Help importing WinHelp project into RoboHelpHTML

[IonicRobin]

Dear All,

I am a programmer currently evaluating RoboHelp Office X5, with the intention of converting our existing WinHelp project to the more modern (and vista friendly) HTMLHelp.

I have tried using the import function (RoboHelp Starter/Import/WinHelp Project -> HTML Help.
This is a large (2000 topics) project, with a cnt file, map file (HM) and topics.rtf file.

Robohelp chugs away for a bit, then opens the new RoboHelp project.
The screen briefly flashes with the workspace, then refreshes, and the HTML Files (Topics) folder in the workspace is empty. i.e. the new project appears to contain no topics.

RoboHelp has produced HTML files (about 2000 of them), in a topics directory, but these don't appear in the project itself.

Not sure how to progress? Any ideas?

Hope someone can help,
Merry Xmas!

Robin

[sd2528]

I'm in the same boat for the same reasons. I have a very old version of robohelp that only compiles Winhelp and am currently doing a demo of Robohelp 5x because of Vista.

I didn't import anything. I just opened the .hpj file in the new version of Robohelp and it worked perfectly. Once inside I just changed the default compile to Microsoft HTML Help and I was all set. The only problem I am having is this...
HH_HELP_CONTEXT called without a [MAP}section

[Peter Grainge]

IonicRobin

Are you working with the full version or the trial version? The latter has a topic limit which your project is way beyond.

Also did you install RH with full admin rights attached to your logon?

Have you tried creating a new project and / or opening one of the supplied projects to see if your problems are limited to this import?

[IonicRobin]

Peter,

Many thanks for your response. I hadn't realised that there was a topic limit in the evaluation - so I'm sure it must be that.
We've now purchased the full version, so hopefully the import will work when it arrives.

Regards,

Robin

[IonicRobin]

Still stuck I'm afraid. We've purchased the full version of RoboHelp office and I've just installed it and tried the HPJ import again.

Same result as the evaluation version - the converted project has no topics, despite all the HTML files being created.

Hope someone can help,

Robin

[Captiv8r]

Hi Robin

I think I might take a different approach. Use the RoboHelp for Word product and open the .HPJ so you now have it all open in RoboHelp for Word. Then create HTML Help from that side. When you do this, RoboHelp should create some temporary files you can grab. Look in the output location while it is churning and burning. With 2000 topics, the process should take long enough that you will have ample time. The key will be to copy the source over to a different folder. Do this before RoboHelp finishes the process, because I think it will clear away the files once it is finished.

After you get the source files, copy them to a folder and use RoboHelp HTML to open the ProjectName.HHP file. At that point, you should then have a working RoboHelp HTML project.

I'm not sure where or why it may be failing. I'm simply trying to assist you by using another approach to get a project going. I do agree that it should work without workarounds. But as things sometimes fail, I'm all about workarounds. Sometimes you can literally spend hours trying to make something work as it should. But a workaround may take five minutes. Your call.

Cheers... Rick

[IonicRobin]

Captiv8r,

Many thanks for your response. Since my last post, I've been trying a few things and seem to have got somewhere....

By copying and pasting the topics.rtf file, and a binary chop method, I've discovered that RoboHelp seems to not like one of the pages about 3/4 of the way through the document.

If I copy all 1800 preceding pages, and the 200ish subsequent pages, the import goes fine and I can see all the topics in the project. I'm now trying to figure out what it is that RoboHelp doesn't like with this particular page/topic!!! (an import log would be useful).

I'm trying to do the import the 'proper' way because I don't want our help author to have to manually reassign all the MAP ids to the topics. There seem to be a multitude of different ways I could import into RoboHelp (e.g. from the hlp file, via RoboHelp word either from the project or the hlp file, covert to HTML first using Microsoft HTML help workshop) but none seems to produce a very satisfactory result one way or another.

Anyway thanks again,

regards,

Robin