Duplicate Files in HTML Output

[shawnvw]

RoboHelp HTML 11

I did a lot of experimenting this week inserting Captivate demos into my project. Today, while trying to determine why my output is over 1 GB in size, I looked in the !SSL!\Multiscreen_HTML5\desktop folder.  I see many, many copies of folders related to these videos. There's a set with one timestamp containing "Video Topic 1", "Video Topic 2", etc.; there are many similar sets with different timestamps.

I should be able to delete all of these, right? Wont' anything that's still needed will be recreated when I Generate a new output?

Also, does anyone know why all these duplicates appear?

Thanks.

-- Shawn

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Are you completely patched up? I think RH11.0.3 is the latest.

[shawnvw]

Yep

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Does it happen with the sample projects too?

[shawnvw]

What "sample projects"?

Actually, I have a few other project I worked on recently; they don't have duplicate subfolders in the output, but none of them use Captivate videos.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

The ones that come shipped with RH – they usually show up on the Starter splash screen or are in your c:\program files\ install folder

[shawnvw]

I get an error when I try to open those: "Open Project was cancelled or the application was unable to load database for <File name>".  I hope that's a different issue!

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Hmm…that usually indicates that either something is messed up in your installation or you’re running so locked down that it can’t function.

[Peter Grainge]

You can't open them while in Program Files. In Rh click Open in the Start

page, look in ribbon on left for Samples.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Sorry, right – those are the “factory” ones – you should be able to access them in your My Documents folder

[shawnvw]

The sample project had no videos, so I tried adding one. The issue doesn't seem to recur. (To be certain I'd have to do it multiple times, making changes to the video each time around, but to be honest I don't have the time.)

Do you think its safe to delete the "old" topics from the output folder and regenerate it?

[Peter Grainge]

Both samples have video.

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

When you say "Multiscreen", you may not realize it, but you are creating many different outputs.

So let's assume you add a Captivate video to Topic "V" and that video is in SWF format. If you generate Multiscreen output and you have a profile enabled for iPhone, Android Phone, iPad, Android Galaxy Tab, Kindle Fire and Desktop, that's a total of six profiles. That means your output will indeed have six copies of the SWF. One for each of the profiles. Each profile has its own complete set of output files.

The only way to reduce the number of output files is to reduce the number of profiles you are generating to.

Cheers... Rick

[shawnvw]

Rick, I do have three profiles: Desktop, Phone, and Tablet. Each of them has at least seven copies of everything.

[Captiv8r]

Ahhh, I was thinking you were frustrated because there was a copy in each profile.

Seven copies would indeed indicate a problem!

Cheers... Rick

[shawnvw]

So what about my other plan: just delete all the excess copies (or heck, delete the whole Multiscreen_HTML subfolder under \!SSL!\ ) and re-generate the output? I shouldn't lose anything but my excess copies, right?

[Captiv8r]

Yes, the stuff in the SSL folder should be able to be completely blown away. Generating should simply rebuild it.

Cheers... Rick