gave you back are source files or output files. Hopefully they are source files.

Assuming they are source files, you would then make a copy of your project. Then copy those files and replace the existing files in order to convert to the new language.

Cheers... Rick

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[blukshaw]

Hi Rick,

I was going to say that they sent me the "output" files, but after more thought ... how do I tell?

Unknowingly, I followed yours and perttime's advice and made a copy of the project, replaced the project files with the translated files, and regenerated the output. Almost everything works fine.

Somehow my popups are broken, they no longer pop.

I have compared the English and French HTML code and could not see any problems there.

Thanks for your help on getting the translated files into the project.

Any ideas on the popups?

[perttime · Accepted solution]

htm, hhc, and hhk files is usually exactly what needs to be translated.

If that is what they delivered...

- Make a copy of the English help project, with Windows Explorer, and rename the root folder so that you clearly see it is the French project.

- Check that the delivered files are in a folder structure that matches the original. If it does, copy the htm, hhc, and hhk files over the copied help project.

- Open the updated help project with RoboHelp. Check Project Settings, under the File menu, and change help language to French if needed. Check that the Default output is what you want (presumably WebHelp).

- Generate the help.

That should do it.

[blukshaw]

perttime,

Thanks  to you and Rick for your help.

The project is working fine except for my popups ... they no longer pop.

I have compared the English and French HTML code and cannot find anything wrong there. Any ideas?

Thanks again,

[perttime]

Popups can depend on small things.

- Do both projects have a 'eHlpDhtm.js' file?

- Do topics with popups have a script at the beginning of the Body section of the raw HTML? Something like:

<robohelp><script type="text/javascript" language=JavaScript1.2 x-save-method=compute-relative
src="../ehlpdhtm.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" language=JavaScript1.2>
<!--
if( typeof( FilePopupInit ) != 'function' ) FilePopupInit = new Function();if( typeof( TextPopupInit ) != 'function' ) TextPopupInit = new Function();
//-->
</script>

</robohelp>

- Do the popup spots have identical pieces of script (between English and French)

[blukshaw]

The answer to all three of your questions is "Yes".

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), I found that the translation company "broke" some of the HTML/javascript code in the translated HTM files. Some of the things they did was:

• Use apostrophes instead of single quotes
• Add extraneous and unnecesssary code
• Translate javascript commands

It is now just a matter of finding what is broke, comparing the English and French versions, and fixing the problems.

Thanks for your help.

Bill

[perttime]

Argh,

that is definitely enough to break the popups: scripts not identical.

I frequently use a software named "Beyond Compare" to find the differences in files and folder contents.