RoboHelp deletes Merge Files section in HHP

[hapax_legomenon]

I'm using merged HTML Help. Sometimes when I recompile the master project, RoboHelp deletes the [Merged Files] section in the .hhp file. As a result, many things no longer work –search, F1 help etc.

The problem seems to happen when the master RoboHelp project is modified and then recompiled.

The master .hhc file is still good – the slave CHMs still show up in the Table of Contents pane and can be accessed by clicking in the TOC.

Re-adding the merged CHMs back into the TOC seems to fix the problem. But that's not a good solution for us to have to always do that, since we have about 52 possible CHMs in the project.

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi hapax_legomenon and welcome to the forums. I have never come across a problem such as yours. Can I ask the "N" question? Is your project located on a network? If so, move it off. Have you also tried creating a new master project, merging in your slaves and recompiling. Does the same happen then?

[hapax_legomenon]

I am working on my project locally, not across a network.
I did try recreating the project from scratch, but it the same problem still occurs

I tried pasting the [Merge Files] from a previous .hhp into the new .hhp, and that seems to work. But it would be nice to figure out why RoboHelp is deleting that section in the first place.

[RoboColum_n_]

OK time for the sledgehammer approach unless anyone else has a suggestion. Create a new project and import in each merged project one at a time and compile before importing the next. Does the same problem occur? If it only occurs after a certain merged file is imported you've narrowed down the problem. Next you need to identify what in the merged project is causing the problem. Adopt the same approach by creating a new project and importing some of the topics from the problem project. Compile and merge in the master. If that works, add some more topics from the problem project. Keep going until you hit the problem. Eventually you hopefully identify the exact project/topic that is causing the problem.

[hapax_legomenon]

I think I found the problem - a bad Remote Topic link in the master chm. I guess the compiler choked when it tried to process it.

[Amebr-ke0mH4]

I'm having the problem where files are intermittently being deleted from the [MERGE FILES] section of the hhp file.

By "Remote Topic" do you mean a link to an external CHM file (one of the merged ones?)? And how did you locate it?

[hapax_legomenon]

Sorry, I think I was wrong in my post yesterday. As I dig a little deeper in my memory now, this is what I should have said:

I have a master .chm with only one topic, main.htm. Other than that the master .chm is essntially emtpy except for the links to the merged "slave" .chms, which links can be seen in the RoboHelp TOC pane, and also are in the .hhp and .hhc files.

While troubleshooting, I found a bad link to a remote topic (a topic contained in one of the slave chms). It was linking to bControl.chm::/Collections/working_with_collections.htm, but it should have been bControl.chm::/working_with_collections.htm. I thought this was the problem, and I fixed it.

However, (now I remember this) in working with the help system further, it still deleted my [Merged Files] section in the .hhp. It seems that whenever I make any changes at all to main.htm, RoboHelp deletes the [Merged Files] section when I recompile. I still do not know why this is happening. I have recreated my master .chm project completely from scratch several times, but that hasn't solved the problem.

My solution was not to change main.htm. If I ever do need to change it, I will make the change and then delete and then re-add all the merged links in the master project.

[hapax_legomenon]

Hm, still doesn't work.
Whenever I changed my master project and recompile, it nukes my Merge section in the .hhp.

[Amebr-ke0mH4]

I have a project with 7 merged chm files. It is always the seventh one that gets bumped off. I've tried reordering the chms, but it's always that last one.