Corrupt .hh files in RH 7

[cindep]

Since upgrading to RH 7 I am having extensive problems with the .hh file corrupting any time I try to update a map ID. I have resorted to manually editing the .hh in notepad and then replacing the corrupt file. When adding or modifying an existing Map ID, one entry will start with invalid characters which I could only see when exporting the file to Excel. I then get a warning message on compile: "The Topic ID contains invalid characters." I am compiling in WinHelp 2000 format.

Is this a bug in RH7? I'm not sure how I'm going to create new Help topics in Word and assign them Map IDs with this current problem. This particular file was originally on a co-worker's machine and I have taken over the file. Is there something in the .dot file or project file that could be set wrong?

Also, I just opened a project that compiles perfectly in WinHelp 4.0 but has multiple warning and problems when compiled as a WinHelp 2000 help file. I was using RH 6, so there isn't a large gap in the versions. Upon further investigation, even WinHelp 2000 files that compile perfectly, end up with corrupted .hh files when a new topic is added and assigned a Help ID.

[cindep]

For anyone experiencing this same problem, here is the work around: Open the offending .hh file in Excel. You'll see the extra characters before #topic. Delete these characters and save the file. You will then be able to compile without the warnings.

[Peter Grainge]

A caution on cindep's response.

If the .hh or .h file has only ANSI data then this will work but if any UTF-8 data is present in the file then it will not work. For example, if the files has only English characters then it will work, if the file has English and Japanese characters then it will not work.