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Anand32204134iej3
Participating Frequently
November 1, 2023
Question

migrating from Robohelp 2015 to 2019

  • November 1, 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 598 views
We plan to upgrade our legacy online user help from Robohelp 2015 to Robohelp 2019 and then upgrade to 2022. The help is context-sensitive within the application. The output is CHM, and we plan to have the same output form. So, what things must be considered while doing this upgrade to migrate the content successfully? There are approximately 20 Chapters and 1150 topics.
 
 
 
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    3 replies

    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    December 16, 2023

    Where does "formatting the disk" come into the process? Formatting wipes everything so what exactly have you done?

     

    What exactly is the message? RoboHelp normally gives a message about being unable to generate rather than render. A screenshot would help. Please use the photo icon to insert images within the post. Seeing an image inline with the text makes it easier for anyone answering or viewing the post.

     

    It looks like something from your 2015 project did not upgrade cleanly. What I would do is create a new TOC and use that in the preset to start finding the problem topic(s). Add one topic to start with just to ensure that generates OK. Then add more topics, perhaps all the topics in a folder until it fails. Then you have a clue as to which topic(s) are causing the problem.

    ________________________________________________________

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

     

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    A
    Anand32204134iej3Author
    Participating Frequently
    December 19, 2023

    Thanks @Peter Grainge for your support. Before I did the formatting, I took a backup of my project files and output files, and RoboHelp gave a message about being unable to generate instead of render. Still, it was the auto-correction of Grammarly that got posted. 

    For the issue I posted, I checked the log and found that the generation failure is due to an operation not permitted, mkdir 'C:\Users\Superuser.' this got sorted out when I tried in another system.

     

    Thanks,

    Anand

     

    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 2, 2023

    Revised reply

     

    1. Upgrading from 2017 or 2019 Classic should work without issues.
    2. For pre 2017 versions, upgrade to 2019 Classic first is suggested. You will need to go to Support to download 2019 which includes both 2019 Classic and the new UI.
      For that reason I think I would still give 2022 a try as it does no harm, your Classic project is left untouched, plus it is quicker.
      If you have issues, then get 2019 and upgrade the 2015 Classic project to 2019 Classic and then on to 2019 New UI. That may or may not fix the issues but my guess is if your content was good for CHMs, it will be OK. 

     

    As to the considerations, looking at my site randomly will not help you. The page I pointed to was about what has changed so it answered your question specifically. It was written in conjunction with Adobe.

     

    As to other output types, you specifically said you planned to continue with CHMs, with no hint of looking at other outputs. Hence my response. You definitely should look at the other outputs when you can. The frameless output is the one to look at as that is where future development will be focussed. 

    ________________________________________________________

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

     

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    Anand32204134iej3Author
    Participating Frequently
    November 3, 2023

    Thank you @Peter Chater,  Grainge. I will try the methods you have suggested and get back to you. And about the Frameless output, I definitely will explore to see how my help content will look. 

    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 1, 2023

    It looks like you may have been reading some old advice. It was considered the best way to upgrade was via 2019 but since then the upgrade process has been worked on and you should be OK going straight to 2022. The upgrade process does not touch your Classic project, instead it creates a new project. If anything does go wrong, you can try again as many times as you like in any version.

     

    What to consider is set out here. https://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/rh_tour/rh2022/introduction/upgrading.htm

     

    To download 2019 you would have to go to Support as only 2022 can be downloaded from Adobe's site.

     

    I have to ask though why are you upgrading. The CHM format is very old and the process of converting RoboHelp to a CHM uses the Microsoft Compiler that was last updated by Microsoft in 2004. Not all RoboHelp features can work in a CHM so you would need to test anything you are upgrading for.

     

    Post back if you have any specific questions.

    ________________________________________________________

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

     

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    A
    Anand32204134iej3Author
    Participating Frequently
    November 2, 2023

    Thank you, @Peter Grainge, for your reply. To answer your question, I randomly went through your website and didn't look into this specific URL: https://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/rh_tour/rh2022/introduction/upgrading.htm. So, I consulted Adobe support and had a chat, and this is what they told me exactly:

    To answer your next question, we are running out of time, and it will be good if we keep our existing CHM version working and work on other new features that the tool provides later or try some other output format.

    Thanks,
    Anand

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