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When I attempt to transition a project from RH7 HTML to RH9 HTML it hangs. HELP!

New Here ,
Sep 28, 2012 Sep 28, 2012

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I have been using Robohelp 7 for a few years to edit and update our online help document. I had started with RH6 then made a smooth transition when upgrading to 7. I admit that I don't know Robohelp very well since I use it only twice a year, but enough to make edits and create/delete topics in the TOC.

Early in 2011 we upgraded to Robohelp 9. When I attempted to transition my RH7 HTML project in RH9 HTML it ran and ran; not responding. I didn't have time to troubleshoot so I continued using 7 and procrastinated. Now I must fix it and make RH9 work. Can anyone help me?  Does the complexity of the project matter? It is a few hundred TOC pages and about 4 different TOC book levels.

When I launch RH9 HTML I can create a new project. So that version does work OK.

Thank you.

Chuck

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Community Expert ,
Sep 28, 2012 Sep 28, 2012

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Check out Peter Grainge's site (grainge.org) for tips on changing from earlier versions of RH to RH9/10.

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Community Expert ,
Sep 29, 2012 Sep 29, 2012

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Can I assume you have a good backup rather than you are now reliant on a project that has failed to upgrade?

Do you still have access to Rh7 and if you do, does the project still open OK on that?

After that I am not too sure. Does the help have links to PDF files that are part of baggage? That is ringing a bell.

See if the Using Rh8 and Using Rh9 pages on my site help.

If no progress, then post back.


See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

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New Here ,
Oct 01, 2012 Oct 01, 2012

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Yes I do have a good backup of my Robohelp 7 project.

Yes I do have RH7 on my pc. But once I have attempted to open the project in RH9, I can no longer open it in RH7. I get a message saying it won't open in 7 since it has been upgraded in a newer version. However, the transition to 9 was never completed.

I do not understand your question "Does the help have links to PDF files that are part of baggage?"

I'm sorry that I could not find anything on your site to help regarding transitioning from 7 to 9. Maybe I just haven't found it yet.

One thing that may be an issue is that I have both RH7 and RH9 on my pc. I read that having two versions is not good. So that could be the problem. I am waiting for my IT people to uninstall RH7 so I can try opening the project in RH9 again. Would you suggest I uninstall both and then install RH9 or just uninstall RH7 and give it a try? You may ask why do I have both. I was going to remove RH7 when I safely transitioned the project to RH9 just as I did from 6 to 7. But when the 7 to 9 didn't work I just let 9 remain there. I needed to continue maintaining my project and 7 worked but 9 didn't.

Here is more info if it helps. During the initial install of 9, my OS was WinXP. Just recently we went to Win7. And as I mentioned, RH9 seems to work OK when I try to create a new project, so it did install OK.

I will get back to you after I try the removal of RH7.

I continue to welcome any other suggestions.

Thank you.

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Community Expert ,
Oct 01, 2012 Oct 01, 2012

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Don't uninstall Rh7 just yet.

I will reply tomorrow.


See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

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Community Expert ,
Oct 02, 2012 Oct 02, 2012

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Whilst you cannot open the upgraded project in Rh7, you can still open the backup. I would keep that option open until your problem is resolved. It used to be the case that multiple versions caused problems but that is no longer true. I have machines with 7, 8, 9 and 10 all running quite happily, albeit 7 is not certified for Windows 7 but as I only need it for occasional testing that's not a real issue.

The question about PDFs is  really do you have any links in your topics to PDF files and are those files baggage files? I recall one person at least had  a problem opening a project that was tracked back to the PDF files.

There isn't a topic about transitioning direct from 7 to 9 but there are topics about upgrading to 8 and upgrading to 9, from any version. Either of those could have had something but now that I have had a chance to look, I don't think there is.

You say Rh9 runs and runs but does not respond but you also say you can create new projects. So Rh9 opens OK and works fine except with this rogue project. What exactly happens after you attempt to open the project?


See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

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New Here ,
Oct 02, 2012 Oct 02, 2012

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I will keep RH7 on my PC.

Yes I have many PDF files. Forgive my lack of knowledge but I do not know what a baggage file is.

This is what I do to open the project at issue.

Launch RH9.

When RH9 opens and the screen appears, I click the “Open…” folder and browse for the .xpj file.

Double click the .xpj file and the screen shown here displays indefinitely. This capture doesn’t show it but the mouse pointer becomes the halo shape showing that it’s busy.

Note: Under Recent Projects is the “New TEST Proj” that I created to see if RH9 opens and works. Yes it works although I didn’t put anything into it. It’s just a blank project I created for the test.

When I click the X to close, this screen appears.

If I click the first item in the list, RH9 closes and nothing further happens.

When I click “View problem details” this screen appears. It took three captures to get it all. I thought it may be useful.

RH7

After attempting RH9, I use the same steps to reopen the same .xpj file with RH7 and, I get this screen.

I would gladly send the project files to test out but at 110meg (and a hundred or more files) the email system could not handle it.

Thank you for your efforts.

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LEGEND ,
Oct 02, 2012 Oct 02, 2012

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Hi there

I'm not Peter, of course, but hopefully he won't mind my popping in. I suspect he is AFK or he would have replied much sooner.

Think of a "baggage file" as being like the trunk (or boot) of a car. It's a way to include content in your project that you may not reference directly in a way that RoboHelp understands.

For example, often folks want to include a PDF version of the help in case folks want to print it. In that case, you add the PDF to baggage, then create a link to open the PDF.

To add a file to Baggage, the process depends on which view you have your Project Manager set to. If it's Global view, the top most item will read "Project Files". In that case, just right-click the Project Files and you should see an option titled: New > Baggage File...

If your view is Classic, the top most item will read "HTML Files (Topics). In that case, you should see a folder below that in the tree. The folder will be named "Baggage Files". Right-click the folder and choose New > Baggage File...

Then you choose the file you wish to include in your project.

Hope this helps... Rick

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LEGEND ,
Oct 02, 2012 Oct 02, 2012

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Oh, one other thing. It seems you tried to include some screen captures when replying using email. That doesn't work. If you have screen captures to include, you need to visit the web page forum interface found in the email, then use the Camera icon that appears above where you type your reply.

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links

RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form

Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day!

Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training

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Community Expert ,
Oct 02, 2012 Oct 02, 2012

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Perhaps we could ask that Chuckclen reposts the text with the images to make it easier to follow.

At the moment, I am guessing the problem is those PDFs. How big a task would it be to remove them in 7 and then upgrade?


See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

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New Here ,
Oct 02, 2012 Oct 02, 2012

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Thank you both.

First I will repeat the last post and try to add the graphics. (I hope they will be readable.)  Then I will go and delete all the PDFs (will take a while) and retry to open project with RH9. And if that works, I'll deal with the PDFs then.

I launch RH9.
When RH9 opens and the screen appears, I click the “Open…” folder and browse for the .xpj file.
Double click the .xpj file and the screen shown here displays indefinitely. This capture doesn’t show it but the mouse pointer becomes the halo shape showing that it’s busy.

Note: Under Recent Projects is the “New TEST Proj” that I created to see if RH9 opens and works. Yes it works although I didn’t put anything into it. It’s just a blank project I created for the test.

1rh9-hangs.jpg

When I click the X to close, this screen appears.

2robo-not-responds.jpg

When I click “View problem details” this screen appears. It took three captures to get it all. I thought it may be useful.

3problem-descrip1s.jpg

4problem-descrip2s.jpg

5problem-descrip3s.jpg

After attempting RH9 I use the same steps to reopen the same .xpj file with RH7 and, I get this screen.

6not-compatibles.jpg

Peter, first of all thanks for the explanation of baggage files. Very good. Yes it is my intension to provide PDFs for people to print the document. Do I understand correctly that I should normally assign all my PDFs to "Baggage Files" to prevent this problem?

Thank you both very much.

Chuck

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Community Expert ,
Oct 02, 2012 Oct 02, 2012

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It was Rick who explained the baggage files.

When you create a link to a PDF,  in the generated help the PDF is going to have to be where the link expects it, obviously. Typically you put the PDF in your project and then create a link to it. However, that will not get the PDF into your generated help so you would have a broken link. To prevent that, you add the PDF as a baggage file and it then gets uploaded when you generate. How have you been creating the links and getting the PDFs into the generated help?

That is nothing to do with this problem though. Here Rh is seeing those PDFs in your project and finding a problem with one or more. At least, I suspect that is the problem.


See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

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New Here ,
Oct 02, 2012 Oct 02, 2012

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Thank you Rick for your explanation.

I don't have a very complete understanding of how Robohelp works. I was assigned to update the content in an existing Robohelp 6 project and to do so I taught myself enough to get the job done. Then I did the same to R7 when I had to upgrade. I expected to do the same with R9.

Here is what we do. My source document is Word. When it is complete I copy and paste the newly updated text into the R7 TOC pages and generate an updated Robohelp version. To provide my users with chapters they can print, I take the Word doc and create PDFs which I then copy into the R7 project replacing the old PDFs. Then I create a hyperlink on the TOC page with a path to the project folder containing all the PDFs. This has worked well for over 4 years. But I will now learn about baggage files and start using them.

I have deleted all PDF files and tried to open the project in R9. I get the same type of response. It hangs up.

I must stop troubleshooting for now as I have other work I am neglecting. I will return another day as time permits.

Thank you Peter and Rick for your efforts and time in helping me with my problem.

Chuck

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Community Expert ,
Oct 02, 2012 Oct 02, 2012

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Would you like to send the Rh7 project to me?

See the Contact page on my site and send the project as instructed there. Do make sure you include a link to this thread and please do not email the project direct.


See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

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New Here ,
Oct 03, 2012 Oct 03, 2012

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Thank you for the offer. Yes I would like you to see it. However the project is 110meg in size and contains hundreds of files. Again I must apologize for my lack of knowledge but I do not know how to send the complete project as a whole via email. Is it possible to send a CD of the project through the regular mail system?
If you would like to see the end product online, here is the URL:  http://www.imrf.org/pubs/er_pubs/AAmanual/Online_AA_Manual/aamanual.htm

Chuck

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Community Expert ,
Oct 03, 2012 Oct 03, 2012

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Check out Peter's site - grainge.org on the Contact page he describes what he uses to transfer projects. Don't forget to include a reference to this thread.

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New Here ,
Oct 03, 2012 Oct 03, 2012

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Hi Jeff,
I looked at the cutesendit.com website that Peter uses, and from what I can tell, it allows up to 5 files to be sent at a time. My R7 project is contained in one folder made up of over a hundred files in several different directories. It must be moved as a whole unit, not in pieces. I must be missing something because I don't see how to send the whole project in one package.

Chuck

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Community Expert ,
Oct 03, 2012 Oct 03, 2012

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zip it up?

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LEGEND ,
Oct 03, 2012 Oct 03, 2012

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New Here ,
Oct 03, 2012 Oct 03, 2012

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Wow. That was a slap my forehead moment. I use zip so seldom that it never occurred to me. I'll send that out in the morning.

Thanks Rick and Jeff.

Cheers to you both.

Chuck

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New Here ,
Oct 04, 2012 Oct 04, 2012

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The zipped files have been sent to Peter via Cutesendit.

Thank you all.

Chuck

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Community Expert ,
Oct 04, 2012 Oct 04, 2012

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Use what you sent me.

Open Rh9 and browse to the HHP file instead of the XPJ file. Rh will ask if you want to use the XPJ, say No.

Project then upgrades nicely and opens. Next time you can use the XPJ.

I don't think anything is broken except some links that I am guessing were broken to start with.


See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

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New Here ,
Oct 05, 2012 Oct 05, 2012

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You are probably wondering why I haven't responded with successful news. Well I did as Peter said and R9 still hung up. So for some unknown reason I decided to check for any R9 updates. I assumed my IT dept kept this current. They do not when it comes to software apps that are unique to individuals, as opposed to an OS update that affects everyone. It turns out that yes I am missing the Robohelp 9.0.2 update. I am now awaiting their presence to perform the update, which may be days away. I sure hope that does the trick after the consternation I have caused.
Thank you.
Chuck

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Community Expert ,
Oct 05, 2012 Oct 05, 2012

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I'm surprised and doubtful the patch will help. Did you try with exactly the same project that you sent me? Try unzipping that file somewhere.

I also see I have not asked if the project is on a local drive rather than the network. Please tell me you have the project on your C drive somewhere.


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New Here ,
Oct 05, 2012 Oct 05, 2012

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Yes the project is on my C drive, desktop, and has been from the start.
I just unzipped the same zipped file I sent you. Launched R9. Browsed to the .hhp file and selected it. Clicked Open. Clicked No. It attempted to open. After about 5 seconds the NOT RESPONDING appeared in the upper left.
I can only guess that it is an issue with my PC.

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