generating printed documentation (.docx) stuck on processing topics, then kicks me out

[erikad71181639]

hi,

i am using RH 2017

i am trying to batch generate different formats.

the only one i am having an issue with is the printed documentation in the word format (.docx)

it's just stuck on processing topics. sits there for a good 30 min, then just crashes robohelp.

when i open it again, and try to generate again, i get message "file is locked"

i am able to generate HTML. 

any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Does it make any difference if you use .doc instead of .docx ?

[erikad71181639]

no. i just tried that and stuck on the same spot. 

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Hmm - what version of RH2017? Is it all patched up? Did this work before & now doesn't? What version of Word?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Peter reminded me to suggest the old "divide & conquer" technique - take a copy of the project, toss half the topics; try generating. If that fails, divide again & toss half - repeat until you can identify the problem topic.

[erikad71181639]

i am not an expert at this, but i went to my original project, went to explore and copied all files and pasted to my new test project. i hope i did that correct.

so my question is, if i am generating the project (.docx) and i see it stuck at a specific topic, not sure if that topic is the problematic one or can it be any topic? please advise.  i really appreciate your help

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

It could be the problem topic (or the one right after it) - but did this ever work before or is this the first time trying to create printed documentation? Does it work on the sample project?

[erikad71181639]

yes. it has worked for a long time. Last time i did a batch generate and .docx was part of it was on 5/10/23 and had no issues.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Ah, so what's changed since then?

BTW - when you talk about "batch generate" what do you mean?

[erikad71181639]

so it looks like the word document may be corrupted?

it finally went past that topic that was stuck, but i got this here....

it went past that and then finally it just dissappeared. but my document is not complete.

please advise if anything i can do?

[Peter Grainge]

Forget batch generation until you can do a standalone generation.

Remove the errant topic from the output and generate again. It may be necessary to remove other topics until you have removed all the errant topics.

Once you have got the output generating standalone, then repair the topics and bring them back in. There will be something in the code that you can identify. Otherwise create replacement topics one by one.

Once you can generate the whole document, then try batch generation.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[erikad71181639]

i can try that, but does it make any difference that it is creating an html file with no errors?

"batch generate" meaning i have different formats in the output ssl. i select the formats that i want to generate.

so all files generate but not my .docx

nothing changed as far as i know.

[Peter Grainge]

The code is OK for HTML but Word is not HTML based. Nothing has changed? Yes it has, something corrupted one or more topics.

________________________________________________________
My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Amebr]

Where is your project located? Is it in a short path directly off your C drive? In your Documents folder? On a network share? In OneDrive/GoogleDrive? Could you also answer the same questions for where you are generating your word document to?

[erikad71181639]

the original is under mydocuments\robohelp17 files

then the one i duplicated is just under c:\temp

and i am trying to generate the .docx to c:\temp\printed documentation test folder.

[Amebr]

Sometimes working on a network drive can cause corruption, or working in the Documents folder can hit the maximum path length in Windows really easily (this is also problem for network locations). But your temp project is local, shouldn't be hitting the long path issue and the word doc is also being generated locally.

If you haven't already, definitely try the divide & conquer method Jeff mentioned to see if you can identify the specific topics the build is failing on.