Publishing Microsoft HTML Help

[christopherf7897462]

Hi,

I inherited a very large FrameMaker document that was originally created in FrameMaker 9. The person had a complex (and ridiculous) system of importing the Frame book into Madcap Flare to generate the Help File (and it usually took 3 to 4 tries to make it work).

I purchased FrameMaker 2015 so that I could publish the Help file straight from FrameMaker. However, it has been 6 weeks and I still haven't successfully managed to publish.

The Book consists of about 20 chapters. There were thousands of cross-references, several conditional Tags, and quiet a few variables. When I attenpt to publish, it will get a few chapters deep, then it just hangs.

If I remove all the files from the book and attempt to publish a few files at a time, I'm successful. However, there are a few files that still won't publish, even on their own. The pop-up appears and says it is converting, but it goes on forever.

I originally thought it might be an issue with the number of cross-references or conditions, so I removed EVERYTHING from the document. But no matter what I do, there are a few files that simply will not publish and I am forced to force quit FrameMaker each and every time.

I've scoured the internet to determine the cause, but I'm stumped. Is there something obvious that I must be doing wrong?

Thanks.

-Baffled and feeling stupid.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

You totally up to date on your FM2015 patches?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Sorry, hit post too quickly - you say you've identified some FM docs that won't publish even on their own - sounds like they may be issue. I'd first try a MIF wash of them to see if there's any cruft stuck in them. If that doesn't work, them I'd be looking at creating a new blank doc and copying over the content in them and applying formatting afterwards.

[christopherf7897462]

Hi Jeff, thanks for the reply. Yes, I'm totally up to date with the updates. I did try copying to a blank document, and it worked, but of course I lost all cross-references and styles, etc. I'm hoping that will be my last resort though, because I don't want to reconstruct everything (It's a 1600 page document...). I will try the "MIF washing" them. I assume you mean save as MIF, then convert back to FM?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

yes, that's the one.

[christopherf7897462]

Update: I tried MIF washing and it was unsuccessful. Unless anyone thinks of anything else, I guess will have to apply all the formats to the blank doc...