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Timothy386187870sd3
Known Participant
February 18, 2026
Answered

Conditional build expressions not being applied after updating to Adobe Robohelp 2026.01.11 version

  • February 18, 2026
  • 5 replies
  • 51 views

Upon updating to Adobe Robohelp 2026.01.11 version, the system is no longer applying my conditional build expressions. The condition tags still exist in the project. They still show up in the UI’s author view.  If I use the UI’s Output view and look at the output presets, I can still see the condition expressions. Everything looks as expected.

If I use the UI’s preview mode and select either condition tags or condition expressions and then select appropriate options for either selection, the system no longer displays the expected content.

If I generate the output (and this is where I noticed the issue), my output includes ALL content, not observing any condition tags.

Is anyone else experiencing this?

Is there a way for me to roll back this update? I need to publish updates, but I can’t if I am publishing everything when I need to be generating six different versions of the online help.

    Correct answer Peter Grainge

    In a test I ran, it appears that AND and OR have been “corrected” in 2026.01. 

    In 2022 AND really meant OR and OR really meant AND. Adobe could not change that as that is how it all worked when they bought RoboHelp from Macromedia who in turn bought it from Blue Sky.

    Unfortunately in 2026.01 they seem to have written the code behind so that it works "correctly", by which I mean if the code had been written correctly in the first place.

    I have sent an urgent email to my Adobe contacts to confirm my findings.

    Meantime my suggestion is you duplicate your expressions and in one copy swap AND and OR to their opposites.

    PLEASE REPORT IN THIS THREAD IF YOU FIND THE SAME ISSUE. JUST ADD “Me Too” PLUS DETAILS OF ANY FURTHER ISSUES RE EXPRESSIONS..

    My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

    5 replies

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    Timothy386187870sd3Author
    Known Participant
    February 19, 2026

    In my testing, switching “AND” to “OR” in my build expressions appears to have resolved this issue. Note: I did not test switching “OR” to “AND”.

    I did notice a secondary issue. Some of my condition expressions include 12 conditional build tags. When attempting to use the UI to switch the “AND” to “OR”, I noticed that I could see but could not switch the “AND” to “OR” for the tags near the bottom of the screen. While I am told it is not a recommended procedure, I edited the .expn file via Notepad ++.

    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Peter GraingeCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    February 19, 2026

    In a test I ran, it appears that AND and OR have been “corrected” in 2026.01. 

    In 2022 AND really meant OR and OR really meant AND. Adobe could not change that as that is how it all worked when they bought RoboHelp from Macromedia who in turn bought it from Blue Sky.

    Unfortunately in 2026.01 they seem to have written the code behind so that it works "correctly", by which I mean if the code had been written correctly in the first place.

    I have sent an urgent email to my Adobe contacts to confirm my findings.

    Meantime my suggestion is you duplicate your expressions and in one copy swap AND and OR to their opposites.

    PLEASE REPORT IN THIS THREAD IF YOU FIND THE SAME ISSUE. JUST ADD “Me Too” PLUS DETAILS OF ANY FURTHER ISSUES RE EXPRESSIONS..

    My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

    Use the menu (bottom right) to mark the Best Answer or Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.
    T
    Timothy386187870sd3Author
    Known Participant
    February 18, 2026

    I did some additional testing, and I can reproduce the error in a sample project. For me, the build expression works if the build expression only include one condition tag. If I add a second condition tag, the system does not correctly apply the build expression. It shows content that should be hidden, even in the sample project.

    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 18, 2026

    Can you share that small project or create one where it doesn't work? If you can, see the Contact page on my site.

    ________________________________________________________

    My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.  

    Use the menu (bottom right) to mark the Best Answer or Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.
    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 18, 2026

    No one else has reported this but it is early days. I can say they are working on my site so ordinarily I would say that means the issue is your project. However, another unrelated issue is working fine for some and not others. In short, for now let’s look at your project and see what we can do.

    1. Please don’t be offended but have you checked your preset does have the expression selected.
    2. If you create a new tag and apply it one topic and include it in a new expression, does that work.
    3. Open the About RoboHelp sample project and see if expressions work there.
    4. Please confirm both the source and generation folders are on the same drive and it is local.

    As to rolling back, I know Adobe Support have rolled back two users with the other issue. It will give a warning that the project has been opened in a later version and might not work properly. I think that is standard and there was only one feature change, the rest was bug fixing. I think you should be OK but maybe back things up first.

    You may want to raise this with Adobe Support as well. If you do, you need to go to Adobe Support. See https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/enterprise-support.other.html#robohelp for your Adobe Support options. The email link tcssup@adobe.com is recommended as it reaches a team dedicated to Technical Communication Suite products including RoboHelp.

    Post back and let us know what you find.

    My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

    Use the menu (bottom right) to mark the Best Answer or Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.
    T
    Timothy386187870sd3Author
    Known Participant
    February 18, 2026

    The issue may just apply to my project(s), plural.

    I’m definitely not offended, and, yes, I verified a preset’s condition expression was still defined as expected, and the condition expression was not applied to the output.

    I have multiple projects that use conditional build tags. The issue occurs on multiple projects.

    I added a new tag to a smaller existing project, applied the tag to some text, excluded the tag from the output, and the tagged content still displayed in the output when it should not have.

    I opened a sample project, added a new tag, applied the tag to some text, excluded the tag from the output, and the tagged content was correctly excluded from the output.

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