Fatal Error: Unexpected error from Microsoft HTML compiler.

Forum|Forum|17 years ago
May 9, 2008
24 replies
9596 views

Although I get a happy message in a dialog box that says HTML Help has been sucessfully generated, the Output view tells a different story: Fatal Error: Unexpected error from Microsoft HTML compiler.

And, it does create a CHM, but when I try to open, it gives a Cannot Open File error. Then, when I try to compile again, I get an error that says "Cannot create compiled file. It may be open in another window...", which of course it is not, because I cannot open it.

So....I close everything down, restart, and try again - have done this about 6 times with no better result.

I am having way more problems with RH in the last 2 days than I have had with any software I can remember : ( - My company is building a V1 Enterprise level product, still in Alpha testing, and it's more stable. Arggggh....

Should I reinstall RH? Scrap the project and start from scratch? (no......too many hours investing in TOCs, settings, importing, templates, css, ect)

Any insights? Suggestions? Going home now....

Thanks.

HTML

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Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Kathleen

Was RH installed with your logon and do you have admin rights? (Required for installation).

It can also be installed by an administrator who will have the required rights.

If that is not it, search on hhctrl.ocx in this forum. In your profile, increase the number of days to search.

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K

K_Baine

Inspiring

I have had a similar problem with the HTML Compiler that RH7 uses. It says it has compiled the project, but then I get an error when I try to open the .Chm. Which is only about 1 K in size, so I know there is something wrong. The error I get says it can't open it, and in doing research, I found that the Hhctrl.ocx file is missing or something. I found this file was missing in my Windows registry. I am trying to locate it and install it, but I do not know how to do this.

I wounder if re-installing RH7 would make a difference. I was able to successfully compile this project in RH7.

Kathleen Baine

P

Pete_Lees

Participating Frequently

Hi, Kathleen,

> the Hhctrl.ocx file is missing or something

If you can open other .chm files on your computer then the chances are that the HTML Help viewer components (of which hhctrl.ocx is one) are fine. To double-check this, you could try running MJ's Help Diagnostics, which is available from here:

http://helpware.net/downloads/index.htm#MJs

It's perhaps worth noting that the four HTML Help viewer components are treated as protected system components by Windows; to a large extent, they're indestructible. So although problems with these components do happen from time to time, they're thankfully quite rare.

The fact that you say that your .chm file is just 1 KB in size suggests that there is a problem with either your help project or (less likely) with the HTML Help compiler components on your computer. MJ's Help Diagnostics can check for problems with these compiler components as well as with the viewer components.

Pete

K

K_Baine

Inspiring

I never did try to re-install that Hhl... oxc file. I don't know how to install it. I do have Admin rights on my PC. I also re-installed RH7 and deleted the .cpd. No change.

I took a lot of the files from my non-functioning project and imported them into a new project. I did a short TOC and it all compiled just fine. So, it must be something with the project. It created a nice fat chm which I could open just fine.

However, it did not create an Index or Glossary - in fact, I did not have the option to select those in the dialog box when I was compiling. But, maybe they were not available because I didn't have any entries in the Index or Glossary.

Assuming I now have to re-create my Help project (oh joy!), is there a way to copy the Index and Glossary files from old project?

Thank you for your help, Peter.

Kathleen

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

See Opening Projects for information about the CPD file. Don't worry too much right now about all the other file types, we all love helping a WYSIWYG girl!

Do make a backup first.

I think the Book / Page thing only occurs if the book does not have any topics below it.

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Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Oh nice! I've got a problem, I'm dumping it on you and going home. :-)

OK. You have a number of posts going and put together something is clearly wrong. I haven't worked back through them all so maybe some of the following is covered in them.

Make a backup before you try anything so that you have nothing to lose.

Is your project on your local drive and are you generating to your local drive?

Have you tried deleting the CPD file? - See Opening Projects on my site.

If those fail, then try uninstalling and reinstalling. Don't forget the installer must have admin rights.

What you are seeing is not normal or nobody could use the product.

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L

LeisaLaDellAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks Peter –

I am glad to know this is not normal. My one main concern in the background over the last few days (and stated before in an earlier post/different problem) is that I have advocated strenuously for our company to use RH. The project I am creating now is to be the proof to get the 100% go-ahead (instead of keeping it as my stealth project). I am getting concerned because what if I get the go ahead, but then these problems plague us all the way along? As you can imagine, that would be very bad for me. L

Here are the answers to your specific questions – with a few clarifying questions:

My project is on a local drive and I am building from there
I do have back-up (a couple times per day)
I am using RH7. I believe I have admin rights because I installed it, and no one else is using it. But just in case, how do I tell?
I will try deleting the CPD file – but, what is it, and why might it help? Do you have a listing of the different file types on your site? I am usually a WYSIWYG girl, but it seems obvious I will need to get geekier than comes natural to pull this off.

One other wired thing that happened that I didn’t mention because it didn’t seem like a huge problem – I created several books with Book with Link option selected. At first the books were books, but once I edited the properties to use the Book with Link option and linked the topic, the books reverted to pages. Odd.

I think I am going to start with calling tech support today – They were very helpful yesterday with re-importing the missing HTM files, and the 2nd time I called, I only had to wait 5 min J

I will keep all your suggestions for future use, and write back today with further developments – solutions, hopefully.

Thanks for your help.

Leisa

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