Robohelp HTML 8 - Generating files with apostrophe in file name

[RoboHelpN00b]

Before I start, I have read this thread

http://forums.adobe.com/message/1062904#1062904 and several others, yet I still have questions.

Previously I used Robohelp 5x, which worked perfectly.  Our user manuals are in MS Word and each have several topics that have apostrophes in the topic name (that are necessary in the topic).  Robohelp 5x would import the Word Document without issue and create HTML files that automatically replaced the apostrophe with an underscore.  All references (Index, TOC, etc) to those files also automatically changed to underscore.

Fast Forward to Robohelp 8.0.2 (yes, I have the update).  Even if I go into the options and make sure "Use Underscores in file names" is selected - it no longer replaces the apostrophe with an underscore (though it does replace the spaces with underscores).

Locally, when I generate the online help (WebHelp) and put it on our local webserver - it works just fine.  Even with the apostrophes in the file names and references.

However, when the WebHelp files are hosted at our server hosting facility, any links within the Webhelp to files with an apostrophe result in a 404 error.  I have searched and searched to see if there is some kind of server setting to allow these special characters to be recognized in the file name but have not had any luck.

Per the link at the beginning of this post, the issue in that thread was resolved by changing the file name of the HTML files.  I attempted to change the file name of the HTML files that RoboHelp created.  However as far as I can tell there is no way to do this within RoboHelp 8.  If I attempt to do it outside of RoboHelp 8, I need to import all of the "new" HTML files and all references (Table of Contents, Index, etc) now show broken links and need to be re-linked to this new topic.  This is not an option.  I have 12 user manuals that are updated on a regular basis and the renaming\relinking process would take forever.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

-Noob

[RoboHelpN00b]

I was able to log into the server hosting facility and look at the html files themeslves.

It appears that at some point (between when I created them locally and now) all of the apostrophes in the file names were changed to "Æ".  This blew my mind.  And sure enough if I plug in the URL and replace the apostrophe with "Æ" the page shows up just fine.

From what I've been reading it looks like that may be related to the conversion from MS Word and "Smart Quotes".  I'm looking into that now, but any help would still be great.

Thanks,

-noob

[Peter Grainge]

Personally I would never use any apostrophe that would be in the path of a link but smart quotes are death to HTML.

When I install any version of Word the first thing I do is turn them off.

If I get documents from others, I search and replace.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[old_NL_Derek]

I have had problems caused by apostrophes in the path; a path like c:\Projects\prod'name\manual\ gave errors when trying to import images; something like "cannot save the file" (it was on another machine so I don't have full details).

My advice: do not use apostrophes in file or folder names.

--- Derek

[3rd_name_change_april_5th]

In RH 9, can apostrophes be used in topic names? I know if V8, if we used apostrophe in topic names, it gave HTML errors when publishing. Has this been resolved in V9?

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

In any of the classes I facilitate that's one of the "gotchas" I warn folks about. Just stick to the basics (a-z, A-Z, 0-9 amd the underscore ( _ ). I consider any character outside of those to be characters to avoid using when you name things.

Unless, of course, you enjoy going on wild goose chases with odd and obscure errors and things not working properly.

Cheers... Rick

[Peter Grainge]

@VitastaAdobe

Do you mean topic Topic Titles, Topic Headings or File Names? It is File Names (and paths) where you need to be careful.

When you create a topic and enter the topic title, Rh defaults that to the file name but you can remove the dodgy characters from the file name.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[3rd_name_change_april_5th]

Hi Peter,

We use FrameMaker to write and then import to RoboHelp. So we use apostrophes in topic heading names in FrameMaker. In earlier versions of RH we had issues where we had HTML errors in such instances, when we generated the webhelp in RH. Now we are on V9, I havent seen that error lately but to avoid future issues, just want to ensure if apostrophes can now be used in topic headings in RH V9?

[Peter Grainge]

Now that you have indicated how your topics are created, that does affect the answer. I believe the importing process from FM will create file names with the same characters, thus leading to your problem.

Take a look at the Importing Word pages on my site. There is reference to how you can force Rh to modify the filenames. I believe the same settings are in the Fm workflow.

[3rd_name_change_april_5th]

Thanks Peter!