RoboHelp suddenly no longer recognizes project images

[Guest]

I am having major problems with project images, and am unable to find a workaround. The images are initailly recognized by RoboHelp, then mysteriously become urecognized. I reinserted all of the images, all was well for a while, and then the project suddently does not reconize them again. It just happend for a third time.

I have read through many posts describing problems users have with images, but it did not help my situation:
-- I understand that there is inconsistent behavior in RoboHelp if images are pasted into topics rather than via the <b>Insert > Image</b> menu item. I am inserting them via Insert > Image menu.
-- I also read that there can be display issues based on the tool that was used to capture an image. I use SnagIT version 8 for all captures. My issue is not with display, but of "some" of the files disappearing from the project list.
-- I also read some posts suggesting that all images be placed in the project root to avoid porblems. That is not a viable solution for me -- it is a very large project with several hundred images -- I could not effectively manage the images if I could not organize them in folders.

Here is what I am seing:
-- After I insert the images (using Insert > Image) the names of the images appear in the topics and are listed in the Project View OK.
-- I continue with general project development, and periodically generate output and run reports to check for project health, including Missing References and Unused Files. I notice that some of the images that were previously OK show up in the Unused File report.. I then look in the Project tab, and see that the Unused images are no longer included in the tree.
-- I then open the topics and see that the images are still there in the topics, and I can see them in WYIWYG and in preview mode.
-- I re-insert and the cycle repeats.

I am totally stuck and am continuously losing work.

I would very much appreciate help resolving this isue.

Thank you in advance.
Jackie

[RoboColum_n_]

What about the output. Do the images display OK there? Is your project stored ina network drive? If so, move it to a hard drive and see if this solves the problem. Are you sure the images are not used? Check for case sensitivity and typos. I know from experience that it is easy to get muddled with file names.

[Guest]

No the images do not display in the generated CHM. They display OK in the development environment using preview.
No the project is not on the network; it is on my local computer.
RoboHelp is reporting that the files are unused, so I am not sure what you mean by am I sure the images are unused? That is the whole problem here -- I see that they are indeed used, but RoboHelp says they are not and excludes them from output.
Since I used RoboHelp's "Insert > Image" menu item, file name case is not an issue. I checked anyway to confirm the physical file names are the same as the references file names as inserted by RoboHelp.

[Guest]

I agree with Colum that It's a good idea to work locally and back up to server with RH. Another idea is to organise topics within the project in folders and place images used in a topic in the same folder. It's also possible to rename and relocate images within robohelp which you may find useful. You do this in the project tab within RH.

[Guest]

I am working locally, not on the network.
Yes, my images reside in subfolders, often in the same folder as the html file that references it. However, they are not always in the same folders.
Yes, I have used the RoboHelp project tree to moved and/or rename some files.

[Captiv8r]

Hi Jackie

While I can't explain why RoboHelp would kick the images out of the project (I might suspect CPD corruption, but that's just a hunch) you might be able to fix things by expanding the Baggages pseudo folder, locating the folder where you want the image to be, then right-clicking and adding the missing images to the list of Baggage files. That would ensure they were inside the .CHM and rendered.

Just a thought... Rick

[Guest]

Hi Rick.
How can I recreate the CPD file? Do they often become corrupt?

I just dicovered something this makes this problem even weirder, and further makes it seem like corruption...

I copied the entire project structure to another directory, opened it in RoboHelp, and did a project rename. (Hoping this would perhaps 'clear' the project corruption.) I then ran the Unused Files report, and got a totally different result than when I run the report in the original. Actually, even more files appear on the report in the renamed project. Then, I had someone else open the project, and they see different results when they run the report from their machine.

[Captiv8r]

Hi again Jackie

Basically you close RoboHelp HTML. Use Windows Explorer to navigate to your project files. Clobber or rename the .CPD. Restart RoboHelp HTML and open your project. RoboHelp HTML sees the missing .CPD and builds a daisy fresh one based on the existing contents of your project files.

Cheers... Rick

[Guest]

Hi Rick. I wish that would have fixed it! Unfortunately, letting RoboHelp recreate a fresh CPD didn't help. In fact, it made things worse. There are now dozens of Broken Links listed that were previously just fine.
Any other ideas on what might be corrupt in this project and how I can resolve it?

[Guest · Accepted solution]

Rick - thanks for pointing me down this track.
I deleted the XPJ and CPD files, then double-clicked the HHP file. RoboHelp recreated fresh copies of the XPJ and CPD files, and it resolved 95% of the issues. There were a couple of HTML files listed on theUnused Files report that should not have been, since the topics were linked to and included in the TOC. However, I 'forced' RoboHelp to re-reference them by importing the files again. The project is back in a 'clean' state, hopefully. Wish me luck...

Thanks for your help.
Jackie