Folders and topics are inexplicably deleted from my RoboHelp 9 project

[kevin_em]

A month ago, my company purchased the latest Adobe Technical Communication Suite and I started a new RoboHelp 9 project. To help keep track of my many topics, I created several folders and a few sub-folders in the HTML Files (Topics) folder within the Project Manager pod. The organization of these folders and topics mirrors my TOC. Once I nailed down the basic structure of my help system, I started using the TOC as my “hub” for working on the various topics – meaning that I open a particular topic by double-clicking it in the TOC.

Then something went awry early this week.

Sometimes when I open my project, the folders and sub-folders along with their many topics are missing from the Project Manager pod. The TOC also reflects these missing files with those dreaded red-X topic icons. And in Windows Explorer, no trace of the folders, sub-folders, and topics can be found

On a couple of occasions, I opened my project and most – but not all – of the folders and their accompanying topics were deleted from the Project Manager pod. The only topics that consistently “survive” are the ones that aren’t nested within a folder or sub-folder in the Project Manager’s HTML Files (Topics) folder.

I’ve been able to make some progress on my help system by periodically saving the entire project folder, and then using the latest backup as my starting point whenever this problem occurs. But ultimately I end up losing a fair amount of work.

I rooted around this forum for help and insight. I saw several suggestions concerning a similar problem with RH 8 where the solution was to delete the .xpj and .cpd files and then open the .hhp file. Unfortunately, this fix didn’t work for me.

I’m now working in a state of high anxiety, wondering whether my topic files will exist the next time I open my project. Any help with this problem would be greatly appreciated.

     -Kevin

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Can you give us some more info? O/S you're running this one; the location of the project; any source control happening?

[kevin_em]

Ooh. Yeh. Sorry for not supplying this info initially.

• My O/S is Windows XP.
• My project resides locally on my laptop.
• Currently, there is no source-control involvement.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Is the project located in a short path location like c:\projects ? Have you got the project set to delete the CPD file upon start up?

[kevin_em]

Hi Jeff-

Thanks for taking a stab at my problem.

My project is in a somewhat long path location: C:\Documents and Settings\myName\My Documents\My RoboHelp Projects\projectX_RoboHelp_files.

And currently I do not have the project configured to delete the .cpd file upon startup.

Should I have a short path location for my project? And should I set my project to delete that .cpd on startup? I'm a relative newcomer to RH. So perhaps I missed these best practices tips somewhere along the way.

     -Kevin

[Peter Grainge]

Yes what Jeff is suggesting is trying a shorter path. Just copy the project from where it is to C:\MyProject and see if that fixes the problem.

As to deleting the CPD every time, some do, some don't. It used to lose some information but things were changed and now it is OK to delete it every time. Do not delete the XPJ file though, that will mess up your project. See Opening Projects on my site.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[kevin_em]

Great. I'll give that a shot.Plus, I'll check out your info about opening projects.

Thanks for your help, Peter and Jeff.

    -Kevin

[kevin_em]

Just providing some follow-up...

Since switching to a shorter path and selecting the option to delete the CPD on startup, I haven't experienced a recurrence of the problem.

Thanks again for the help.

    -Kevin