RoboHelp crashes during generation of Microsoft Help

[jaybeMMP]

I have been using RoboHelp for a couple of months now and have been able to generate .CHM windows help files from all of the project created so far.  I have just encountered an issue with RoboHelp whereby the application crashes whilst generating a Windows help file.  My installation has not been upgraded or otherwise changed so I am assuming this is a project specific issue. 

I've been on the phone to Adobe technical support which proved fruitless.  I was expecting this after the adobe employee was finding it hard to remeber what RoboHelp was!!

I have raised a bug with adobe regarding this issue but was unable to provide much information as there appears to be no error log.  The Windows event viewer is clear and the application is in a clean state when re-opened.

A couple of questions for you:

Are there any know issues generating Windows Help Files?

How can I narrow down the search for the cause (get information from a log file etc.)?

Regards,

James Bewley

Version Adobe RoboHelp 8.0.2.208

[Peter Grainge]

Try generating a CHM from one of the supplied sample projects and make sure you generate it to a local folder.

You will find the samples at

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp 8\RoboHTML\Samples\en_US

or

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Technical Communication Suite 2\Adobe RoboHelp 8\RoboHTML\Samples\en_US

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[jaybeMMP]

Hi Peter,

Thank for the response, I've just tried opening a sample project and export as .CHM which worked perfectly.  I wasn't able to find any existing sample projects in the locations you mentioned but created a new 'Application Help' project which populates the new project with a small sample.

I'm pretty sure this is a project specific issue but am unsure which part of the project is causing the issue.  Any idea how I can narrow the search?

Regards

[Peter Grainge]

You should have found two folders there, CCC and Web Graphics.

However, you seem to have established the problem is the project and that was the objective.

First just try creating a new (not duplicate layout).

If that still fails, continue using the new layout and create a build tag called Test or suchlike. Using the topic list, apply it to half the topics. If that generates an output, add some more topics until it fails and then you will have an idea of which topic is causing the problem.

Give that a whirl and post back if no joy.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[jaybeMMP]

The plot thickens!

I got a bit fed up of apply a test conditional build tag to topics which didn't seem to be making any difference to the generation so I tried a different angle.  I was trying to find a way to capture the output text in a log and found a way running the generation task from the command line.  Using the following method I was able to successfully generate a .CHM Windows help file for all of the topics.

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp 8\RoboHTML>rhcl "c:\temp\Help Text\Planit\MPlanit.xpj" -p -o "c:\temp\helptext" -g "c:\temp\helptext.log"

Running the above command from the RoboHelp Command Prompt results in a .CHM file and the output text captured in helptext.log.  I would still like to be able to run the generation from within RoboHelp and to be honest would expect the RoboHelp GUI to be running a similar if not the same generation script.

Regards,

James

[Peter Grainge]

If you can generate the output from the command line, you should certainly be able to do so from within RoboHelp.

If you generate to a new folder such as c:\rhtest and do not apply a build expression, does that crash?

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[jaybeMMP]

If I point the output to a new directory 'c:\rhtest' and run the generation with no conditional tags, the generation process still crashes!

[Peter Grainge]

So are we not back to what I suggested before? Something is choking RH during the generation process, albeit not if done via the command line.

As you can select multiple topics to apply a tag, it shouldn't take more than 10/15 minutes to narrow things down. Perhaps start by applying the tag to all but one topic just to prove it then generates.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[jaybeMMP]

Hi Peter,

I have now narrowed the issue to a single problem topic but the preview is generated and operates correctly.  Is there anything I can do to debug this topic?

Regards,

James

[Peter Grainge · Accepted solution]

Save a copy of the file somewhere outside the project and back up the project for extra safety.

Then look at what is in the topic apart from simple text. Remove bits at a time until it will compile. Then post back what you removed that seems to have fixed it.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[jaybeMMP]

Thanks for guiding me through this, I think I've found the offending line which is as follows:

<h1 class="HelpHeader2" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 5pt;">&#160;</h1>

I have no idea where this came from or what it's purpose was but removing it seems to allow the generation to continue.  If I can find the bug report I raised earlier I'll add this to it.

Regards,

James Bewley

[Peter Grainge]

A heading with no content other than a space.

Doesn't seem logical but neither should it cause a crash. Weird.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge