Tools menu inactive (not dropping down)

[EileenPalsson]

I am hoping I can get a response to my Tools menu problem on this forum, because the post to the RSC forum has not (yet) resulted in a satisfactory solution. Although the problem is associated with projects in RSC (and, more specifically, with having added files via RSC instead of during the normal course of work in RH), the problem occurs in RH HTML itself, and this is the first place I looked for an answer.

Background: My team is single-sourcing two help projects (for two different products) that share about 80% of the same topics. And those shared topics are tagged up with conditional build tags to suit each project. At first we used the same project files for the two projects. But we couldn't adjust the TOC or Index. We also had trouble with the title and file name of the compiled help (which are saved in the HHP file).

So our solution was to create separate project files based on the original ones. I duplicated all of the ProjectName.* files and adjusted them in Notepad. Then I added them using RSC's Add Files command. When I work with the "new" project, everything works great, except the Tools menu that doesn't drop down. (It doesn't drop down in the original project now, either!)

I'm no techie, but I am interested in what is actually happening here. Seems like somehow RH HTML is not getting the right signals about what to display on the Tools menu. I'm thinking there's got to be some under-the-hood tweaking that can be done to activate that Tools menu -- an INI file setting or something?

I usually get really good help from the experienced users on this forum. Therefore I have high hopes for a solution that does not involve (1) going back to sharing the same project files (ProjectName.*) for two different projects or (2) separating the projects into different locations in RSC, which would be really complicated considering that the two software products we're documenting share code and sometimes implement the same functionality but at different points in time.

Thanks!

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Eileen.

Your lack of response is probably due to the fact that most of use who need a source control solution use a different product.

Are you referring to the menu in the RH WYSIWYG or the output? If the outout, can you confirm which output you are generating and the RH version you are using.

Have you checked the project in both RSC and your local copy to see if there are any missing files and that your local copy has all the latest file versions? You could also try creating a new RSC project from your original project and see if the same behaviour is received.

[EileenPalsson]

Well, I can understand why most people use a different source control solution!

I am referring to the Tools menu in RH HTML product, not in compiled help. It doesn't matter whether you're looking at the WYSIWYG tab, the TrueCode tab, or whatever in RoboHelp -- the Tools menu is the same (and in our case nonexistent).

We are using RH version X5.0.2.

I did check the project in both RSC and my local copy. Nothing appears to be amiss there.

I don't know what you mean by "creating a new RSC project". The whole point of what we're doing in this particular case is to share the HTML files between two projects in RSC. We do not have this problem with the Tools menu in other RSC projects. It's only when files are added using RSC's own GUI (which we have to do if we're to share HTML files between two projects in RSC) that the problem occurs. Another user in the RSC forum brought up the same problem (and its cause). So it seems clear what is causing the problem in RH HTML (namely adding files to RSC using RSC's own GUI, and then opening the project in RH HTML).

I suspect there is miscommunication between RSC and RH HTML. I'd like a workaround to compensate for or fix that miscommunication, rather than having to abandon our convenient project setup. Any ideas? What setting(s) control the Tools menu, do you know? I don't see any INI files in the RSC or RH program directory that have been modified since we implemented our solution. But I do see a couple of files in my project source directory that were edited the same day:
* mssccprj.scc (I adjusted this file, but with no result)
* rhlayout.apj (this does not look like it could cause the problem)

Regards,
Eileen

[RoboColum_n_]

Well the rhlayout.apj is just a list of the single soirce layouts that appear in your project.
The reason I mentioned "creating a new RSC project" is that in other SS sloutions you can create a project (read folder) into which you can place your source. I am completely unfamiliar with RSC so don't know if you can do this.

[Captiv8r]

Hi Eileen

Can you confirm whether the menu is active if you create a totally new and squeaky clean project? Or if you open one of the sample projects?

Trying to discern here if the issue is with the RoboHelp installation or is limited to only this project.

Thanks... Rick

[EileenPalsson]

The Tools menu is active in all other projects and in sample projects. The Tools menu is only inactive in:

(1) The project the I created by editing the ProjectName.* files and then adding them to RSC using RSC's interface.

(2) The project that originally contained all the files for both product outputs.

Thanks
Eileen

[Captiv8r]

Hi Eileen

Something you said there troubles me a bit. The line was:

(1) The project the I created by editing the ProjectName.* files and then adding them to RSC using RSC's interface.

Moreover, it was the part that read: (1) The project the I created by editing the ProjectName.* files and then adding them to RSC using RSC's interface..

Did you add the project by opening RSC separately, then adding the project? If so, I believe that is an incorrect move and will cause issues. The thing is, if you added the project in this manner, ALL the project files are added to RSC. And not all files need to be in RSC. I do believe the correct way to add a RoboHelp project to RSC is to use the Version Control toolbar in RoboHelp. I believe there is a button there that allows addng a project to a RSC database. When you do it that way, only the files that actually need to be in RSC are added.

Just a thought... Rick

[EileenPalsson]

Yes, Rick, that's what I'm saying. I did open RSC separately and add the project files there. I did not add ALL the files. I added only the ones that are supposed to be in RSC. And I know it's an "incorrect" move -- at least in the sense that it causes this Tools menu problem. (No other problems have surfaced.)

But as I explained, having two RH projects in one RSC location is what we want to do, due to the nature of the shared material. I don't see any other way to single-source in this way and still use RSC.

Look at it this way: RH provides conditional build tags so that you can produce compiled help with different content for different products (among other things). But if I have two different products, I need to be able to fine-tune the index and TOC in each of the outputs, don't I. The SSLs don't give us the control we need. For example, there are shared topics with the product name in their titles. We need to call that topic different things in different outputs. That means changing its name manually in the HHC and HHK files -- something we are already quite used to doing, thanks to RH's "dumb" interface (i.e. when you change the name of a topic, it doesn't get updated automatically in the TOC or index). Since we don't want to manually change the HHK and HHC files each time we compile (!), the solution is to have two sets of these files. And the only way I can see to do THAT is to have two different projects.

/Eileen