7 Replies Latest reply: Jun 17, 2014 6:40 AM by Peter Grainge

Cannot generate PDF with RH10

Juliette Curtis Jun 26, 2013 8:47 PM

I have searched the forum and Peter Grainge's site and not found a solution to this problem that worked.

I have a new installation of RH10 on Windows 7 sp1. It was installed as a trial and then licensed. I do not have the complete Adobe Acrobat -- only the add-on that was installed with RH.

I used RoboHelp HTML to create a simple webhelp project and attempted to generate a PDF from it with the single source layout for Printed Documentation. The following error occurred:

Starting to build Printed Documentation...
Printed Documentation processor 10.0.0.287

Building C:\RoboHelp experiments\merged help webhelp\Child projects\comcare_human_resources_modul\!SSL!\Printed_Documentation\Printed_Documentation. doc ...

Preparing to create Printed Documentation...
Clearing output folder...
Preparing files for Print Document...
Copying files...
Updating files...
Finished preparing in 1 second.
Preparing environment...
Printed Document Generator Environment: Word 14.0.6129, OS 6.1.7601, RAM 4009 M Bytes
Building Printed Documentation 'Printed Documentation'...
Building Single Document 'Printed_Documentation.doc'...
Building 'Title Page'...
Building 'Table of Contents'...
Preparing to build chapters...
Building 'Human Resources Module'...
Building 'First Topic of the Human Resources Module'...
Processing 'First Topic of the Human Resources Module'...
Processing 'How it works'...
Processing 'Splash'...
Processing 'Welcome'...
Processing 'The Information Screen'...
Processing 'About'...
Processing 'Starting the application'...
Building 'Error Messages'...
Processing 'Error Messages'...
Completed building chapters...
Building 'Glossary'...
Building 'Index'...
Updating list paragraphs...
Updating images...
Updating page numbers...
Updating page headers...
Updating Table of Contents...
Updating Index...
Saving 'Printed_Documentation.doc'...
Generating 'Printed_Documentation.pdf'...
Failed the generate PDF file 'C:\RoboHelp experiments\merged help webhelp\Child projects\comcare_human_resources_modul\!SSL!\Printed_Documentation\Printed_Documentation. pdf'...
Failed to save 'Printed_Documentation.doc'...
Cleaning up temporary files...

Internal error encountered, Failed to generate Printed Documentation.

RoboHelp can successfully create a PDF of a single topic. It can create a PDF with Review > Create PDF for Review. It can successfully create a doc from this project, and Word is able to save that doc as a pdf.

RH can open the projects that it created but cannot open the sample projects. The sample directories are read-only and I cannot reset them. I do not know why.

I uninstalled RH and reinstalled it. The problem is still occurring.

I am baffled. I am an inexperienced RH user so the problem might be a simple one. I would be grateful for any advice.

Best wishes,

Juliette Curtis

1. Re: Cannot generate PDF with RH10

Peter Grainge Jun 30, 2013 7:44 AM (in response to Juliette Curtis)

There seem to be a number of problems here. First let's separate creating a PDF for Review and creating a PDF using Printed Documentation. They use separate functions and are not related.

The two problems I am seeing are that you cannot generate a printed document from you project and you can open the sample projects.

As far as your project is concerned, the first thing to try is deselecting the PDF option and seeing if you can generate a Word document. I am assuming the webhelp generates OK.

Rh installs two copies of the samples. One in Program Files and one in your profile. Click Open on the RoboHelp Starter page and then click Samples in the ribbon on the left. That opens the copy in your profile and is the one you should be using.

Was Rh installed by someone with local admin rights?

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge
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2. Re: Cannot generate PDF with RH10

Juliette Curtis Jun 30, 2013 5:49 PM (in response to Peter Grainge)

Hi Peter:

Thanks for your reply.

My project can generate a Word document and webhelp.

RoboHelp was installed by someone with admin rights.

I opened the sample projects in the way you describe and they open correctly. Earlier I was opening the samples by browsing to Program Files, so that is why I could not open them.

Juliette
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3. Re: Cannot generate PDF with RH10

Peter Grainge Jul 1, 2013 12:49 AM (in response to Juliette Curtis)

You could try uninstalling and reinstalling but that may not fix the PDF issue. We have seen this before where you cannot generate direct to PDF but creating the Word document and then the PDF works just fine. You may have to settle for that.

Do you have any other PDF programs that may be causing a conflict?

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge
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4. Re: Cannot generate PDF with RH10

Juliette Curtis Jul 1, 2013 1:06 AM (in response to Peter Grainge)

" Do you have any other PDF programs that may be causing a conflict?"

There are the PDF writers in the Office programs but that is all.

I have tried reinstalling and the problem is still there.

I think I will settle for creating PDFs in two steps: generate the doc, then the PDF. It would give me an opportunity to tweak the Word template before generating the PDF, and that is quite a good thing.

Thanks for your advice, Peter. It is much appreciated.

Best wishes,
Juliette
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5. Re: Cannot generate PDF with RH10

amitjha-lt May 27, 2014 11:00 PM (in response to Juliette Curtis)

Hi

Thanks for reporting.
Acrobat 11.0 (base version) part of TCS has some issues with office 2013. Acrobat has released an update to address this issue. Please Check for updates for Acrobat.

Thanks
Amit Jha
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6. Re: Cannot generate PDF with RH10

HelpAuthor1 Jun 6, 2014 7:45 AM (in response to Peter Grainge)

I am having the same issue with RoboHelp 11. And for the moment I have settled for just creating a Word doc and then the PDF; however, I am unhappy with the linked TOC results in the PDF. The TOC goes down further in levels than the Word doc does, which I think is perhaps attached to the styles and so I need to investigate it more.

However, the poster for this issue does not have a full version of Acrobat, and neither do I, so I wonder if that is not the issue? We need Acrobat in order to perform this operation?

Thanks, Susan
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7. Re: Cannot generate PDF with RH10

Peter Grainge Jun 17, 2014 6:40 AM (in response to HelpAuthor1)

Certainly with the full version of Acrobat you can control the number of TOC levels in a PDF. Not sure about the add-in as I don't use that.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge
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