Adobe RoboHelp 9 has stopped working

[Jop_Smith]

RH9 | WebHelp

I've copied an existing project and applied a new stylesheet. This has involved multiple "find and replace" actions in order to change old styles to my new styles. All was going well - everything looked fine and the project compiled without a problem. However, after further changes the compile has stopped working. As I start compiling the following message appears as the process starts updating files "Adobe RoboHelp 9 has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available."

I've tried deleting the CPD file, but it doesn't make any difference. I've also tried removing the last topics I've worked on, but again it's just the same.

Does anyone have any ideas? I've spent over a day re-styling the project and don't want to lose what I've done.

Thanks

[Peter Grainge]

Find and replace for style names done correctly should not cause this. If you searched for something like <p class="me"> and replaced it with <p class="you"> and that class was not quite what was in the CSS, RoboHelp would display your topics with the style name showing in block capitals rather than crash.

My first thought was that something else had been changed unintentionally and was causing this. Then I noted you said it had compiled the first time after you had made the changes. At the moment I am a bit stumped on what it could be.

The first thing I would try is to generate some other form of help, try Microsoft HTML Help (CHM). If that too fails, then you might have to go for working on a backup as below. However, if it works, I would then create a new webhelp layout by right clicking in the SSL and selecting Create New, not the Duplicate option. If that fails then you may have to work on a backup of the project before you did the find and replace, you did make one didn't you?

Ttake a fresh copy of the backup so that you retain an untouched copy. Then copy your new CSS from the broken project into a working copy of the backup using Windows Explorer. Manually apply a few of the styles to a few topics and then test compiling. If that works, then do the find and replace work again testing after each style has been changed. After each successful pass, create a backup in case it goes wrong at the next stage. Before you start any find and replace, post back what you are using for that.

Good luck and post back how you get on.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Jop_Smith]

Hi Peter, thanks for your response.

I've reverted to my backed up (pre-edited) copy and started to find and replace my styles again. I started by replacing H3 with H6 and then compiled straight away, but the problem occurs as before - as soon as the compile begins. The HTML looks fine though - H3s are now H6s, and RoboHelp has even replaced the closing H3 tags automatically too.

I'm a bit puzzled.

Are the find and replace changes made instantly or do I have to wait a while? There are over 1,000 H3 tags to replace, but after the find and replace RoboHelp tells me that the changes have been made. The cursor flickers, but it appears to be happy for me to start the compile. Do I need to wait a while before I try compiling?

Any further thoughts would be much appreciated.

Regards

Jonathan

[Peter Grainge]

I am not at a PC so I'm not sure it would cause a crash but in HTML there is no Heading 6. You have to create a paragraph style called Heading 6.

[Jop_Smith]

How do you mean? I thought the standard Headings were H1 to H6.

I've got a style for H6 defined in my CSS and RoboHelp lets me apply it.

[Peter Grainge]

As I said, I cannot check right now but H6 rang a bell. Cannot look until later.

[Jop_Smith]

Hi Peter

I think I may have found the issue. When I replace the opening H3 tag (with H6) and then look in the HTML of any of my topics, the closing H3 tag looks like it's been automatically changed to a closing H6 tag as well. At this point, I was assuming all was well and I trying to compile. This is when RoboHelp fell over. However, the closing H3 tags hadn't been changed because if I perform a further find and replace to replace the closing H3 tag, it replaces them as well. It now compiles fine.

I'm guessing the mismatch of H6 opening tag and H3 closing tags were causing the problem. To me it looks like it might be a display issue in RoboHelp, although it would need verifying.

I'll carry on apply my other new styles and see how I get on.

Thanks for your help.

Regards

Jonathan

[Peter Grainge]

Now that I have been able to look it up, I see H1 - H6 are OK, it is H7 that does not exist. Meantime it looks like you have fixed the issue.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge