CPU Usage - Generating Word Docs from RoboHelp X5

[Liz0259]

If you have generated a fair-sized document through RoboHelp, and you are having problems with your CPU usage pegging out around 100%, bouncing up and down between 50% and 100%, the page repainting as you scroll through the document, etc., this solution is for you!

I am using RoboHelp X5 to generate large Word documents (2003). This solution worked perfect for me. The problem is with document corruption, apparently. After you have generated your Word document and opened the document, be sure to display the paragraph marks. You will probably see the “]” mark at or near the end of the document. Select your entire document,
except for the final paragraph mark, making sure to exclude this symbol, and copy everything else. Open a blank Word document and paste this content into the new document.

You will now need to reattach your template (.dot) file for the generated document through Tools/Templates and Addins:

1. Locate the applicable document template and attach it (it's typically in the base generated project directory in RoboHelp - .dot file). Click the OK button to save.
2. Return to Tools/Templates and Addins. Click the Organizer button to display the Styles tab.
3. In the right-hand list (In Normal.dot), Close the Normal.dot file
4. Open the same RoboHelp .dot template as you selected previously.
4. Select all of the styles once they display in the right pane and click the <<Copy button to copy them all over to the document template. Confirm that you want to replace all styles in the document.
5. Close the menu using the Close button. The dialog closes and your styles should all be updated, if your styles were set up appropriately via template and style sheet settings.

You may need to also adjust the Page Setup page width settings, if necessary.

Good luck!
Liz0259

[Peter Grainge]

Liz

There is a lengthy topic on my site about printed documentation. I read your post with interest but I am not sure how it helps.

The CPU will always show a high figure when you generate and your method still requires RH to produce an initial document. The trick of missing the last paragraph mark when cutting and pasting is an old word trick that does indeed avoid bringing across unwanted information such as headers and footers but I don't believe it can cure real corruption. Are we talking about corruption or something unwanted?

Ultimately what you are doing, if I have read correctly, is pasting your first document into a new document and then reapplying the styles and I am struggling to understand how that can fix anything. When you generate a document, RH imports the template into your project and after that it has no link to the templates that reside in the RH files in Program Files. This makes me wonder if you problem is with the local copy and what you are doing is fixing it by going back the master copy.

Have you tried trashing the local copy and starting over so that a fresh local copy is created using the styles that seem to be working for you?

Please don't think I am trying to rubbish what you have suggested. Far from it. I just want to understand the logic.

[Liz0259]

Peter:

Thank you for responding to me, as I may not have been clear enough, and I apologize for that. I was trying to keep it short and sweet. This problem started when I began using RoboHelp X5 this year.

To clarify...

- I'm not concerned with CPU usage during document generation, that is to be expected. The document will need to be generated originally from a RoboHelp WebHelp project. This does not change. The problem takes place AFTER you generate a large document and then open it in MS Word.

- My documents are large, 140-500 pages. It took forever to scroll through the Word document (RoboHelp-generated), the screen kept repainting, and the CPU usage stuck fluctuating frequently between 50% and 100%, not allowing me to do much else. Editing those documents was a nightmare. Even if I shut down all other programs.

- Something translates to the Word doc from RoboHelp that maxes out the CPU usage, and I can't locate the exact culprit. However, it appears to be tied to the faded "]" symbol at the end of the document (there is a "[" at the beginning, too). So you have to omit more than the last paragraph mark; that symbol also needs to be left out.

- The "corruption" information came from Microsoft; it could be something other than that, but this is what they said. I found nothing that would help on the RoboHelp forum, so I went to Microsoft to see if they had a solution. Apparently, this is a common problem with Word 2003, but the articles didn't mention RoboHelp in the issues. I tried this solution, adding the omission of the "[" symbol, with complete success.

- When you copy the document without the last paragraph mark, it will still include the headers/footers when you paste it (although you may need to adjust them slightly). This is not the problem.

- When a document is generated, you can select to use a MS Word template, which I do. I fully use the style sheets in RoboHelp, and they match my Word styles (template) to keep things in sync. Actually, this Word template remains in the project; it is not moved to the folder that holds your Normal.dot file. So the link to the template in RoboHelp from your document does in fact remain intact. However, you can copy that template to another folder outside the project and link it from there, but it won't matter.

- The Word template (.dot) needs to be reapplied in order to restore your styles, as the Normal.dot styles are applied when you copy the content over to a new document. It doesn't matter where you store the template. I reapply this SAME template after I copy and paste the content into the new document. This is not the cause of the problem. Note: The application of a template is not the same thing as going back to the master copy. This is still a fresh document, with the content pasted in and the same template applied.

- I have tried deleting the local copy and starting over. I have moved the file to another location. I have renamed or created a 'save-as' copy of the file. I tried editing out any extra un-necessary merge-tags in Word, looked for macros, etc. All of these things do not resolve the CPU Usage problem.

I hope this makes more sense. You can try it out if you wish, but you will need to do this with a large document and use the Print View when looking at the document in Word. You'll have less of a problem in Normal View, or with a smaller document (under 50 pages).

Good luck!
Liz0259

[Peter Grainge]

Hi Liz

What works for you is really what matters. What I was really getting at is that it should not be necessary to go to the lengths you are.

One area I want to be certain we understand each other on. When you install RH, it creates a folder called something like C:\Program Files\RoboHelp Office\RoboHTML\PrintDocExt and that folder contains the templates used when generating a printed output, unless of course you use your own which I do not recommend, seperate discussion. When you generate the printed output the first time, RH takes a copy of whichever template you select in the dropdown in the last page of the wizard from that folder, unless of course you browse to some other templates. That copy is then in your project and is the one used in future. Unless you are using some other template, we are at one so far.

Both on the forum and in direct emails to me, a large number of problems are solved by using the Style Mapping template. Is that what you are using? After backing up the installed templates, I changed the styles in Style Mapping .dot in C:\Program Files\RoboHelp Office\RoboHTML\PrintDocExt so that all projects have the style I require. If you are using ANY other template, I really would recommend trying that one. If it solves your problems, then tweaking the styles is simple enough.

I produce documents the size you describe with plenty of tables and graphics but I do not have the problems you describe. Hence feeling that there must be a way of making things easier for you.

[Liz0259]

Hi Peter:

Let me try this again; I don't think you are following my problem.

I have tried what you recommended, and I still had the same CPU Usage overload problem. Additionally, if I use the Style Mapping template, I have to reset many of my styles and formats after generating my document.

I have had no problems with templates or styles translating when I generate a document. Those work great. The only major problem I'm having appears to be some type of activity going on in the background when I have a large generated document open, that includes a number of embedded tables. The CPU Usage maxes out, and I can't do anything on my PC. It has nothing to do with the templates. Instead, there appears to be some merge-processing going on in the background. Maybe I didn't explain this clearly enough before.

This processing appears to be tied to the "[" "]" symbols that display at the beginning and end of the document, respectively. The only way to stop this CPU Usage overload is to copy the content from within those brackets, without the end bracket or last paragraph mark, open a blank document and paste the content in, then apply the RoboHelp template and styles. It is very simple and quick to do: copy, paste, apply template & styles). This is in contrast to the extra amount of time it would take to reset all my styles when I use your recommended method (and I still have the CPU problem).

I am sure there is a reason you can't replicate my problem; it could be differences in hardware or software settings, operating system, patches installed, etc. The one thing I know is this solution is quick and it fixes a problem that has cost me numerous hours waiting for screens to repaint when making changes or scrolling through the document. The problem no longer exists when I remove the content from the brackets.

Once again, this is not a problem with the templates and styles. It is a processing problem.

Thank you,
Liz0259

[Peter Grainge]

quote:

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I have tried what you recommended, and I still had the same CPU Usage overload problem. Additionally, if I use the Style Mapping template, I have to reset many of my styles and formats after generating my document.

---

I am following. My point in suggesting the Style Mapping template is that it often fixes problems that you would not expect a change of template to fix. The problem you are having with the [ ] brackets would not appear to be linked to the template but on the basis that change had fixed other apparently unrelated issues, there was a possibility it would have an impact here. However, in this instance it was not to be.

If it had fixed the problems, then using Word's Organiser would have fixed the styles in minutes but that is now academic.

I wonder if you would be willing to send me one of the documents in the state it is before you apply the fix? I would like to scroll through the document to see if I have the same issues. If I do, then it would probably be the case that you have to live with the fix which is not causing vast amounts of grief. If I do not, then maybe we could get closer to tracking down the cause. That could be anything from hardware to an Office patch having been applied after RH was installed, something in your profile etc. Is there an option to try all this on another PC in your office?

If you are worried about the content of your document, plenty of people have sent me documents or whole projects and you will not find any complaints about breach of confidentiality.