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My .chm file no longer compiles

Community Beginner ,
Oct 15, 2007 Oct 15, 2007

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Help! My .chm file no longer compiles. RoboHelp thinks it is compiliing a file, but the result is 10 percent of the file size of previous versions and, of course, does not open. All other SSL's seem to work.

I am publishing to RoboEngine (WebHelp Pro) for the primary layout. I also maintain a test site using WebHelp and generate several printed layouts. I use the .chm as a backup of my project, per Rick Stone's advice (see Tips & Tricks, Backup Strategy). I have had no problems with the layout until last week.

Before you ask, yes I am storing and compiling all files on a local drive. I just copy the .chm to a network drive for backup and publish the remaining layouts to their respective web-homes.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

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Community Beginner , Oct 30, 2007 Oct 30, 2007
Thanks for all your help. This is how I "resolved" the problem:
Make a copy of the project.
Delete the .cpd and .xpj files.
Open with the .hhp file.
Replace the conditional tags and ssl's per Peter's web site.
Close the project.
Open the .cpd file in Access.
Replace the negative numbers with positive numbers (mostly in See Also, Template, and Baggage File tables).
Close the .cpd file.
Open the project from the .xpj file. The project now works as expected.

I don't know why this works, but thoug...

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Community Expert ,
Oct 15, 2007 Oct 15, 2007

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Have you tried creating a new target folder, and maybe a new layout?

If that is not it, have you tried generating a webhelp output to a new target folder to check the full output is generated there?

Help others by clicking Correct Answer if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 15, 2007 Oct 15, 2007

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Hi Peter,
Thanks for the quick reply. I just tried creating a new layout, new folder, and even publishing a to a new webhelp location. The webhelp version still works perfectly and the .chm file problem is still the same. RH goes through the motions of generating a .chm file, but I wind up with a useless file containing no information that won't open.
Now, I'm getting this error when I try to open:
"Cannot open the file mk:@MSITStore:C:\Program Files\..<chm file location>"
Any ideas?

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Community Expert ,
Oct 15, 2007 Oct 15, 2007

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Create a new single topic project and test that.

See if it is a project specific problem.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 15, 2007 Oct 15, 2007

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It works fine in the new project--must be project-specific. What now?

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Community Expert ,
Oct 15, 2007 Oct 15, 2007

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Now I'm not sure! :-)

At least though we know it is not an installation issue or something corrupt in the compiler so it is some progress.

Three things I would try next.

1] Open the HHP file in Notepad and see if you can see anything obvious there, a wrong path etc.

2] Take a copy of the project and trash the CPD and XPJ files. Open the project with the HHP file. Create a new HTML layout, not a copy, and try again. If it works, we can talk about what will need fixing.

3] Google the error message.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 15, 2007 Oct 15, 2007

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Okay, option 2 worked. At least I now have a backup of everything I've done through today. Do you know how I can fix the original, now?

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Community Expert ,
Oct 15, 2007 Oct 15, 2007

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Something corrupt in the underlying database. You could open a rename of copy of the CPD file to give it an MDB extension and open it in Microsoft Access and try to find the cause but you might also be wasting time.

Take a look at the topic on my site about Opening Projects and you will see I cover how to fix the things that this process will have lost.

Post back if any fallout questions arise.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 26, 2007 Oct 26, 2007

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Okay, now the new copy is also corrupt. And, when I recreate the project from the .hhp, I also lose the template and the See Also keywords.
Short of recreating the whole project, is there anything I can do?

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Community Expert ,
Oct 26, 2007 Oct 26, 2007

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So the new project worked for a while and then went corrupt with presumably the same message.

I don't know what else to suggest here other than repeating the same process, albeit with the issues to which you refer.

Try googling the message and also looking on www.helpware.net where there is a lot of CHM information.

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LEGEND ,
Oct 26, 2007 Oct 26, 2007

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To add to Peter's advice, have you tried compiling the CHM using Microsoft HTML Workshop. It may be worth a go.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 30, 2007 Oct 30, 2007

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LATEST
Thanks for all your help. This is how I "resolved" the problem:
Make a copy of the project.
Delete the .cpd and .xpj files.
Open with the .hhp file.
Replace the conditional tags and ssl's per Peter's web site.
Close the project.
Open the .cpd file in Access.
Replace the negative numbers with positive numbers (mostly in See Also, Template, and Baggage File tables).
Close the .cpd file.
Open the project from the .xpj file. The project now works as expected.

I don't know why this works, but thought I'd post back for any other folks that may have similar issues (e.g., the disappearing See Also links & Templates when opening a project from .hhp file).

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