7
Replies
7
7
Replies
LEGEND
,
Hi all
Okay, hoping no jet lag remnants for Peter and all to tease me about.
I don't believe I've seen anything related to what I'm about to offer, so here goes.
Carol, have any of these topics been imported from elsewhere? Maybe Word? My reason for asking is because I've seen it happen more than once where you bring something in and a broken link results. Try as you might, you cannot seem to find the link! So here's how I approach it. I'm copying and pasting from an article I wrote a while back.
How they can occur
1. The destination HTML page can have its name changed, perhaps external to RoboHelp via Windows Explorer. For instance, lets say you have a topic labeled "My Topic.htm". For some reason or other, you choose to rename it as "My_Topic.htm" using Windows Explorer. RoboHelp would declare any link to this topic as being broken, because the link is looking for "My Topic.htm".
2. The destination HTML page could have begun life in a different location. Then was later referenced by a topic using an absolute address. In this case, c:\SomeFolder\SomeTopic.htm. Then the topic is subsequently copied to your project and deleted from the original location.
3. The folder containing the destination HTML page(s) could have been renamed. In this case, particularly if the folder is renamed outside of Robohelp HTML, all topics inside will appear as broken links to any topic referencing them. Although, I have seen it happen where even using RoboHelp HTML to rename the folder, some things aren't totally updated as a result.
How to correct them
Probably the easiest way is to examine the Broken Links folder.
1. Double click a link that is listed. A dialog should display listing the topic(s) RoboHelp thinks the broken link is in.
2. Select the topic, then click the Edit button. This should open the topic containing the broken link.
3. Verify any and all links in the topic. Personally, I like to hover each link, then compare what appears in the tooltip popup to what is displaying in the Broken Links folder. Once you see a similar link, double click it to edit.
The ghost links
One of the most frustrating items to track down is what I like to call the "ghost link". Here is what I mean by "ghost link". You open the topic RoboHelp HTML is indicating has a broken link. However, try as you might, you either don't see a link in the WYSIWYG editor, or you don't see *THE* link being reported as broken. To make matters worse, you can often display the TrueCode and still fail to see it! I'm not exactly sure what is up with these, but I usually see them when I import a topic that was created using either Microsoft Word or Microsoft FrontPage. The RoboHelp editor is simply doing its best to display what it finds. I figure something in these topics is coded in a manner RoboHelp doesn't understand. So RoboHelp can't show me the link code.
How to correct the ghost links
1. Leave RoboHelp HTML open and locate the suspect topic using Windows Explorer.
If you have opened the topic from the broken links list, you may not know which folder it's in (assuming you have structured your project using folders). An easy way to locate the folder is to right click the topic in the RoboHelp HTML editor, then select Properties from the context menu. A quick look at the Status tab should easily reveal the folder. Look at the second line listed. It begins with "Location:".
2. Edit the topic using Windows Notepad.
3. Press the F3 key to invoke the Find dialog.
4. Enter the following character string into the search dialog: <a href= and click the Find Next button.
For those of you unfamiliar with HTML coding, the <a href= indicates the beginning of a hyperlink.
5. You will need to delete everything from <a href= to the closing </a> tag. This will kill the hyperlink. Be certain that the link you are working with is the suspect. This is confirmed by comparing the .htm file being specified in the code with the .htm file RoboHelp is reporting a problem with.
6. Close Notepad, save the file, then return to RoboHelp HTML. Assuming you found the only instance of the errant link, the list of broken links should have automatically updated itself so it no longer indicates this link as broken.
Hope this helps some... Rick
Okay, hoping no jet lag remnants for Peter and all to tease me about.
I don't believe I've seen anything related to what I'm about to offer, so here goes.
Carol, have any of these topics been imported from elsewhere? Maybe Word? My reason for asking is because I've seen it happen more than once where you bring something in and a broken link results. Try as you might, you cannot seem to find the link! So here's how I approach it. I'm copying and pasting from an article I wrote a while back.
How they can occur
1. The destination HTML page can have its name changed, perhaps external to RoboHelp via Windows Explorer. For instance, lets say you have a topic labeled "My Topic.htm". For some reason or other, you choose to rename it as "My_Topic.htm" using Windows Explorer. RoboHelp would declare any link to this topic as being broken, because the link is looking for "My Topic.htm".
2. The destination HTML page could have begun life in a different location. Then was later referenced by a topic using an absolute address. In this case, c:\SomeFolder\SomeTopic.htm. Then the topic is subsequently copied to your project and deleted from the original location.
3. The folder containing the destination HTML page(s) could have been renamed. In this case, particularly if the folder is renamed outside of Robohelp HTML, all topics inside will appear as broken links to any topic referencing them. Although, I have seen it happen where even using RoboHelp HTML to rename the folder, some things aren't totally updated as a result.
How to correct them
Probably the easiest way is to examine the Broken Links folder.
1. Double click a link that is listed. A dialog should display listing the topic(s) RoboHelp thinks the broken link is in.
2. Select the topic, then click the Edit button. This should open the topic containing the broken link.
3. Verify any and all links in the topic. Personally, I like to hover each link, then compare what appears in the tooltip popup to what is displaying in the Broken Links folder. Once you see a similar link, double click it to edit.
The ghost links
One of the most frustrating items to track down is what I like to call the "ghost link". Here is what I mean by "ghost link". You open the topic RoboHelp HTML is indicating has a broken link. However, try as you might, you either don't see a link in the WYSIWYG editor, or you don't see *THE* link being reported as broken. To make matters worse, you can often display the TrueCode and still fail to see it! I'm not exactly sure what is up with these, but I usually see them when I import a topic that was created using either Microsoft Word or Microsoft FrontPage. The RoboHelp editor is simply doing its best to display what it finds. I figure something in these topics is coded in a manner RoboHelp doesn't understand. So RoboHelp can't show me the link code.
How to correct the ghost links
1. Leave RoboHelp HTML open and locate the suspect topic using Windows Explorer.
If you have opened the topic from the broken links list, you may not know which folder it's in (assuming you have structured your project using folders). An easy way to locate the folder is to right click the topic in the RoboHelp HTML editor, then select Properties from the context menu. A quick look at the Status tab should easily reveal the folder. Look at the second line listed. It begins with "Location:".
2. Edit the topic using Windows Notepad.
3. Press the F3 key to invoke the Find dialog.
4. Enter the following character string into the search dialog: <a href= and click the Find Next button.
For those of you unfamiliar with HTML coding, the <a href= indicates the beginning of a hyperlink.
5. You will need to delete everything from <a href= to the closing </a> tag. This will kill the hyperlink. Be certain that the link you are working with is the suspect. This is confirmed by comparing the .htm file being specified in the code with the .htm file RoboHelp is reporting a problem with.
6. Close Notepad, save the file, then return to RoboHelp HTML. Assuming you found the only instance of the errant link, the list of broken links should have automatically updated itself so it no longer indicates this link as broken.
Hope this helps some... Rick
Well, Rick, I thank you for making such an incredible effort
to get to the bottom of this issue. I sure wish I could say that
the answer was there, but I'm afraid not. What's so weird about
this is that the broken link actually says there are "No
references." To my mind, "No references" means that nothing's
broken.
The topic was never created, edited, or deleted outside of RoboHelp. Although the client who supplied the text has a tendency to create html pages from MS-Word, they did not do it this time. They sent me a .mht file, and I copied the text in from a browser window. It came in as plain text, and then I applied .css styles within RoboHelp. It's really a very nothing little topic--a few titles, a few paragraphs--that's all. I checked the true code to make sure nothing horrible came in. And then I deleted it because it turned out I already had the topic somewhere else. I checked every link to that second copy to make sure they all were pointing to the correct topic, and they were.
PLEASE don't spend any more time on this. I have to learn to live with this tiny glitch in my help system. It's not hurting anything, and I really don't have OCD, so I'm sure I can deal. Maybe it'll disappear when I upgrade to 6.0!
Thank you all so much for making the effort. I really appreciate it, and I absolutely adore these forums.
Carol
The topic was never created, edited, or deleted outside of RoboHelp. Although the client who supplied the text has a tendency to create html pages from MS-Word, they did not do it this time. They sent me a .mht file, and I copied the text in from a browser window. It came in as plain text, and then I applied .css styles within RoboHelp. It's really a very nothing little topic--a few titles, a few paragraphs--that's all. I checked the true code to make sure nothing horrible came in. And then I deleted it because it turned out I already had the topic somewhere else. I checked every link to that second copy to make sure they all were pointing to the correct topic, and they were.
PLEASE don't spend any more time on this. I have to learn to live with this tiny glitch in my help system. It's not hurting anything, and I really don't have OCD, so I'm sure I can deal. Maybe it'll disappear when I upgrade to 6.0!
Thank you all so much for making the effort. I really appreciate it, and I absolutely adore these forums.
Carol
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