RoboHelp Compile Error

[SallyDockery]

Hello all,

RoboHelp X5.0.1 - we are compiling a project with multiple input files. No matter what order we use to import and compile the files, it seems that at some point we hit a wall and receive the error message "Microsoft Help Workshop has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." The error signature points to hcrtf.exe and hwdll.dll. This does not happen on the same file everytime.

Can anyone please give us some insight as to why this is happening? We've tried rebooting after every compile. Any insight would be most appreciated.

Thanks
Sally

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Sally. This type of error is normally caused by something in the projects you are compiling that RH doesn't like. The problem is finding out what. You say you are importing files. What type of files are these? Word perhaps? What I'd do is import a few at a time into a new project. Compile. If it works import a few more and compile again. Repeat until you get an error. Once you get an error remove the imported topics and import them one at a time before compiling. This will identify the offending file. Once you've got that it may be a case of re-creating the file or just part of it. Let us know how you get on as we can help further.

[SallyDockery]

Hi Andrew, Thanks for the response. We started a new project and imported and compiled our .rtf documents successfully, until we got to the last document, which was the largest (3172 topics), and then we received a compile error. Thing is we had imported and compiled this file first in the previous project and it worked, so we don't feel like it is a specific topic error. We are wondering if there is there a limit to the number of topics that we can have or the number of documents that we can import and compile. Or is there some setting that we need to change to allow for more topics? Our current imported and compiled topic count , without the largest file, is 10,380. Our current file imported and compiled file count is 14. Thanks again for your previous repsonse.

[RoboColum_n_]

Other than in the trial version there is no limit to the number of topics or imported files. Are you trying to import all your RTFs into the same project? If so, I'd advise against this purely from a logistical point of view more than a technical one. Having 3000+ topics in a project makes hard work of linking. etc IMHO. I'd split that up into 2-3 chunks and import them into seperate projects before merging.
Just out of interest, do you still have the original output for the large file? If you merge this into the TOC of a master project what occurs? Does this fail also?

[SallyDockery]

Colum, you are awesome and we really appreciate your time.... next question - we followed your suggestion and have been split the project into two and have performed a merge. The problem that we are having currently having is that it seems after following the instructions, the Master.cnt file is not being generated. Got any suggestions?

Thanks again,
Sally

[RoboColum_n_]

Urrrhh! Winhelp It's been awhile since I've been there. My rather creaky memory remembers that you have to have at least one topic in a project to produce a .CNT file. Does the master project have anything in the TOC?

[SallyDockery]

Hi Colum,

The master project has everything (all the documents and the external .CNT file) in the TOC. They show as books and when expanded, show all the topics. What is not showing is the external project's document topics in the TOC. There is no plus sign next to the book to expand the topics. It's not actually a book, it's some other symbol, like a big "C".

In the index tab, it lists all the topics that are included in the master project, but in the index from the external file, we do not have any topics associated with it.

And we don't have a Master.CNT file. Even though we follow the directions on how to create this file, it never seems to generate within RoboHelp. We are thinking that this is what we need to make happen.... ? We are going to try to create this file manually, just for kicks.

Thanks for your time,
Sally

[SallyDockery]

Hi Colum,

The master project has everything (all the documents and the external .CNT file) in the TOC. They show as books and when expanded, show all the topics. What is not showing is the external project's document topics in the TOC. There is no plus sign next to the book to expand the topics. It's not actually a book, it's some other symbol, like a big "C".

In the index tab, it lists all the topics that are included in the master project, but in the index from the external file, we do not have any topics associated with it.

And we don't have a Master.CNT file. Even though we follow the directions on how to create this file, it never seems to generate within RoboHelp. We are thinking that this is what we need to make happen.... ? We are going to try to create this file manually, just for kicks.

Thanks for your time,
Sally

[SallyDockery]

Hi Colum,

Well, we manually created a master.cnt file and all of our topics are showing up now.... thanks for your suggestions. The next problem is that for some reason, some of our topics are showing up as duplicates in the TOC even though we have checked all the imported documents and they don't have duplicate entries. Have any ideas how this could have happened? and then how we can fix this....? My fear is that we will have to start from scratch and rebuild and we are bumping against a deadline.

Thanks again for your time,
Sally