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J
Juliette Curtis
Inspiring
June 27, 2013
Question

Cannot generate PDF with RH10

  • June 27, 2013
  • 2 replies
  • 2790 views

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

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

shijua69791861
shijua69791861
Participant
February 20, 2015

I was also facing this issue and got the same error.  After much trial and error I found the following solution. So sharing that here. ( I am not sure whether this works for all the use cases. But in my case it worked. I am using Windows 7, RH11, and MS Office 2010.)

  1. Open any Office application. (I opened Word)
  2. Open File > Options > Add-Ins. (You will be able to manage your add-ins from this tab. When I browsed through the list I found the "Acrobat PDFMaker Office COM" Addin was with the list of  "Disabled Application Add-Ins")
  3. Select "Disabled items" from the Manage list. (This list is available at the bottom of the Add-Ins tab)
  4. Click Go. The Disable Items window is displayed.
  5. Select "Acrobat PDFMaker Office COM Addin" from the list.
  6. Click Enable.
  7. Click Close. The  "Acrobat PDFMaker Office COM Addin" is moved to the list of "Active Application Addins".
  8. Close MS word.

Now when you generate the Printed Documentation output from RH11, the error mentioned in the query is not appearing and a PDF output is generated.

Hope this solution will help.

C
CCURTechPub
Participant
April 15, 2015

I had the same issue and tried to troubleshoot for the past 2 days trying everything that was suggested on this forum. After being on the phone with Anvinder, he was able to pinpoint that the crashing was related to the TOC. So I dug a little further and found a bookmark entry in the list style trying to link to the TOC. I have no idea how it got there, but after deleting that from the CSS, I am having no more issues and the PDF is generated beautifully.

Peter Grainge
Community Expert
Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 30, 2013

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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J
Juliette CurtisAuthor
Inspiring
July 1, 2013

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

Peter Grainge
Community Expert
Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
July 1, 2013

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

Use the menu (bottom right) to mark the Best Answer or Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.
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