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Programmers editing the output files.

New Here ,
Jul 13, 2012 Jul 13, 2012

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We are using Flash Help with RoboHelp 7. Because there has been no technical writer working for this company for some time, the programmers have been directly editing the .htm files to update the help files. I am a recent hire and have been able to track down the source files, but of course the recent edits made by the developers are not in those source files. Importing the output files that have been edited causes huge problems. Any thoughts as to how I can fix this?

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Community Expert ,
Jul 13, 2012 Jul 13, 2012

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See Peter Grainge's site (www.grainge.org<http://www.grainge.org>) and look for "reverse engineering" - a painful process awaits ;<(

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New Here ,
Jul 13, 2012 Jul 13, 2012

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Thanks, Jeff. I was afraid of that.

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Community Expert ,
Jul 13, 2012 Jul 13, 2012

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Another method you could try (if the source files haven't been polluted by the output files, I forget if you said they had been or not) is to generate a new batch of help (which won't have the updated topics) and compare them to the edited output help files to see where the diffs are.

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New Here ,
Jul 13, 2012 Jul 13, 2012

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The source files are good. And I have done as you suggested and just eyeball compared the files. There is just no easy or quick way to do this. On the plus side it will keep me busy for months!

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LEGEND ,
Jul 13, 2012 Jul 13, 2012

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Hi there

This may not be as bad as it seems. What I would do is to examine the topics in the existing setup. Look at them using Windows Explorer. Specifically, I would sort them by date with newest on top. This should list the "last touched" files. I'd then import them into RoboHelp and just clean out the added scripting. It's really not as daunting as it looks.

Cheers... Rick

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New Here ,
Jul 13, 2012 Jul 13, 2012

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Thanks for that suggestion. I will do just that. The only problem is that there are hundreds of files to sift through.

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Community Expert ,
Jul 13, 2012 Jul 13, 2012

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There are programs out there that will compare 2 text files and output the differences for you. They can usually be batched to chew through a bunch of files at once.

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New Here ,
Jul 13, 2012 Jul 13, 2012

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Great idea, How about Ultra Edit?

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Community Expert ,
Jul 13, 2012 Jul 13, 2012

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Never really needed to use one, but I think you'd want something like UltraCompare

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LEGEND ,
Jul 13, 2012 Jul 13, 2012

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Hello again

In thinking this through a bit, I'm wondering if there really is any value in using a file compare utility.

Here's why.

It sounds to me as if the developers have simply been amending the existing output files. Output files are fundamentally different from source files because the process of generating WebHelp modifies each file to include gobs of references to different javascript coding that makes WebHelp work.

So if you are comparing the output files against the source files, each and every file in the project will indicate changes, no? Maybe the help system has 600 topics. Over time, the developers "touched" only 100. Thus you only need to identify the changes in those 100 files. But the file compare utility will list all 600 as having been changed.

Something to think about... Rick

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New Here ,
Jul 13, 2012 Jul 13, 2012

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Hmmm. good point. I think I will just search out the newest files and

visually compare them. Thanks so much for your information!

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Community Expert ,
Jul 13, 2012 Jul 13, 2012

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No Rick, my suggestion was to take the original source files in the RH project, generate help & then compare that "original unedited" help content to the "new edited" help content that the programmers messed around with. Hopefully, only the diffs in content would be seen because they both originated from the same source files.

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