Corrupted (binary) Topic File Crashing RH8 on WebHelp (& HTML Help) Generation
(This is a solution to a problem that doesn't seem to have cropped up in the forum yet. If it does to anyone else, I hope this will help.)
Generating WebHelp (also HTML Help) started crashing RH8 almost immediately, although Printed Documentation was working fine. Opening the project was not an issue.
I attempted the following fixes:
- Created a new WebHelp layout (fresh, not a copy) and assigned it as the Default Layout. no joy
- Renamed the .cpd file and launched the .xpj file. no joy
- Had another writer Get the project and try generating WebHelp. no joy
Before I went the "copy project/delete .cpd and .xpj files/recreate conditionals/recreate non-default layouts/copy rhvariable.apj" route from Peter's site, I thought I'd check RoboSource Control and look at a file that I had been having trouble Synchronizing to the file on my local machine. That is, the row was shaded, indicating a difference, but resisted synching because the files were supposedly identical. I figured I'd try to Revert back to an earlier version of that file.
Well, when I tried right clicking and selecting View, I got an error message saying that this was a binary file and couldn't be opened. I got the same error message for all earlier versions of that file (15 of them over the past 7 months).
So I created a new topic, reproduced the content, replaced all TOC and Index links, then deleted the bad file, and generated WebHelp. Huzzah, there was joy throughout the land!
So it's still unclear to me how this file got corrupted in this manner; I know that hitting 3-4 keystrokes at a time seems to make RH gag, so it might have been that. 
Good luck,
Leon
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