RH9.0 HTML - Merged Help

We upgraded to RH9 about 9 months ago. Prior to our upgrade, we were using RH7. Our Help solution consists of one parent project with 30-some merged children. In RH7, we had the issues that everyone else has with the full file paths appearing in the HHP file, and we used the “double-compile” solution mentioned here to work around it. Unfortunately, the double-compile solution does not work in RH9. No matter how many times you edit the HHP and recompile, the full file paths appear in the output.

We thought for a while that we had found a solution. Over time, we had stopped following the typically workflow for merging projects. So we backed up and started over, using the recommended steps. After merging all the children into the parent using this method, the merge list in the HHP file was fine. Over time, however, especially when more than one person used the parent project (we have 5 different writers), the full file paths would come back, and the only way to fix them was to re-merge the children.

But I think we may have found a solution. It’s another workaround, but I think we’re going to try it for a while as it’s preferable to the alternative (re-merge every time we need to compile). If anyone else tries it, please post back here to report your success/failure. I’m a little concerned that this new workaround may introduce new issues that we just haven’t seen yet. I’ll post an update if we encounter any new problems.

Here’s our process.

1. Open the XPJ in RoboHelp, compile, close project.
2. Open the HHP in Notepad, update merge list with a clean list (file names only, no paths). Save.
3. Delete the CPD file.
4. Delete the XPJ file.
5. Open the HHP file in RoboHelp (XPJ file will be recreated automatically).
6. Compile.
7. Check the HHP file—the merge list should be what you saved in step 2, and the output should work fine.

A couple things to note:

• We do NOT have the child CHMs in the parent project folder. They’re just in the output folder.
• The steps above work for a single user. If another user opens the XPJ file created in step 5 above and compiles, the merge list in their HHP file will contain the hard-coded file paths. But they can perform the steps above to get a clean HHP.

Regarding the separate window for child chms, I seem to recall a setting somewhere that configures the window to use for the TOC. Possibly in the Output definition in an Advanced button somewhere.I don't have access to RH just at the moment to check.

I had the problem with one chm constantly falling out of the merge. To fix that, I had to manually edit the xpj file in a text editor, ensuring all (correct) chms were listed in the <mergedhelpfiles> tag. The format should look like this (in RH6, but I think should be the same in RH9):

<mergedhelpfiles>

<file>

<name>MyHelp.chm</name>

<comments></comments>

</file>

</mergedhelpfiles>

HOWEVER. I think this might force the hardcoded paths problem, for which the only workaround I found was to double-compile every time I needed a new parent. If you're using Peter's setup with almost no content in the parent, then, I believe this should be fairly infrequent.

(Double-compile = Compile. Open hhp and delete hardcoded paths. Recompile.)

Anyway, see if this is any help

Amber