RoboHELP 7 runs very slowly

[Aska555]

I'm new to RoboHELP and am using the latest version (7).
I'm creating HTML Help. I'm finding that the program runs very slowly, taking a very long time to switch from topic to topic in the Project Manager. This does not seem to be a memory issue, since I have 2GB, and my hard drive is not full. Does anyone else have this problem? Or does anyone have any answers or ideas to speed things up?
Thanks!

[Peter Grainge]

Welcome to the forum.

Is the project you are working on stored on your local drive? If it is on a network, move it locally and see how that goes. If it is not that, post back. There are several things to try but let's start on that one.

[Aska555]

Hi Peter,
Thanks for your very swift response. I'm working on my local drive, not on a network.
What do you suggest?

[Peter Grainge]

Take a look at the topic on my site about Opening Projects.

First check out the rhvariables file. If that fails, then trash the CPD and XPJ files AFTER you have made a backup.

[seblorienne]

Hi Peter

I am using Robohelp from the beginning (when It was developped by BlueSky Software)
I also have the same problem with RH 7. My computer is installed with Vista but I also tried with XP and the problem remains the same. I tried to do all procedures you explain in your website but the problem still occurs.
RH runs very very slow. It takes around 5 and 7 seconds to swicth from a tab to another one.
Any other hint you can suggest ?
Thanks in advance for your help

[Peter Grainge]

Seblorienne

Sorry for the slow response. I've been laid low with a nasty cold.

Nobody else has reported this but you get it on two PCs.

There are a number of procedures on my site so it would help to know exactly what you have tried. Did you install using your logon with admin rights attached and are your projects on your hard disk?

[seblorienne]

Hi Peter
Hope you are feeling better now.

I tried all procedures to import old projects but nothing changed.
I tried on two different computers with XP and Vista so I don't think it comes from hardware issues.
I installed RH on XP (Pro) using the Administrator account and on Vista (Integral) using my own account (which has the admin right).
The projects are stored in a local drive.

[Peter Grainge]

Almost OK, thanks.

When you say the Administrator account, do you mean your logon with admin rights or an administrators logon? They are not the same thing.

Have you tried creating a new project and adding some new topics to that to see if there is any difference?

What virus checker do you use?

[seblorienne]

I used the "Administrator" account on XP but an account with administrator rights on Vista.
I used BitDefender but even if I deactivate this program RH still runs slow.
I also tried to create a project from scratch but nothing changed.

[Peter Grainge]

The thing that bothers me here is that you have the same problem on both machines.

I would otherwise say for the XP machine to uninstall RH and reinstall it with your logon with admin rights attached and with your virus checking disabled.

Your OS is set to English?

Not sure what else to suggest. Try the reinstall first and then post back.

[Guest]

I have imported some old Robohelp projects into Robohelp 7 and I have also been experience slow response. It usually takes about 4 seconds to access topics. However, if you try to access topics that you opened previously it works as expected. It looks like topics that are opened are somehow cached. Otherwise it is too slow. I created a sample new project, and accessing topics is faster there, so it probably has to do with the fact that the project has been imported (it may do some code-cleaning or something like that before opening the topic).

[Peter Grainge]

All the code cleaning is done on opening a project in RH7 for the first time or on import.

With this slow response you say it is better after you have opened the topic once before. Once before in the same session and then it is slow again next time you open RH, or just slow the very first time and then OK forever after?

Do the topics have any metatags indicating the source is an import and the name of the source file? If yes, try removing those two tags.

[Guest]

Just wondering if anyone who is having this problem has found a resolution. That RH7 is slow has become an issue in regards to performance.

I upgraded to RoboHelp 7 (Tech Comm Suite) a couple of months ago. The fact that I can have 2 topics open at the same time isn't really a big improvement for me, as It takes between 5 to 10 seconds to:

Open a topic from the TOC or Topic List
Open a topic when I click the Tab
Open the dialog when I right click the topic tab
Toggle (CTRL + Tab) between open topics

Rarely does it take less than 5 seconds and when it does, I am pleased. Most other actions take about the same as in RH5.

My projects are stored on my local drive
The .cpd file is 860 KB
I uninstalled/reinstalled RH7
Trend Micro PC-Cillin is my anti-virus software

Thank you

Randi

[HKabaker]

Hi,

Peter said:
All the code cleaning is done on opening a project in RH7 for the first time or on import.

I think some of the code cleaning is done on import of a source file from another project. And when you import a project, maybe some of the cleaning is done before you open a topic.

Most of it, I think, is done the first time you open a topic in RH7, and still more when you first save it in RH 7.

Here is something you might try:

Before opening a topic for the first time, use the properties dialog to apply a different .css style sheet and save the change. Then reapply the original .css and save the change. Now open the topic.

Also, you may want to build a new .css style sheet in RH 7, instead of using the one you imported from RH 6. "It shouldn't matter," I know. But maybe it does. And it wouldn't hurt to review all of your styles at this point.

It's more of a hunch than a proven process, so please post back any results.

Harvey

[Peter Grainge]

What I was getting at is that code cleaning is not done when you open a topic.

The CSS should also get rewritten on upgrade. It's easy to check. Open it in Notepad and you should see all the old Kadov stuff has gone, also each style will have a similarly named style for lists.

[NeoKnight3000]

Resolved! for me anyway. Running RH7 - on XP, I tried the CPD fix posted on http://groups.google.com/group/macromedia.robohelp.webhelp/browse_thread/thread/b620544149fcfe3d

It worked!

[Peter Grainge]

Welcome to the forum

That's what I suggested in my second response to this thread. It can solve a lot of problems. There's a topic on my site to tell you about things you might have lost in the process.

Did you have any conditional tags and did they survive. They seem to in RH7 and confirmation would be useful.

[stratakath]

Hi, I'm using RoboHelp 7, and a file I imported from my earlier version of RoboHelp is running terribly slowly - 30 seconds to switch to new topic or even just to switch back to RoboHelp from another application. I've tried most of the suggestions outlined in this thread; associated a new style sheet with all my topics, compacted and repaired the cpd file. I'm running RoboHelp 7 locally, and the sample help file runs fine. I have no meta tags that refer to source in any of my imported topics.
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

[stratakath]

Turns out I had too many fonts installed on my computer. Once 2/3 of the fonts were removed, the speed increased substantially. This is not a problem on my XP machine running the same file in an older version of RoboHelp however.

[Guest]

I was so frustrated with how slow RH7 was that I was going to post to this thread again...but instead found a solution!

stratakath, thank you very much for figuring out the "too many fonts" issue. That is exactly what was making RH7 run extremely slow for me. (I had tried most of the suggested fixes to no avail.) Now RH7 is running like I remember RH5 used to.

Gotta love this forum. Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions.

Randi

[Guest]

How many fonts did you all have installed? I'm not having this problem, but I do have a lot of fonts.

--Ben

[Captiv8r]

Would also be nice to know how much RAM each of you has. Perhaps that is also a factor.

[Guest]

I only had the fonts that came with RH7 and deleted about 75% of them.
I have 2 GB of RAM on a new laptop (4 months old) using XP.
All projects I am working on have been imported from RH5.

Previously it was taking up to 10 seconds to open a topic, switch between topics, and when moving from another application it took that long to set the focus back to RH7.

I am so excited about the improvement in speed, that I have been opening topics, opening and closing tab groups, and I can't wait to be able to copy from one topic to another when they are side by side...imagine the speed!

I know, little things, but this really has made all the difference in how I "now" feel about RH7.

[HKabaker]

This morning I noticed the project .cpd file has a fontsets table.

I'm not sure how the table gets "populated," as my colleagues sometimes put it. The list seems to vary among projects, which might be related to the version of MS Office that was on my PC when I first created the project.

Maybe the problem is not the number of fonts, but a glitch in the cpd file -- for example, when using RH7 to open a project from another era. If this is so, it makes sense that any MS Access maintenance on the cpd file, or trashing the old and creating a new one, would solve the problem.

On my latest build of Word XP with MS Office 2007, the list in a newly created cpd has 124 fontsets.

How many were "too many" for stratakath and Randi?

Harvey

[Guest]

I had about 240 fontsets, I now have approx. 50 (rhfontset.apj was 24KB, it is now 5KB). I did try deleting the cpd file, but it didn't solve the problem for me.

Since the projects were originally created I have upgraded to MS Office 2007 (from Word XP).