A

Anonymous

Question

Upgrade from x5 to v7 Import problem

Forum|Forum|18 years ago
November 22, 2007
6 replies
1177 views

Hi I have been using Robohelp v5 for the last 3 years, and can finally get authorisation to upgrade to a newer version with better capabilities.
I am attempting to upgrade my project in the Trial Version of v7 so I can evaluate it. It is currntly in x5.
I use Robohelp HTML x5.0.1
I have 2 output methods that I use:
- Webhelp
- Microsoft HTML Help. The output for this is a .chm file
When I attempt to open this in RH7 it advises that the project needs to be upgraded. Great, I click on Yes and it goes away and upgrades the project.
However when it has completed this, a lot of the files are either missing from the project or are blank. When I look at the HTML for these files, it only has the title and the body is blank. This seems to be the case for around 1/2 the pages in the project and redoing these pages would be a time consuming job.
Has anybody got any idea of what I can do to fix this upgrade issue?

Regards,

Craig

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Peter Grainge

Community Expert

If any of the posters to this thread are still having problems, please contact me offline via my site.

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Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Create a new project with one topic and insert two tables, one of a type that gives grief and one that does not. Compare the code and I think you will find that the only difference is in the definition of certain attributes of each cell and that is constant. It seems to be at a quick glance.

If that is the case then try copying and pasting the details of one table into the other. There's a good chance that will work. If it does, you could try using a multi file find and replace tool but you will need one that works across multiple lines. I would use FAR from http://www.helpware.net/FAR

The other way, that I have used in the past, is to create a macro using Macro Express. Takes quite a bit of setting up but it worked for me.

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Peter Grainge

Community Expert

I have looked at Flaven's files.

I cannot prove this at the moment but I am 99% sure I know the underlying problem. These topics were created by importing content from Word.

I have sent Flaven a file to test. It was created in RH6 and has a dropdown. I think it will import OK and if it does it sort of confirms my theory.

I suspect that if Flaven trashed a whole load of content except one of the dropdowns, then cleaned up the HTML so that there are no Word traces left, then it would import OK.

I have asked him to test that theory and let me know. Meantime, Craig, you might like to test the same theory.

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Flaven

Inspiring

Peter has his finger on it: the dependent variable is if there are DHTML (drop-downs) in the topic. I had four other topics with mso in them, but no DHTML and they converted fine. I went back and took one of the suspect files, removed the drop-down, and it converted fine.

In sum, if it has content imported from Word ("mso" in the styles) and you put in drop-down text, converting to RH 7 may be problematic -- the easy workaround is to remove the drop-down text (e.g., save it to a new topic to paste back in later), then convert.

Thank you, Peter, for spending your time on this...during the weekend, no less!

11-27-07: Here's an even quicker way to clean up those errant Word-import topics, if you have Dreamweaver (CS3 is my version): open the files in DW, click Commands|Clean Up Word HTML... on each file, then save. From RH7, import the cleaned files. With the exception of having to reapply some styles in one topic, all four of my problem topics imported without issues.

A

Anonymous

It seems to be the type of table used. I created a brand new RH7 Project without any modification and created a drop down topic and went through the tables and found the following table types do not work with drop down:
1. Retro 1
2. Retro 5
3. Retro 6
4. Retro 7
4. Standard HTML
All of these table types do not use standard line outer borders for the table. This seems to be the issue here that I can see.
Unfortunately for me, I used Standard HTML Table type for ALL of my tables.
When I found this out, I went back to my old project and converted one of my tables to Retro 3, made a copy of the project and converted it.
That one topic worked without any issues, all the others with the Standard HTML Table type blanked out as usual.
Is there a way to convert tables from one style to another from the Table List without recreating the table?

A

Anonymous

This happens for me in the 30-day trial, too. I haven't installed my Technical Communication Suite yet, so don't know if it happens in the "full" version.

Thankfully I don't have many topics with tables in drop-down hotspots, so I can re-create them without too much hassle.

Flaven

Inspiring

This is happening to me with converting an RH6 project to the licensed version of RH7 -- aside from some garbage issues (e.g., HTML inserted in the text in place of initial quotes, hyphens, and so forth) -- I thought it went almost smoothly. I just discovered, however, in one large WebHelp project that four major topics were blank on output.

In Robohelp Design view, each is also blank and in HTML view there are some meta tags and empty opening and closing html, body, head, and style tags. Looking at the HTML files with an external editor, they are similarly truncated.

If I import those four files from a pre-upgraded backup, I get exactly the same Design/HTML view from within RoboHelp, but looking at those files with an external editor they are complete, right down to the original kadov tags. And, they display when compiled...I just can't edit them in RoboHelp (because they don't show).

I took a pre-conversion backup and converted it again to 7: same four files came up blank. Three of the four files have DHTML drop-downs with tables, all four have DHTML drop-downs. Yes, I ran the Update DHTML Effects in Topics... I also deleted the CPD file and let the project rebuild...no difference.

So, in sum: RH7 cleared the content of four topics during the conversion process. If pre-RH7 versions of these files are subsequently imported, they can't be viewed in RH7, but are output when the project is generated, and they retain their kadov tags.

...any ideas?

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Craig

Let us know how you get on with creating a new X5 project and upgrading that.

Randiwrite

The full version and trial version are the same other than the time limit. In theory they should behave the same way.

Flaven

Would you be willing to zip up those four troublesome files plus a good one and send them to me?

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Peter Grainge

Community Expert

I just created an X5 project with a dropdown containing a table and it opened without problems in RH7.

Try the same on your PC.

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Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Welcome to the forum.

This is not a problem I encountered during the beta tests or that I saw reported.

Things to try.

1] Take another copy of the backup you created before upgrading. Look at two topics opening them from Windows Explorer using Notepad. One good topic and one that went wrong in the upgrade. Anything obvious in the code.

2] Using RH7, open one of the sample projects that you will find by looking at the ribbon on the left when you click Open on the start page. Does that open OK? If it does, then try again with another copy of the original.

Your projects are stored locally and not on a network?

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A

Anonymous

Hi Peter,

Just to clarify, I am using a copy off the C:, I do not use the server version at all as I do not need to.

I have done the following to try to rectify the problem:
1. Opened the Clownfish helpfile
No problems opening and accessing the files
2. Opened a copy of one of the files in Notepad and opened a copy of a file which does work, both from the original. There seems to be no difference in them at all
3. Recreated the .cpd file in x5 before opening and upgrading in v7. This still failed.

I do know that importing the project into MadCap Flare trial version had no such issues, it imported without any problems at all.

Are there any other suggestions?

Regards,

Craig

A

Anonymous

I've figured out what the problem is. My copy of v7 does not work with Drop Down Hotspot and Text (DHTML) where the drop down contains a table. My helpfiles use this extensively, so all the pages with this are either not imported, or are blank. Is this something which is not allowed in v7, a bug, or a problem with my install?

Regards,

Craig

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