WebHelp & PDFs won't generate - I must deliver final today! Help!

[kimcramer42]

I'm using RH 8.0.2.208 as part of TCS2. I produce WebHelp and several PDFs. Today is the day I must deliver for a final GA build, of course, and RH won't generate.

I was able to generate yesterday, although things seemed sluggish. Then I reviewed the PDFs and made some numbering fixes to my HTML topics.

Due to the sluggishness and the fact that my cpd file was 19,300 KB, I decided to rename it and let RH recreate it. Every thing seemed to work fine and my project opened. And now I am trying to regenerate the WebHelp and PDFs. But RH simply won't respond.

I can open the properties for any of my SSLs, but I cannot generate. No matter if I select Generate > Primary from the file menu, or if I try to right-click the SSL and select Generate. RH does not respond. No errors.

And now I cannot even close the project or RH. Thanks for all your help and suggestions!

Kim

[Peter Grainge]

This sounds like the first thing to try is a reboot. I am assuming your project is local.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[kimcramer42]

Thanks, Peter. A reboot did not help. I called Adobe and the support rep was able to help me get RH working again (needed to delete a registry entry). I was able to create and generate a new tiny project with 1 topic. I was also able to reopen my project. However, all my folders were reorganized but everything seems to be there. However, the project still will not generate. The Adobe rep says my project is corrupt, but could not offer any suggestions on how to move forward.

Since things were sluggish yesterday, I'm thinking that I should go back another day and restore my backup from Friday. Thankfully, I have a tracking sheet that tells me which topics have changed so I can go back re-update them before generating.

Any other suggestions on how to proceed are very welcome!

Kim

[Peter Grainge]

Do you have the time to zip it up and send it to me minus any outputs? How big is it?

If it is not going to take too long to rebuild at your end, that would be preferable but I can look if you think it might help.

Post back and then we'll agree what to do.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[kimcramer42]

Thanks so much, Peter, for offering to look at the project. The project has 819 topics with a good number of images. Minus the outputs, it's 61.3 MB. The zip file is 28,390 KB.

Kim

[Peter Grainge]

See the contact page on my site.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[kimcramer42]

I just tried to open my Friday backup. The project opened, but once again, I could not generate or close the project. So I closed RH using Task Manager. I'm going to try Thursday's backup. If I have to go back farther than that, I'll have a lot of rework to do, so cross your fingers!

Kim

.

[Peter Grainge]

I think I'm on to something. At first I could not open the project so I trashed the all the CPDs and $rhvariable$.htm. Then it opened but I had all the problems you have and I couldn't create a new layout, or at least it wouldn't show in Project Manager.

Got the project closed and looked in Windows Explorer. There is a folder TE_Categories with loads of filenames containing text in brackets ().

I simply deleted the folder and then opened the project. Seems fine at a quick glance.

Try that. If it works then recreate the folders and import all the topics AFTER you have renamed them. Obviously links to those topics will be broken.

Let me know if that works for you.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[kimcramer42]

Excellent news, Peter - thanks!

I have good news too - I was able to open my Thursday backup and generate. And my final deliverable has been pushed to end of day tomorrow (due to reasons other than my issues - whew!).

I will delete the TE_Categories folder and re-import the renamed topic files. And I will avoid using the bracket in my topic names!

Just wondering if you think I can simply rename the topics in RH, instead of deleting and re-importing?

I truly appreciate your help!

Kim

[Peter Grainge]

Create a copy and if you can open it, try renaming.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[kimcramer42]

Well, I tried renaming but RH crashed. I printed topic properties reports so I would have all the Contents, Index, See Also, and linking info for when I re-add. There are 139 topics to be deleted, renamed, and readded.

Since I've never needed to do this before, I'm not exactly sure what to do. The first step is to delete the topics from the project - should I do this in RH (a topic at a time) or can I just delete the folder from the project using Win Explorer outside of RH? I'm guessing the later could be a problem but would be much quicker.

Then I plan to follow these steps:

1. Rename the topic files.

2. Open the RH project and add the folders.

3. Import the renamed topics into the appropriate folders.

4. For each topic, redo the Contents, Index, See Also and linking.

5. Fix everything else that changed in the last 2 days.

6. Generate and deliver.

Thanks!

Kim

[kimcramer42]

I discovered that I needed to delete the files individually in RH. C'est la vie. I'm posting the issues I'm encountering in an attempt to help anyone else in my position.

So I've deleted all the files with the brackets in the name from the project. I edited the htm file names to remove the brackets. I readded the folders and imported the files back into the project. However, in RH the files still show with brackets in the name. Here's an example:

Original file name: Address_Category_(TelMaster Explorer).htm

Changed to: Address_Category_TelMaster Explorer.htm

File name when imported into RH: Address_Category_(TelMaster Explorer).htm

The only way I can get rid of these <GRRRRR> brackets is to open the htm file in Notepad and edit the Title and save. Then I can import the topic and it comes in without the brackets. This is gonna take some time.

OK, I still have to redo all the topic edits I made over the last 2 days AND I need to recreate my SSLs for the 3 PDF outputs. Does anyone know if I there is a way to pull this info from the crashed project? I set the SSLs up on Friday and am now using the project from Thursday. Perhaps this cannot be helped, but suggestions welcome!

Kim

[Peter Grainge]

With RH closed, move that folder away from the project and change the filenames in Windows Explorer.

RH will likely complain the folder is missing and recreate it. If not do that yourself after you have opened the project.

Import the files again. I don't believe RH will add those bracket back in.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[kimcramer42]

Now that I've finally made my deliverable, I wanted to post my recovery steps.

During this process, I also worked with RH support. They had me dump a registry entry, as fortangela1000 mentioned. That was the extent of their help. Sigh. "Rh is working, your project is corrupt, have a nice day. and no, I have no idea how to troubleshoot or fix your project."

(FYI, fortangela1000, I'm using Windows XP.)

That's why I'm very grateful to Peter, who looked at my project and noticed the errors with () in my filenames. Thanks to his helpful suggestions, I was able to rebuild my project.

Here's what I did:

1. Backed up everything.
2. Deleted the corrupt project.
3. Restored to a 2-day old project backup.
4. Copied the 140 affected topics to a local spot outside the project.
5. Edited the filenames to remove the ().
6. Opened the project in RH.
7. Deleted the topics and their folders from the project, saving as I went.
8. Closed the project.
9. Backed up the project.
10. Opened the project.
11. Created new folders and imported the 140 topics with the new names.
12. Repaired the damage of 2-days loss:
    • Fixed the broken links in the 140 topics.
    • Re-applied the master page to the 140 topics.
    • Fixed /restored the Contents (had spent the prior 2 days updating and conditioning topics)
    • Re-entered lost topic edits.
    • Applied TOC updates to three PDF SSLs.
13. Generated the WebHelp successfully!

Thanks again!

Kim