Decrease in CHM size after upgrading to robohelp 2020

[FatimaN]

I recently started using Robohelp 2020 Version 4. I mostly work with CHM. After upgrading the robohelp project to 2020, I noticed a sharp decrease in the chm size from 13678 KB to 8400 KB. Has anyone else has noticed this decrease in chm size? Is there a reason for this, maybe something to do with mprovements in robohelp? Also is there a way to compare two chm files with robohelp?

I did test the help file thoroughly, the content seems to be all there, and context sensistive help is working. 

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Never heard that one - CHMs are such ancient tech that I don't think RH could/would make any changes to the way they are created that would save space.

[Peter Grainge]

Classic used HTML4 in topics, the New UI uses HTML5. Microsoft's help compiler does not understand 5 so Adobe have to go back to HTML4 when generating the CHM. I guess it's possible the HTML is not quite the same as before accounting for the difference.

No way I know of to compare them so I would be comparing topic by topic if that is practical given the number of files. Is that an option?

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See www.grainge.org for free Authoring and RoboHelp Information

[FatimaN]

@Peter Grainge It is an option 🙂 I am not very excited about it but it will have to do.for the time being.

[FatimaN]

@Peter Grainge this is a good lead. I will explore it further.

[Amebr]

Also, New UI only includes topics and files if they are in the TOC, whereas Classic would include everything. 

So you might find there are files no longer included in the output causing the decrease in size.

[FatimaN]

@Amebr Another good lead, does it apply to unused images as well? It is a very old help project, may be over 15 years old. It does have a lot of unused content.

[Peter Grainge]

I think Amber's suggestion is more likely.

________________________________________________________
See www.grainge.org for free Authoring and RoboHelp Information

[Amebr]

I believe it's everything. Images, word docs, pdf, topics, etc.

[FatimaN]

Thanks @Amebr